God Does Play Dice With the Universe
Acknowledgements
The ideas of this book come out of my lonely exploration in the past twenty years. I have also benefited from discussions with many physicists who care about the way the world really is. They are: Samuel Braunstein, ZeXian Cao, Bernard d'Espagnat, Alwyn van der Merwe, Philip Pearle, Roger Penrose, Abner Shimony, Antoine Suarez et al. I thank them all deeply. At the same time, I am very grateful to my parents, QingFeng Gao and LiHua Zhao, who brought me up and gave me a good education, and my wife, HuiXia Liu. This book could not have been completed without their care and support. Finally, I am grateful to my lovely daughter RuiQi. She is full of curiosity and always asks me some naïve questions about the universe. They let me constantly rethink the accepted picture of the world. She is very like I was during childhood!Preface
We live in a classical world. Yet, there is a ghostlike atomic world underneath. Everyone knows that a ball is composed of atoms. But nobody knows what atoms look like, and especially, how in hell atoms move. They don't look like tiny balls at all; for instance, a single atom can pass through two slits at the same time. The more stunning fact is that we don't exactly know how a ball moves either. It appears to move in a continuous way. This, however, is a mere illusion. Even the greatest scientists Newton and Einstein were also deluded by the appearance. How on earth do objects move then?
This book will reveal a deep secret of nature for the first time. It is that every thing in the universe, whether it is an atom or a ball or even a star, ceaselessly jumps in a random and discontinuous way. In a famous metaphor, God does play dice with the universe. This picture of reality is so strange that even nobody dreamed of it. But it is real. Discovering motion is not continuous but discontinuous and random is like finding the Earth is not at rest but moving. It will lead to a profound shift in our world view. Now we can finally walk out Plato's cave, and approach the light in the real world. Reality is really amazing!
During my childhood, it had been a wonder for me that the twinkling stars strewed in the night sky don't fall to the Earth. I had a strong desire to know the whys and wherefores. Later I found the answer in textbooks. It changed my picture of the universe. When I was an undergraduate, I was entranced by the deep mysteries of the atomic world. I was especially stunned by the fact that the commonsensible planetary picture of atoms turns out to be utterly false; the electron in an atom cannot rotate round the atomic nucleus as the Earth rotates round the sun, or else it would soon radiate its energy and fall into the nucleus, and as a result, my body composed of atoms would collapse in a blink. How does the electron move then? It must exist in the atom. It must move in some way there. But more surprisingly, textbooks provided no picture of the motion of an electron. On 22 August 1987, I wrote in my diary: "Is it really true that we have no way to describe the atomic processes as processes happening in space and time?" I could but search for the answer by myself. Then I started on a lonely journey to "trace" the elusive electron at the age of 16.
In order to find how the electron moves in an atom, I went to the Institute of Electronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences to pursue my graduate study. But it was according to expectation that nobody there could give me some tips either. I then spent nearly every day in musing the seemingly indescribable motion picture of electron. If a ball indeed moves in a continuous way, then it seems that an electron or an atom should also move in the same way. The ball is composed of atoms after all. But, on the other hand, if an electron moves continuously in an atom, it will soon fall into the nucleus, while the tragedy does not happen in reality. This is a great dilemma. I found some possible solutions, but they proved to be wrong shortly.
The puzzle had been plaguing me. Day after day, I gradually doubted the reality of continuous motion. But I still felt in my bones that the particle must move in some way. Finally, in the early morning of 12 October 1993, I experienced a sudden enlightenment. At that moment, I felt that my body permeated the whole space of the universe and I was united with it. "I" disappears. A clear picture then appeared: a particle is jumping in a random and discontinuous way. It is not inert but active; it moves purely by its own "free will". God told me He plays dice in the atomic world. I finally broke loose the tightest shackles of continuous motion with the help of inspiration. Then I could see the true face of motion. After the event, this outcome seems very natural from a logical point of view. Since a particle cannot move continuously, it must move in a discontinuous way. How deep-rooted the prejudice of the uniqueness of continuous motion is!
If an atom moves in a random and discontinuous way, then it can easily pass through two slits at the same time. But why does a ball appear to move in a contrary way? Moreover, why in hell does God play dice? These puzzles further haunted me. Yet, no institute or college would support a researcher interested in these seemingly fantastic problems. So I decided to be an independent research scientist, or more accurately, a natural philosopher who aims at understanding the mysterious universe. Life was not easy. But I never gave up my research, and I never stop thinking. It had become the theme of my life. Curiosity then turned to responsibility. I must understand God's thoughts. I must let all people see the light of truth.
As time went on, the picture of random discontinuous motion became clearer and clearer in my mind. When I took a walk in an afternoon of June 2001, I suddenly had another inspiration after long reflection in solitude and meditation. I realized that motion has no cause in reality, and thus it must be essentially random, i.e., God must play at dice. Moreover, the familiar inertial motion of a ball has actually revealed that it also jumps in a random and discontinuous way just like an atom. This is a great revelation. Maybe the path to truth is always devious in order that surprise can hide at the turn waiting for persevering seekers. God also plays dice in our classical world. He actually plays dice with the whole universe. What a harmony picture of the world!
I simply want to know the answer of a naïve question. I simply think on it continually. But the exploration has completely changed my life. It shapes the way of my life, and finally leads me to God, the ultimate reality. As Trinity said in The Matrix, "It's the question that brought you here… The answer is out there, Neo, and it's looking for you, and it will find you if you want it to."
Truth is simple. But in order to explain it in plain language, it becomes a little complex so that a mini-book is needed. No equations. No jargon. There is only a clear and amazing picture of the universe here. It is comprehensible for everyone. Especially, no knowledge of quantum physics is needed. In fact, the book will lead you from our familiar classical world to the weird atomic world along a logical road. You can then understand the enigmatic quantum more deeply than its discovers. The ultimate truth will be simple and apprehensible.
Life is transitory. Everybody is a mere mote in the universe. Yet God gives us mind; thus we can know and understand His thoughts. The most happiness is not beyond this. As the great Chinese sage Confucius taught us in TheAnalects, "Hear the Tao in the morning, and it would be all right to die that evening." I hope that this book will not only tell you a startling new picture of the world, but also make your life more colorful.
Shan Gao
Beijing, October 2007