QUANTUM LANGUAGE AND THE MIGRATION OF SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS QUANTUM LANGUAGE AND THE MIGRATION OF SCIENTIFIC CONCEPTS JENNIFER BURWELL The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts London, England © 2018 Massachusetts Institute of Technology All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form by any electronic or mechanical means (including photocopying, recording, or infor- mation storage and retrieval) without permission in writing from the publisher. This book was set in Bembo Std by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited. Printed and bound in the United States of America. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Burwell, Jennifer, author. Title: Quantum language and the migration of scientific concepts / Jennifer Burwell. Description: Cambridge, Massachusetts ; London, England : The MIT Press, [2018] | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2017028080| ISBN 9780262037556 (hardcover ; alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Quantum theory--Philosophy. | Physics-- Philosophy. | Quantum theory in literature. Classification: LCC QC174.13 .B874 2018 | DDC 530.1201/4--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017028080 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 for Ella and Maeve CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 1 EXPERIENCE, PERCEPTION, AND THE LIMITS OF LANGUAGE 27 2 THE PHYSICS OF VISUALITY, INTUITION, AND AESTHETICS 69 3 QUANTUM PARADIGMS IN LITERARY CRITICISM 125 4 NEW AND POST-NEW AGE APPROPRIATIONS 169 5 QUANTUM VERSUS NUCLEAR DISCOURSE 211 CONCLUSION 255 NOTES 265 BIBLIOGRAPHY 297 INDEX 317 INTRODUCTION Almost a century after its main principles were established, quantum physics remains one of the most conceptually elusive theoretical para- digms in science—so elusive that even its original architects were con- founded by the results that their calculations produced. It also remains one of the most figuratively allusive paradigms, a fact that cannot be separated from the baffling nature of its principles. The tenets of quan- tum physics—and the strange phenomena that they describe—originate in and are expressed most precisely by highly abstract algebraic equa- tions. The main challenge posed by quantum phenomena does not lie, however, in its mathematics; it lies instead in how these phenomena in their very nature strain the limits of comprehension and representations: electrons that behave sometimes like particles and sometimes like waves; atomic systems that exist simultaneously in all possible states—until they are observed; electrons that reveal their position only if their momentum remains a mystery; and particles that exist at great distances from one another but appear to “know” and respond to what each other is doing. The counterintuitive nature of quantum theory—and especially its curi- ous relationship to everyday experience and representation in language— is the engine for a set of key questions that I address in this book. Why, for instance, did these mathematically driven concepts compel their founders to spend so much time reflecting upon ontological, epistemo- logical, and linguistic concerns? What do quantum phenomena, consid- ered in the context of the founders’ reflection and debates on how to describe them, reveal about the relationship between everyday experi- ence, perception, and language? How—and why—do quantum concepts get taken up again fifty years after their formulation in cultural contexts far removed from their origins in physics? What, for example, made