Quantum Information for Quantum Cats (29)

Closing Remarks

I have covered the very basics of the quantum information. I hope you have gotten the basic message right if not the technical details. The catchy title of even cats being able to understand this lecture is of course a gross oversell. I just beg your pardon with a totally prodictable excuse of this cat being not of usual sort, but she is that abused Schrodinger's Cat.

In full-fledged elementary quantum mechanics classes, we go through the solutions of Schrodinger equation, the proof of their orthogonality, and their interpretation as the element to calculate integrals that give observables. This requires rather extensive mathematical preparation of special functions. On the other hand, in formal approaches that focus on the mathematical essence of quantum mechanics, we can skip the technical part of calculating eigenvalues and eigen functions, which are replaced by abstract vectors and operators in Hilbert space. This would extract high toll from those who have not gone through he rigor of modern college level formal mathematics.

That leaves us to the third possibility to the approach to the quantum mechanics, in which we try to put smiling face of natural language and intuitive image to the abstract mathematical concepts that entail paradoxes and dilemmas. The dager there is that we run the risk of letting those catchy but ambiguous phrases as "Uncertainty Principle", "Probability Interpretation", "Effect of Observation onto the Reality" to walk among fantasists. That could degenerate into dismal word plays from "Breakdown of Determinism" to "End of Modern Rationalism" . There are even some renown Physisists among them.

It is important, however, that the real message of quantum mechanics to our world view is spread beyond physisists. Precisely because of the emergence of quantum information, the esoteric metaphysiccal aspects of quantum physics suddenly became relevant to all of us scientists, engineers, physicians, wwriters and artists, and eventually to soldiers and politicians. The core among the quanmtum physical message is the "breakdown of local causality". This means that there is nothing in this world that exist in separation from the rest of the world, and the world could be understood only its totality.