![\"Bell](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/186\/2017\/10\/592px-John_bell_2.png\")
<\/a>Wikimedia Commons public domain<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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Wikipedia defines \u201cquantum entanglement\u201d as \u201ca physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles\u00a0are generated or interact in ways such that\u00a0the quantum state\u00a0of each particle cannot be described independently of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance\u2014instead, a quantum state must be described for the system as a whole.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Here\u2019s the second paragraph of that Wikipedia article:<\/p>\n
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\u201cMeasurements\u00a0of physical properties such as\u00a0position,\u00a0momentum,\u00a0spin, and\u00a0polarization, performed on entangled particles, are found to be appropriately\u00a0correlated. For example, if a pair of particles are generated in such a way that their total spin is known to be zero, and one particle is found to have clockwise spin on a certain axis, the spin of the other particle, measured on the same axis, will be found to be counterclockwise, as to be expected due to their entanglement. However, this behavior gives rise to\u00a0paradoxical\u00a0effects: any measurement of a property of a particle can be seen as acting on that particle (e.g., by collapsing a number of\u00a0superposed\u00a0states) and will change the original quantum property by some unknown amount; and in the case of entangled particles, such a measurement will be on the entangled system as a whole. It thus appears that one particle of an entangled pair \u2018knows\u2019 what measurement has been performed on the other, and with what outcome, even though there is no known means for such information to be communicated between the particles, which at the time of measurement may be separated by arbitrarily large distances.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Albert Einstein never altogether liked quantum physics and, although he couldn\u2019t get rid of them,\u00a0he was troubled throughout his life by\u00a0certain of its implications. \u00a0In a 4 December 1926 letter to his fellow German-Jewish physicist Max Born (who would later win the 1954 Nobel Prize in Physics), he said that \u201ceine innere Stimme\u201d (\u201can inner voice\u201d) told him that they weren\u2019t right. \u00a0That\u2019s, for instance, what\u2019s behind his famous comment, in that same letter to Max Born, that God (literally, \u201cthe Ancient One\u201d) doesn\u2019t play dice with the Universe (Jedenfalls bin ich \u00fcberzeugt, da\u00df der [Alte] nicht w\u00fcrfelt<\/i>). \u00a0He disliked quantum indeterminacy.<\/p>\n
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Einstein also noted quantum theory\u2019s prediction of so-called \u201centangled particles,\u201d and, in 1949, he compared that concept to telepathy. \u00a0Why? \u00a0Presumably because, for him, telepathy represented the ultimate in pseudoscientific nonsense. \u00a0The point of his analogy, of course, was that he rejected as essentially \u201cmagical\u201d or \u201coccultic\u201d the notion that separated particles could still be \u201centangled\u201d when at a large distance from each other. \u00a0It was a reductio ad absurdum<\/em> argument. \u00a0(See P. A. Schilpp, ed., Albert Einstein, Philosopher-Scientist,<\/em> The Library of Living Philosophers [Evanston, IL, 1949], 683.)<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But it seems that, great though he was, Einstein was wrong in this rejection of \u201cquantum entanglement\u201d \u2014 which, I suppose goes to illustrate that even the most illustrious scientists and thinkers can go wrong because of preconceptions and preferences.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n In 1964, roughly nine years after Einstein\u2019s death, the Irish physicist John Stewart Bell formulated a mathematical proof \u2014 in what has since been called \u201cBell\u2019s theorem\u201d<\/a> \u2014 that quantum theory does genuinely entail \u201cspooky action at a distance,\u201d as he himself called it. \u00a0(He probably borrowed that phrase, either directly or indirectly, from Einstein\u2019s derisive reference to\u00a0\u201cspukhafte Fernwirkung<\/i>\u201d in a 3 March 1947 letter to Max Born, which could also be translated as \u201cghostly<\/em> action at a distance.\u201d) \u00a0Sadly, Bell died unexpectedly in 1990 of a cerebral hemorrhage, only 62 years old and unaware that he had just been nominated for a Nobel Prize, which cannot be awarded posthumously.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n But that was a theoretical, mathematical proof. \u00a0Could \u201cquantum entanglement\u201d actually be shown to occur? \u00a0In 1972, the American physicists Stuart Jay Freedman (1944-2012) and John F. Clauser (1942-) published the results of their successful experimental observation of quantum entanglement, thereby providing real-world support to Bell\u2019s theorem. \u00a0(See \u201cBell test experiments.\u201d<\/a>) \u00a0In the early 1980s, the French physicist Alain Aspect<\/a>\u00a0(1947-) provided further experimental evidence for the proposition that \u201cspooky action at a distance\u201d actually exists and occurs.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n So, how close is the analogy, really, between telepathy and\u00a0quantum entanglement?<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u00a0 \u00a0 Wikipedia defines \u201cquantum entanglement\u201d as \u201ca physical phenomenon that occurs when pairs or groups of particles\u00a0are generated or interact in ways such that\u00a0the quantum state\u00a0of each particle cannot be described independently of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance\u2014instead, a quantum state must be described for the system […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[132,4243,4237,404,4240],"class_list":["post-71608","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-einstein","tag-max-born","tag-quantum-entanglement","tag-quantum-theory","tag-spooky-action"],"yoast_head":"\n(Drawn, in part, from Dean Radin, Entangled Minds: Extrasensory Experiences in a Quantum Reality<\/em> [New York: Paraview\/Pocket Books, 2006], 72-76].)<\/h5>\n