量子力学对于宇宙的认识

昂旺坚参

2005年7月自然杂志上的一片文章

The mental Universe
Richard Conn Henry1

Richard Conn Henry is a Professor in the Henry A. RowlandDepartment of
Physics and Astronomy, The Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland
21218, USA.

Abstract
The only reality is mind and observations, but observations are not of
things.To see the Universe as it really is, we must abandon our tendency
toconceptualize observations as things.

心灵宇宙

Richard Conn Henry1

约翰霍普金斯大学物理和天文学系教授。

摘要

仅有的现实是心识和观察，但是观察不是对于事物的观察。为了看到宇宙的真相，我们
必须放弃将观察概念化为事物的倾向。

Historically, we have looked to our religious leaders tounderstand the
meaning of our lives; the nature of our world. With GalileoGalilei, this
changed. In establishing that the Earth goes around the Sun,Galileo not only
succeeded in believing the unbelievable himself, but alsoconvinced almost
everyone else to do the same. This was a stunningaccomplishment in 'physics
outreach' and, with the subsequent work of IsaacNewton, physics joined
religion in seeking to explain our place in theUniverse.

从历史而言，我们期待宗教领袖们理解生命的意义和我们世界的实相。伽利略的出现改
变了这一切。通过建立地心说（地球围绕太阳转动），伽利略不仅成功地相信了不可相
信的他自己，也使几乎所有人做到了这一点。就物理学的宣传来说，这是一个惊人的成
就。随后由于伊萨克牛顿的工作，物理学加入了宗教，一同来解释我们在宇宙中的位置。

The more recent physics revolution of the past 80 yearshas yet to transform
general public understanding in a similar way. And yet acorrect
understanding of physics was accessible even to Pythagoras. Accordingto
Pythagoras, "number is all things", and numbers are mental, notmechanical.
Likewise, Newton called light "particles", knowing the conceptto be an '
effective theory' — useful, not true. As noted by Newton's
biographerRichard Westfall: "The ultimate cause of atheism, Newton asserted,
is'this notion of bodies having, as it were, a complete, absolute and
independentreality in themselves.'" Newton knew of Newton's rings and was
untroubled by what is shallowly called'wave/particle duality'.

过去八十年的物理学革命却还没有能同样地转变公众的理解程度。然而甚至毕达哥拉斯
也能做到对物理学的正确理解。毕达哥拉斯曾说：“数即万物”，数字是心灵的，不是
机械的。同样的，牛顿将光称作“粒子”，但他知道这个理论是所谓“有效的理论”：
有用，但不一定绝对正确。牛顿的传记作家理查德威斯特佛尔说道： “牛顿认为，无
神论的终极原因是'认为身体如同它看上去那样，是一个从其自身而言完全，绝对而且
独立的现实'。牛顿知道牛顿环，对被肤浅地称为“波粒二象性”的现象不以为意。

The 1925 discovery of quantum mechanics solved theproblem of the Universe's
nature. Bright physicists were again led to believethe unbelievable — this
time, that the Universe is mental. According to SirJames Jeans: "the stream
of knowledge is heading towards a non-mechanicalreality; the Universe begins
to look more like a great thought than like agreat machine. Mind no longer
appears to be an accidental intruder into therealm of matter... we ought
rather hail it as the creator and governor of therealm of matter." But
physicists have not yet followed Galileo's example,and convinced everyone of
the wonders of quantum mechanics. As Sir ArthurEddington explained: "It is
difficult for the matter-of-fact physicist toaccept the view that the
substratum of everything is of mental character."

1925 年量子力学的发现解决了宇宙本质的问题。聪明的物理学家们再次相信了不可置
信的-这次是：宇宙是心灵现象。根据詹姆斯金斯爵士：“知识的洪流奔向了一个非机
械的现实世界；宇宙开始看起来更像一个宏大的思想而不是一个壮观的机器。心灵不再
看起来象物质世界中的一个偶然的入侵者。。。我们应当将心灵看作是物质世界的缔造
者和统治者而对其欢呼。”然而物理学家们还没有以伽利略为榜样，让每个人都相信量
子力学的奇迹。如同亚瑟爱丁顿爵士指出的：“让实事求是的物理学家们接受万物的基
础是精神的因素这种观点是困难的。”

In his play Copenhagen, which brings quantum mechanics toa wider audience,
Michael Frayn gives these word to Niels Bohr: "wediscover that... the
Universe exists... only through the understanding lodgedinside the human
head." Bohr's wife replies, "this man you've put atthe centre of the
Universe — is it you, or is it Heisenberg?" This is whatsticks in the craw
of Eddington's "matter-of-fact" physicists.

在把量子力学介绍给更多观众的戏剧《哥本哈根》中，迈克尔费拉因借尼尔斯波尔的口
说道：“我们发现。。。宇宙。。。通过人类头脑中驻留的了解而存在着”。波尔的妻
子回答道：“这个你们放置到宇宙中心的人，他是你还是海森堡？”这就是爱丁顿所谓
的“实事求是的”物理学家心中的成见。

Discussing the play, John H. Marburger III, PresidentGeorge W. Bush's
science adviser, observes that "in the Copenhagen interpretationof
microscopic nature, there are neither waves nor particles", but thenframes
his remarks in terms of a non-existent "underlying stuff". Hepoints out that
it is not true that matter "sometimes behaves like a waveand sometimes like
a particle... The wave is not in the underlying stuff; it isin the spatial
pattern of detector clicks... We cannot help but think of theclicks as
caused by little localized pieces of stuff that we might as well
callparticles. This is where the particle language comes from. It does not
comefrom the underlying stuff, but from our psychological predisposition
toassociate localized phenomena with particles."

布什总统的科学顾问约翰马布格三世在讨论这出戏剧的时候指出：“对于微观宇宙的哥
本哈根诠释中，既没有波也没有粒子”，但是接着用不存在的“底下的东西”"
underlying stuff"来为他的解释遣词造句。他指出物质“有时表现的像波，有时像粒
子。。。波不在底下的东西中，而是存在于检测器击发的空间分布中。。。我们情不自
禁地认为这些击发是来自于我们可以称为粒子的微小的局部的东西。这是这个“粒子”
称号的来源。它不是来自于底下的什么东西，而是来自于我们将局部现象和粒子相关联
的心理倾向。

In place of "underlying stuff" there have beenserious attempts to preserve a
material world — but they produce no newphysics, and serve only to
preserve an illusion. Scientists have sadly left itto non-physicist Frayn to
note the Emperor's lack of clothes: "it seems tome that the view which [
Murray] Gell-Mann favours, and which involves what hecalls alternative '
histories' or 'narratives', is precisely as anthropocentricas Bohr's, since
histories and narratives are not freestanding elements of theUniverse, but
human constructs, as subjective and as restricted in theirviewpoint as the
act of observation."

为了这个“底下的东西”，不少人作了很认真的努力试图保留一个物质的世界－但是他
们没有发现什么新的物理学，仅仅保留了一个幻象。物理学家悲哀地让并非物理学家的
费拉因指出皇帝并没有穿衣服：“看起来，默里盖尔曼赞同的观点，即他称作非主流“
历史”或“故事”的，其实和波尔的观点完全一样，都是以人为中心的。因为历史和故
事不是宇宙中独立存在的元素，而是人类创建的，其观点和观察一样是主观和有局限性
的。”

Physicists shy from the truth because the truth is soalien to everyday
physics. A common way to evade the mental Universe is toinvoke 'decoherence'
— the notion that 'the physical environment' is sufficientto create
reality, independent of the human mind. Yet the idea that anyirreversible
act of amplification is necessary to collapse the wave function isknown to
be wrong: in 'Renninger-type' experiments, the wave function iscollapsed
simply by your human mind seeing nothing. The Universe is entirelymental.

物理学家逃避这个真理，因为真理和日常的物理学格格不入。一个常见的躲避心灵宇宙
的方法是应用“脱散”（decoherence）－一种认为“物理环境”足以独立于人类思想
外而产生现实的观念。然而认为任何不可逆转的放大足以让波函数坍缩的观点已被证明
是错误的：在Renninger类型实验中，只要你们人的意识什么都没看见，波函数就坍缩
了。宇宙完全是心灵的。

In the tenth century, Ibn al-Haytham initiated the viewthat light proceeds
from a source, enters the eye, and is perceived. Thispicture is incorrect
but is still what most people think occurs, including,unless pressed, most
physicists. To come to terms with the Universe, we mustabandon such views.
The world is quantum mechanical: we must learn to perceiveit as such.

十世纪时，阿尔哈曾（Ibn al-Haytham）认为光来自一个源头，进入眼睛，然后被感知
到。这个观点是不正确的，但是仍然为大多数人，包括大多数物理学家（在没有被拷问
时）所接受。为了接受和面对这个宇宙，我们必须放弃这样的观点。这个世界是量子力
学的，我们必须学会如是看待它。

One benefit of switching humanity to a correct perceptionof the world is the
resulting joy of discovering the mental nature of theUniverse. We have no
idea what this mental nature implies, but — the greatthing is — it is true
. Beyond the acquisition of this perception, physics canno longer help. You
may descend into solipsism, expand to deism, or somethingelse if you can
justify it — just don't ask physics for help.

人类正确地认知世界的好处之一是由于发现宇宙的精神性的本质而带来的欢乐。我们不
知道这种精神性的本质的内涵，但是了不起的是这是真实的。在了解了这点以后，物理
学就无法再帮忙了。你可能滑入唯我论，扩大为自然神论，或其他你能自圆其说的理论
，只是不要再求助于物理学了。

There is another benefit of seeing the world as quantummechanical: someone
who has learned to accept that nothing exists butobservations is far ahead
of peers who stumble through physics hoping to findout 'what things are'. If
we can 'pull a Galileo,' and get people believing thetruth, they will find
physics a breeze.

将世界视为量子力学的另一个好处是：一个学会接受除了观察以外没有什么东西存在的
人远远领先他的那些在物理学中蹒跚前行希望找到“什么是事物”的同辈。如果我们能
找到一个象伽利略那样的人，使人们相信真理，他们会发现物理学非常容易。

The Universe is immaterial — mental and spiritual. Live,and enjoy.
宇宙是非物质的－它是精神的和心灵的。