The Reality Program




Chapter Eight




Zeroing In On The Improbable


"When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever is left, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle,The Sign of the Four [Sherlock Holmes]


Eliminating the impossible. Let us review some of the quantum mechanical findings we have discussed to this point, and try to draw some conclusions about the underlying processes.

     First, we have seen that quantum mechanics' description of matter and energy as having a "dual nature" which is at once wave-like and particle-like is deeply unsatisfying on both sides of the supposed duality.

  • The only "waves" we see are in the statistical analysis of the behavior of quantum units. All attempts to imagine physical waves fail because of inherent contradictions in behavior.
    - There is the lack of any medium;
    - the lack of any wavelike motion of crests and troughs (even through a hypothetical but nonexistent medium); and
    -the lack of any conceivable mechanism for converting a spreading wave into a pointlike particle and back again.