Monday, July 6, 2020

The hard porn of Quantum Mechanics



This is an interesting documentary about David Bohm, who developed a controversial new theory about quantum mechanics, still mostly rejected by the scientific community. Bohm also had creative discussions with Jiddu Krishnamurti, a spiritual teacher originally associated with the Theosophical Society. 

While Bohm was a scientist, he clearly wanted to bridge the gap between science and spirituality. The makers of this documentary want to use Bohm´s ideas to promote some kind of vague "holistic" notions. Bohm´s concept of the "implicate order" has obvious similarities with the Hindu notion of Brahman, but perhaps also with the more esoteric idea of Shakti, since the implicate order is active and creative rather than passive. There are also similarities to Whitehead´s process philosophy. Bohm was originally a leftist, perhaps even a Communist, but later developed a more "idealist" and spiritual understanding of human transformation.  

Some episodes in Bohm's life are rather absurd. Bohm couldn´t get a security clearence to Los Alamos due to suspicion that he was a Communist. Yet, it was his supervisor Robert Oppenheimer who spied for the Russians! This fact is not mentioned in the documentary, though. At the hight of the Cold War, Bohm had to leave the United States for Brazil and the UK, since he refused to testify before the HUAC. Meanwhile, other quantum physicist, including his erstwhile mentor Oppenheimer, decided to simply ignore him after having failed to disprove his alternative version of quantum mechanics. A problem with "Infinite Potential" is that you already need to have a working knowledge of Bohm, Krishnamurti and the basics of quantum physics in order to really appreciate it. 

And yes, the title of my review is a reference to a claim made in the documentary. Apparently, Bohm´s theory became jokingly known as "the hard porn of physics", presumably because his theory was considered "X-rated"... 

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