A Comprehensive Reckoning with the Copenhagen Interpretation
It is time for a thorough reckoning with the Copenhagen Interpretation. This dogma, which has dominated physics for nearly a century, rests its core tenets on flawed philosophical foundations. Its fundamental failure lies in its refusal from the outset to grasp the physical essence of quantum mechanics’ central equation—the Schrödinger equation—dooming the subsequent wavefunction-centered interpretive system to total collapse.
I. Systematic Deconstruction of Core Fallacies
1. The Fundamental Fallacy of Wavefunction Completeness
Copenhagen Claim: The wavefunction contains all information about a system.
Root Errors:
Information ≠ Reality: At best, the wavefunction is a mathematical encoding of our state of knowledge, not the physical entity itself.
Inherent Limits of Statistical Description: Just as temperature cannot fully describe molecular motion, the wavefunction—作为 a global statistical quantity—cannot comprehensively characterize quantum reality.
Systematic Loss of Local Information: By its nature as a spectral representation, the wavefunction inherently excludes local and instantaneous information, including a particle’s instantaneous velocity and precise position.
2. The Absurdity of Measurement-Induced Collapse
Copenhagen Claim: Observational acts cause wavefunction collapse.
Fatal Flaws:
The Magical Privilege of the Observer: Granting the "observer" supernatural power to alter physical reality revives pre-scientific mysticism.
Total Lack of Physical Mechanism: The "instantaneous jump" from a superposed state to an eigenstate violates all known principles of physical continuity.
The Ultimate Paradox of Schrödinger’s Cat: The absurdity of macroscopic superposition exposes the inherent contradiction of this tenet.
The True Physical Process: The so-called "collapse" is merely an update of the observer’s cognitive state; physical evolution remains continuous and deterministic.
3. The Philosophical Sophistry of Complementarity
Copenhagen Claim: Wave-particle duality is complementary—both aspects cannot manifest simultaneously.
The Essence of Conceptual Confusion:
Forced Dichotomy: "Wave" and "particle" are classical concepts; imposing them on quantum systems constitutes a fundamental category mistake.
Misinterpreting Measurement Limits: This is not an inherent complementarity of nature, but a reflection of the limitations of measurement methods.
Unified Physical Picture: A particle is a localized wave packet—wave and particle properties coexist. The probability distribution for triggering local events arises from the energy density distribution of the wave.
4. The Profound Misleading of the Uncertainty Principle
Copenhagen Claim: The inability to simultaneously determine position and momentum is a fundamental constraint of nature.
Root of Conceptual Confusion:
Measurement Disturbance vs. Ontological Limit: Heisenberg erroneously elevated technical measurement limitations to an inherent property of physical reality.
Physicalizing a Mathematical Property: The uncertainty relation is merely a mathematical necessity of Fourier transformation, not a profound physical principle.
Confusing Global and Local Properties: Uncertainty is a statistical property of global spacetime, which does not negate instantaneous local determinism.
The Objective Existence of Trajectories: Particles still have instantaneous trajectories; the globality of spectral representation cannot deny local reality.
5. The Philosophical Bankruptcy of Probabilistic Ontology
Copenhagen Claim: The quantum world is inherently probabilistic and indeterministic.
Fundamental Errors:
Confusing Epistemology and Ontology: Probability reflects the incompleteness of our knowledge, not inherent randomness in nature.
Masking Causality Rather Than Eliminating It: As a global spacetime statistic, the wavefunction erases local causal information, but this does not negate causality itself.
Analogy to Statistical Mechanics: Classical statistical mechanics also uses probabilistic descriptions, yet its underlying dynamics are strictly deterministic.
The True Source of Apparent Randomness: Quantum "randomness" is merely a mathematical manifestation of the inability of global statistics to trace back local instantaneous information.
6. The Artificial Fiction of the Classical-Quantum Boundary
Copenhagen Claim: A dividing line exists between the classical and quantum worlds.
Exposed Logical Contradictions:
Arbitrariness of the Boundary: 10 atoms? 1,000 atoms? No principle can define this mysterious boundary.
The Measurement Apparatus Paradox: Measurement devices are themselves quantum systems—what grants them the privilege to "collapse" other systems?
Violating the Principle of Universality: Physical laws should apply universally; there should be no scale-dependent discontinuity.
II. The Historical Crimes of the Copenhagen Interpretation
Systematic Obstruction of Physics Progress
Intellectual Confinement: Generations of physicists have been indoctrinated by "orthodox" dogma, losing their critical spirit.
Misguided Research Directions: Vast intellectual resources have been wasted patching interpretive paradoxes rather than pursuing deeper physical theories.
Suppression of Innovative Ideas: Groundbreaking theories like de Broglie’s pilot wave theory and Bohmian mechanics have been systematically marginalized.
Comprehensive Regression in the Philosophy of Science
Extremization of Instrumentalism: The "shut up and calculate" attitude is a complete betrayal of the essence of scientific understanding.
Abandonment of Realism: Instrumentalism denies objective reality, violating the basic requirements of scientific theory.
Revival of Mysticism: Ideas like "consciousness-induced collapse" have regressed physics to the pre-Enlightenment era.
Fundamental Epistemological Chaos: Systematically confusing our state of knowledge with objective reality.
III. Natural Quantum Theory: Returning to Physical Reality
Reconstruction of the Theoretical Framework
Clear Ontological Foundation: Particles are localized field configurations; fields are objectively existing physical entities.
Correct Understanding of Mathematical Tools:
The Schrödinger equation and its solutions are essentially tools for spectral analysis.
The wavefunction is a spectral representation of a physical system, not physical reality itself.
Quantum mechanics is classical mechanics under a spectral representation, and does not violate classical causality.
Dialectical Understanding of Spectral Analysis:
Methodological Advantages: Spectral analysis offers irreplaceable computational advantages in handling wave phenomena.
Inherent Limitations: It is imperative to recognize that spectral representation loses local instantaneous information.
Restoration of Reality:
Local information masked by mathematical form does not cease to exist physically.
Particle trajectories exist objectively; they merely do not manifest in spectral representation.
Causal chains are fully preserved, and determinism is restored.
Demystifying the Measurement Process
Measurement is an ordinary physical interaction, governed by the same physical laws.
No special "observer" status exists.
Every quantum phenomenon has a clear, intuitive physical picture.
IV. Why the Copenhagen Interpretation Must Be Abandoned
Basic Requirements of Scientific Methodology
Comprehensibility: Scientific theories must provide understanding of nature, not degenerate into mere computational tools.
Objectivity: Physical laws should not depend on the existence or conscious state of an observer.
Unity: No artificial classical/quantum divide should exist; natural laws should be universally consistent.
Causality: The integrity of causal relationships must be maintained, with no recourse to inherent randomness.
Reinterpreting Experimental Phenomena
Double-Slit Experiment: A measurement of the wavefield’s response to global interference conditions—no mysterious "observation-induced collapse" is needed.
Quantum Entanglement: A correlation pattern caused by global boundary conditions, not "spooky action at a distance."
Quantum Tunneling: A classical process triggered by instantaneous energy fluctuations of the wavefield or particle, with a clear physical mechanism.
V. Conclusion: The Historical Inevitability of a Paradigm Shift
The Copenhagen Interpretation is not a scientific theory, but an ideological dogma. It substitutes philosophical bias for physical understanding, and masks conceptual poverty with misinterpretations of mathematical tools.
Physics must return to its essential pursuit:
True physics requires a clear physical picture.
Quantum theory should possess an intuitive physical foundation, just like relativity.
What we need is not an "interpretation," but a correct physical theory.
It is time to end this century-long conceptual chaos. Physics must return to Einstein’s ideal: seeking objective laws of nature, rather than settling for a predictive machine. Every dogma of the Copenhagen Interpretation deserves to be consigned to the dustbin of history, clearing the way for a true understanding of the quantum world.
"God does not play dice." — Einstein was right. Even if God did play dice, He would certainly know the outcome in advance.