I confess a certain fondness of one argument/observation
that I added to the new edition, namely:
Almost all of the many theories put forth regarding
quantum mechanics (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interpretations_of_quantum_mechanics ) only address a single aspect of the many puzzling features of Q.M. They are
essentially ad hoc theories focused on a single issue. Bohr recognized this
drawback in his own theory and argued that Complementarity was not unique to
quantum mechanics but was a universal principle of nature extending across
physics, biology, psychology, and ontology/epistemology. We can admire Bohr for
his attempt to broaden his concept, but in retrospect his effort was an abject
failure. Eighty some years later his arguments for Complementarity as a
principle strike us as forced, self-serving, unproductive and belonging to the
grand, ephemeral theories of the nineteenth century: Lamarkism (inheritance of
acquired characteristics) or Marxism (class struggle and dictatorship of the
proletariat). Does any biologist today really use Complementarity?
In
contrast I would modestly argue that if you take my book’s single proposition (the
radical equality of mass and energy) seriously, then potential mass in waveform
is just as real as potential energy in field form and the latter characterizes
the time release of stored energy just as the former characterizes the space
release of stored mass. Mass/energy equality also explains why stressing quanta
(molecule, photon) in their extension dimension has no effect on their
progression dimension (including the rate of progression in that dimension). The radical equality of mass and energy is not an ad hoc, single-issue theory/principle.
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