Chapter 7 - Entanglement

Portent

Entanglement is the unexpected phenomenon that individual particles can lose their individuality. They no longer have independent states, but only a joint state. They have become entangled. Mathematically, their states are no longer separable. This disturbs the statistics of their possibilities from classical expectations. More jarringly, it violates our fundamental assumptions about identity, individuality, and distinguishability.

This was baked into the math of quantum mechanics from the very beginning, but was hidden by the expectation that common cause was sufficient; it was not. Entanglement cannot be reduced to common cause, although the difference is mathematically tiny and requires the non-traditional application of measurement bases. Not only was the theory hard, but so was experimentally proving it. Closing the remaining loopholes proved even more technically challenging.

Primary Docs

Paradigm Discourse:
Open the Spooky-Coins and Magic-Envelopes discourse in the next tab

Technical Chapter:
Open the Entanglement chapter in the next tab

Significance

A number of brilliant hypotheses have been proposed to explain entanglement. None have survived experimental validation. We remain perplexed. The universe is not only stranger than we imagine, it is threatening to be stranger than we can imagine.