Poor science, often perpetrated by artists and economists, is a blight on our mathematical horizons. The widespread use of invalid statistics, poor sampling techniques, inappropriate black box causal modelling, an inability to determine significance of data and misuse of science is, unfortunately, the norm when one enters the area of popular and social science. Why the rampantly arts biased media should think that their collected thoughts on the Higgs boson should have any relevance to anybody, I don't know.
Anyway, it was consequently with considerable trepidation that I approached the film "What The Fuck Do We Know!?" when I was last in Kerkyra. This controversial independent movie focuses on and, indeed, attempts to link science and spirituality. It fails to make any such link but it does at least give some insight into the world of quantum physics for the person on the street. The film relies solely on input from the group of physicists who disagree with the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum physics ie the film is dependent on those who believe that the many possibilities of the quantum world all continue to be real ie there are many parallel worlds.
My physics is not current enough to be anything other than agnostic in the classical versus parallel quantum argument although it does appear that global university posts are overly staffed with pro-Copenhageners and that a belief in string theory in all its forms is an absolute given on campus. The type of science in the military/educational complex is generally less out of the box as the hierarchy is seeking practical applications as opposed to philosophical insights. Consequently, very few inventive scientists are properly accommodated by the scientific system as their research is undertaken in more obtuse environments but with the significant benefit of total research freedom. There are many intuitive levels on which the parallel structures in the many-worlds interpretation (MWI) have a logical validity. The fractalisation of our existences seems to be a continuum producing ever greater cosmological and ever-smaller quantum levels as a probability. MWI's main conclusion is that the universe (or multiverse in this context) is composed of a quantum superposition of very many, possibly infinitely many, increasingly divergent, non-communicating parallel universes or quantum worlds.
The film was successful in this part of its aim - it provided the layperson with an introduction to MWI. Then it started getting silly... I have a bit of a problem with the concept of a 35,000 year old woman (Ramtha) speaking through spiritual teacher JZ Knight. I attempt to be constantly experimental in my approach to issues and problems but I'm just not having this. As David Kehr stated in the New York Times: "...[the] transition from quantum mechanics to cognitive therapy" is "plausible". He went on to state that: "the subsequent leap - from cognitive therapy into large, hazy spiritual beliefs - isn't as effectively executed". Physics Today was slightly more damning and stated that the movie uses quantum physics to promote pseudoscience while quantum "insights" lead to "the quantum channeling of Ramtha, and on to even greater nonsense". And this is the film's main strategy. Three of the directors are devotees of Ramtha's School of Enlightenment so we are looking at a bit of a belief agenda here. There is much common sense dressed up as science together with life hacking seen as lateral thinking - it no doubt does enhance one's day if one starts it with neural net planning with the incorporation of constant experimentation into all processes but its not neuroscience.
The only aspect of the film worthy of any degree of focus is the area concerned with quantum physics but the movie does not explore even the most simplistic of overviews of the competing theories of the quantum world. There is an ongoing intellectual corruption related to the takeover of the academic territory by the Copenhagen brigade but simply quoting practitioners of MWI is not a QED. String theory has dominated theory for twenty years but its promise is unfulfilled. Lee Smolin (author of "The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next") regards string theory as unscientific, mere conjecture and unworthy of being called a theory at all! Great science frequently is created away from the boundaries of the limited educational goals offered by the military/educational complex. We have stated previously that many physicists end up trading financial markets and we believe that these individuals would generally represent the more creative end of the spectrum when compared with their peers in academia. The limited intellectual range of academia undermines science. There is an inability to undertake truly lateral thought with the result that discoveries are equally limited in their scope. Science would undoubtedly benefit if there were more MWI people on the campuses as, indeed, would the military backers who are omnipresent in so much modern science. Absolutism in science is as stupid as absolutism with regard to Ramtha or any similar belief mechanism. No absolutism without proof.
Until that time arrives, all we have is a conversation. MWI functions as a logical concept. Its appeal is the rationality behind its infrastructural template.
Perhaps somebody could create a piece of art that properly encapsulates the stunning world of self similarity and fractals and chaos in a quantum environment but "What The Fuck Do We Know!?" is most certainly not that film.
