Italian version

I’m happy to share my thoughts after reading the book Schrödinger’s Code, written by my dear and brilliant cousin Riccardo.
In this book, Riccardo takes us to the heart of quantum physics by recounting the studies and experiences that have marked his academic journey. It is a compelling narrative, rich in detail, filled with historical and scientific references as well as personal anecdotes, through which Riccardo successfully guides the reader through the quantum universe: superposition, entanglement, quantum collapse, all the way to modern developments in quantum cryptography. Let’s just say he’s managed to make the statement that Richard Feynman—one of the most important physicists of the 20th century—made at a conference in 1964 a little less true:
“I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.”

I began reading the book with great curiosity, hoping at first to brush up on what remained of my college studies on the subject. Instead, I found a surprise: another point of connection between science and spirituality that lies at the heart of many of my articles. Before proceeding, I’d like to clarify that what follows is my own personal interpretation, while Riccardo’s text presents the scientific theory without delving into metaphysical or spiritual themes. The Feynman quote cited above is based on the fact that the most widely accepted interpretation of quantum physics—known as the Copenhagen interpretation—introduces concepts that run counter to common sense and are therefore difficult to understand and explain:

• Schrödinger’s cat paradox, in which the cat is simultaneously alive and dead until it is observed;
• the photon that passes through two slits at the same time;
• entanglement, which counterintuitively implies the existence of long-range correlations between particles and, consequently, the non-local nature of physical reality.

The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics—whose completeness was called into question by Einstein with the famous Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox—is not, however, the only theory on the subject. In his book, Riccardo cites David Bohm’s theory, formulated in 1952. It is an example of a hidden-variable theory, through which it is possible to obtain a realistic, causal, and deterministic description of physical systems. I won’t go into the details, which you can find in Chapter 8, “The Man Who Saved Reality.” However, I will quote a significant excerpt¹.

Bohm’s theory saves the cats from being neither alive nor dead and the photons from each having to pass through two slits; but there is one thing—perhaps the most magical of all—on which even his normalizing force does not have an effect. It is non-locality. What happens down here can have some effect up there. Instantly.

Here is the enlightening term: non-locality. We could put it another way: nonlocality implies a long-range correlation between elements of reality. But isn’t the interconnectedness of reality precisely the fundamental principle of the major Eastern traditions—a concept that the Austrian physicist Fritjof Capra explored in depth in 1972 in his enlightening book “The Tao of Physics”? Here is a passage in which Capra discusses non-locality²:

The deeper we penetrate the submicroscopic world, the more we realize that the modern physicist, like the Eastern mystic, has come to view the world as a set of inseparable, interacting components in constant motion, and that humanity is an integral part of this system. … No matter how deeply we delve into matter, nature reveals no isolated “fundamental building blocks” to us, but rather appears as a complex network of relationships among the various parts of the whole.

In Soka Gakkai Buddhism, there is the concept of “the mutual inclusion of a single moment of life with all phenomena.” Considering that these words were written around 1250 by the Japanese monk Nichiren Daishonin, I would say that the following excerpt can be regarded as a forerunner of the principle of non-locality³.

Life, in every single moment, encompasses the body and mind, the self and the environment of all sentient beings in the Ten Worlds, as well as all non-sentient beings in the three thousand realms: plants, the sky, and the earth, down to the tiniest speck of dust. Life, in every single moment, permeates the entire realm of phenomena and manifests itself in each and every one of them.

From 1960 onward, Bohm’s studies and interests expanded into the realm of metaphysics and spirituality. His intense collaboration with the philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti—with whom he engaged in dialogues on the exploration of consciousness from 1962 to 1983—deserves further examination. In 1980, Bohm published the book “Wholeness and Implicate Order”, in which he presented his vision of the universe as an undivided whole, founded on a profound and “implicate” order from which the fragmented world of everyday experience emerges.

In my personal interpretation, David Bohm’s thought complements my reflections on Einstein, Faggin, and Capra, which I’ve discussed in the Science and spirituality category.
Thank you, Riccardo!

You can send your comment to info@esperienzedivalore.it, I will be happy to respond.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

1. “Il codice di Schrödinger”, Riccardo Adami, edizioni Dedalo, pag.122-123 ↩︎
2. “Il Tao della fisica” di Fritjof Capra, Edizioni Adelphi, 1982 ↩︎
3. https://biblioteca.sgi-italia.org/rsnd/il-conseguimento-della-buddita-in-questa-esistenza ↩︎