Posted: August 1st, 2022

Science and Human Nature

Many different types of biases effected the development of quantum theory in the early 20th century. In a 4 page paper (double space, 12 point font, separate title page and bibliography), address how scientists’ personal beliefs about the nature of science affected the development and acceptance of quantum theory. Your paper should include a clearly stated thesis and use evidence from the course texts (The Copernican Revolution by Thomas Kuhn, The Book of the Cosmos edited by Danielson, Einstein Defiant by Bolles and
The Quantum Moment by Cand) and additional sources to support your thesis statement. The thesis statement should be specific, interesting, and non-obvious.

Science and Human Nature
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Introduction
The Quantum theory is considered as probably one of the best scientific discoveries in the 20th century. However, the theory has attracted a lot of admiration and criticisms in equal measures from various scientists in the field of physics leading to the development of different forms of biases around the theory. On one hand, Neils Bohr argues that most people get shocked when they come across this theory simply because they have not acquired the right understanding around it (Bolles, 2004). Bohr suggests that the theory is too difficult for ordinary people to understand it at the first time of coming across it with most of them believing that it is unrealistic or supernatural (Bolles, 2004). On the other hand, Albert Einstein, a great physician had a differing opinion about the quantum theory. Einstein sought more explanation about the physical phenomenon observed by scientist advocating for the quantum theory (Kuhn, 1985). The differing ideologies about the theory from arguably two of the best scientist at the time in Bohr and Eintstein led to a myriad of controversies around the theory sweeping across the scientific community. As such, this paper discusses the several of biases that effected the development of quantum theory in the early 20th century. By understanding the role played by different cognitive modules when it comes to interpretation of the quantum theory, we conclude that the explanation of quantum theory in the 20th century involved lot of biases.
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Quantum theory has in recent history developed to be a very compelling and rich theory. Unfortunately, the understanding of the theory in terms of the behavior of general objects is quite different from the reality or basic understanding of various concepts in physics. At the moment there are many explanations in regards to quantum theory with one of them being the Copenhagen interpretation by Bohr and Heisenberg where they try to explain the surprising phenomenon or outcomes associated with the quantum theory (Bolles, 2004). In the Copenhagen interpretation, both Bohr and Heisenberg recognize the fact that the theory is often discussed in a context that can be described as weird and an entanglement that is spooky in action especially from a distance (Bolles, 2004). This spookiness could be as a result of the fact that the main ideas expressed in this theory go out of line from our daily experiences while disturbing the general understanding of the traditional physics cognitive modules.
The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is one of the biases in the quantum theory and it states that the quantum mechanics doesn’t add up because it is very difficult to determine the exact speed or location of a given particle simultaneously (Bolles, 2004). This indeterminism of the theory within nature is what creates a lot of bias around the theory with scientists like Einstein finding it very hard to accept its ideology and he actually thought that the theory was imposing. Though Einstein recognized the fact that the theory does contain a lot of truth in some maters of quantum mechanics, he suggests that it is still not the real deal because it fails to come close to the tenants or ideologies expressed in the existing or well known ideologies of quantum mechanics (Bolles, 2004). From this criticism, we understand that Einstein was heavily opposed to the theory because it challenged most basic understanding of the principles in physics.
Another concept of the theory that often courts controversy is the Quantum entanglement principle suggests that two particles interact when they fail to be recognized independently. It goes further to suggest that the measurement of the properties of one particle has direct effect on the overall state of other particles which in most cases separation occurs at the time these measurements are separated with large distances (Ling, 2005). This means that the quantum theory effects tends to go against the general intuitions and may at times appear to be magical in nature, one of the reasons why scientist Robert Einstein described it as “spooky action within a given distance (Ling, 2005).” It is such counterintuitive outcomes that make quantum mechanics appear to be very mysterious.
Based on the understanding about the theory generated by the quantum entanglement principle, it s quite clear that quantum theory and general relativity can be appear to be very controversial. However, in actually reality, the two theories are widely accepted with the conflict only existing because there were few experiments conducted to justify these ideologies (Ling, 2005). Moreover, the fact that scientist like Robert Einstein decided to take a conservative approach in regards to understanding the general principles of this theory also adds to the biases surrounding it. According to (Danielson, 2002), most controversies surrounding new ideologies in science stem from the fact that there are so many conservatives who are unwilling to adopt a new ideology in regards to a given concept.
Danielson (2002) gives the example of the theories of evolution and big bang where despite both of these theories having huge datasets that support them; they still have huge controversies surrounding them as various scientific quarters try to challenge them. In recent history, the subject of climate change has been very topical within the scientific community within some quarters warning of the huge consequences that comes with its impact. However, there are still some quarters within the scientific that are keen to dismiss climate change as a fallacy either for political reasons or other reasons. This clearly serves to demonstrate Danielson’s point when he suggests that controversies surrounding new ideologies in science stem from the fact that there are so many conservatives who are unwilling to adopt a new ideology in regards to a given concept, as was the case with the quantum theory n the 21sts century.
Conclusion
From the foregoing, naïve theories in science and physics in particular can sometimes lead to very incorrect notions in regards to how our world operates with these notions leading to biases clouding objectivity in regards to how a given scientific concept is viewed. As studies shows, some of these scientific theories can suffer from bias neglect where incorrect interpretations about a given scientific concept may appear to give objective conclusions. As such, it is important that scientist be aware of the cognitive biases that are likely to arise when interpreting the quantum theory. As discussed in this paper, some physicists may harbor bias towards a given scientific concept with it mainly arising from the fact that they have naïve cognition about a given concept. However, this doesn’t usually mean that some physicists are wrong in their opinion on a given scientific concept but they simply have an open bias towards it.

References
Bolles, E. B. (2004). Einstein defiant genius versus genius in the quantum revolution. Washington, D.C.: Joseph Henry Press.
Danielson, D. R. (2002). The book of the cosmos: Imagining the universe from Heraclitus to Hawking. Cambridge, MA: Perseus Books.
Kuhn, T. S. (1985). The Copernican revolution. New York: MJF Books.
Ling, P. A. (2005). Trends in quantum dots research. New York: Nova Science.

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