There were hints that the world may be quantum long before the development of quantum mechanics in 1925 – could we have come up with this revolutionary theory hundreds or even thousands of years earlier?
“Only atoms and the void are real,” said the ancient Greek philosopher Democritus. “Well, actually, it’s a bit more complicated than that. Atoms can also be waves, the void is made up of fields and everyone is going to need to start using the word ‘quantum’ all the time.”
OK, he said only the first bit. Democritus pioneered atomism – the idea that everything in the universe can be divided into atoms, which can then be divided no further. But as we mark 100 years since the development of quantum mechanics in 1925, I have been wondering whether, somewhere in a corner of, he and other ancient philosophers could have come up with a version of the theory millennia earlier. If so, what would that world look like?, chief scientist at quantum computing firm Quantinuum.
Parmenides inspired Democritus, who – quite reasonably – rejected the wacky view that motion was impossible, but embraced the idea of an unchanging reality. His atomism squared these…
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