The quantum rules : how the laws of physics explain love, success, and everyday life

245 Pages·2015·3.4 MB·English

by  Kunal K. Das

Copyright © 2015 by Kunal K. Das
First published in 2013 by Skyhorse Publishing as e Quantum Guide to Life
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10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available on �le.
Cover design by Rain Saukas
Cover photo credit: inkstock
Print ISBN: 978-1-63220-459-2
Ebook ISBN: 978-1-5107-0318-6
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER   1 A QUANTUM OF HAPPINESS
CHAPTER   2 THE HEISENBERG COMPROMISES
CHAPTER   3 ENTROPY IS MESSING WITH YOUR LIFE
CHAPTER   4 THE LAZINESS CLAUSE
CHAPTER   5 GLOBAL EFFECTS OF POTENTIAL GRADIENTS
CHAPTER   6 COPING WITH IT ALL BY SCALING AND
RENORMALIZATION
CHAPTER   7 STEREOTYPING STATISTICAL MECHANICS
CHAPTER   8 FLUCTUATION WILL LEAD TO DISSIPATION
CHAPTER   9 THE WAVE MECHANICS OF RELATIONSHIPS
CHAPTER 10 RULES OF ATTRACTION
CHAPTER 11 NEWTON’S LAWS OF HUMAN DYNAMICS
CHAPTER 12 QUANTUM THEORY OF SOCIAL INTERACTIONS
CHAPTER 13 SEXUALLY BROKEN SYMMETRY
CHAPTER 14 RESONANCE WILL SET YOU FREE
CHAPTER 15 FAME AND THE EXISTENTIAL CRISIS OF
SCHRÖDINGER’S CAT
CHAPTER 16 MY TIME IS NOT YOUR TIME
CHAPTER 17 OPTIMISM COLLAPSE ON THE WORLD LINE
CHAPTER 18 IT IS ALL ON THE SURFACE
CHAPTER 19 THE EXCLUSION PRINCIPLE
CHAPTER 20 THE MIDDLE PATH INTEGRAL OF LIFE
CHAPTER 21 A CURRENT FORMULA FOR SUCCESS
AFTERWORD
INDEX
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Writing this book was mostly a solitary effort channeling ideas that I have formed over
several years. I am responsible for all the ideas, the text, and the �gures in this book. But
aer having written (and drawn) most of it for fun, when I thought of publishing it, I
discovered that �nding a publisher as an unknown, �rst-time author can be even more
challenging than writing. at process was successful largely because I found the perfect
literary agent for this book, Andy Ross, who shared my excitement about it. As the only
person other than me who read all the chapters in detail before submission, his feedback
was extremely valuable. My sincere thanks also go to my editor, Jennifer McCartney, at
Skyhorse Publishing, for appreciating the value of a rather unconventional book. Her
help and advice has been invaluable in transforming the manuscript into a published
book. I am grateful to Rosario Torres, Sudarshan Fernando, and Eric Laub for helpful
comments on some of the chapters. I owe much to my parents for raising me in an
environment where I was always free to choose my own path and own beliefs in life and
for encouraging diverse interests from early on.
INTRODUCTION
Ask your friends, “What are your thoughts on life?” “How do you explain human
behavior?” “Why are relationships so hard?” or questions of that sort, and you’re sure to
get all kinds of answers, some obvious, some funny, some wild and whimsical, but I bet
none of them would involve the laws of quantum physics. Aer all, what could quantum
physics possibly tell us about our lives or the people around us? A great deal, actually, as
this book will show. In quantum physics, we can �nd answers and justi�cations for
almost every aspect of our lives, from the fundamentally profound—such as why life is
so full of compromises—to the utterly mundane—like why it always takes effort to keep
things tidy. As we seek out those hidden quantum connections and parallels, we will
come up with oen surprising and sometimes amusing insights into our life experiences.
e universality of the themes considered here means that this book is truly intended for
all literate practitioners of this thing we call life. erefore, to make sure that no one is
le out, I deliberately avoid math and dense logic with the �rm belief that they are not
necessary to communicate the essence of great ideas, even in quantum physics.
Two realms, which have always been considered antipodal and absolutely un-
relatable, come together in this book: the realm of everyday life (personal, social,
relational, and �nancial) and the realm of the fundamental laws of physics. erefore,
you can read this either as a book about life that offers a completely different and novel
perspective or as a brand new kind of popular science book where the abstract concepts
of quantum physics are framed in terms to which we can all relate.
Although the book is intended for a broad audience, physicists will also �nd much of
interest here. As far as I know, this is the only serious attempt ever at bridging what I call
the “Physicists’ Dilemma,” which is that, while they themselves are absolutely convinced
that they are dealing with the most important things in the universe, they can rarely
make their work seem relevant or genuinely engaging, even to their friends and families.
Fascination and curiosity are not enough—relevance is crucial. e goal here is to make
quantum physics relevant and relatable to everyone.
Each chapter can be read independently of all the other chapters. So, if you get a bit
stuck on some idea in one chapter, feel free to move on to another one and come back to
it. Every chapter explores the implications of one idea or set of closely related ideas
important in quantum physics. But with physical laws being generally interconnected,
there are bound to be occasional references to other chapters. However, in most cases,
they are not absolutely essential to understanding the material at hand, and I will point
out the few exceptions as and when they arise.
e ideas presented here draw intriguing parallels between the rules of life and the
laws of quantum physics. is correspondence is relevant, because almost all our
knowledge and wisdom is based on our drawing analogies and connections between
what we learn and what we already know well. Oen, the parallels are so eerily close as
to make us wonder if our consciousness really sets us that much apart from the physical
and inanimate universe, beyond the reach of its laws.
CHAPTER 1
A QUANTUM OF
HAPPINESS
Quantization happens when a physical system is restricted by boundary conditions,
to exist in only certain very specific states. Likewise, our mental states, as in how we
feel, depend on the boundary conditions in our lives, meaning all the bonds and
constraints that keep us where we are, with whom we are, and doing what we do. e
mechanisms that can alter quantum states suggest ways to reach happier states in
life.
“Money cannot buy you happiness”—an ancient bit of wisdom, oen quoted, but seldom
believed. You must have heard it oen enough and perhaps even mutter it yourself
occasionally. But if you do not feel wealthy, I bet you always had a lurking suspicion that
this can’t be right—surely you would be a lot happier if you had more money! Rich folks
do seem to be generally happier, and wealth certainly opens up a lot of attractive
possibilities. So it is only natural to doubt and wonder, particularly in the ultra-
materialistic world we live in today where we have become absolutely dependent on our
possessions. We oen tend to feel that the more we possess, the better we would feel, and
the happier our lives would be. Shopping has indeed become a wistful antidote for
feeling down and low.
Life does not come with a guarantee of happiness. But that has never prevented
anyone from feeling entitled to it, and we stay in hard pursuit of it all our lives.
Ironically, by trying so hard, we oen make it even more elusive. In fact, we can’t even
agree upon what happiness really means. Ask around: You will simply get personalized
descriptions of everything happiness is not—laundry lists of all those things missing in
people’s lives that they think are keeping them from being happy. Each list would be a bit
different, indicating a different de�nition of happiness for everyone.
So, with no universal de�nition or prescription on how to �nd it, our collective quest
for happiness continues to be an essentially blind quest, and like any blind quest, the