And now for a quick chat with the author David Kaiser.................... How much did quantum theory reshape perceptions of and approaches to physics. Tremendously. When quantum theory was being cobbled together during the 20’s and 30’s, the greats of that era – people like Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg and Erwin Schrödinger – were convinced that this was a deep, deep philosophical challenge to basic ideas of how the world works. Moreover, they all agreed that quantum theory had to be held up to philosophical tests as well as mathematical consistency and empirical experiments. The equations and the experiments were important, but not sufficient on their own, and they would have these great debates, not because they were skeptical of certain equations or feared loopholes within certain experiments, but because they worried about the philosophical implications, and sought interpretations to capture the metaphysical elements to these
questions. They would argue late into the night and hold these now famous conferences to wrestle with these fundamental ideas until dawn broke yet again. That characterized the work of a great many physicists who were pulling together what we now know as quantum mechanics into the 1930’s. It was an integral part of what it meant to be a physicist and what it meant to pursue quantum theory, and that kind of engagement – that philosophical dimension to the pure science – that was rapidly pushed to the margins in the years following World War 2. It was that transition that I found so interesting, and what happened when the new ‘normal’ broke down in turn 20 or 25 years later.