The so-called Copenhagen interpretation has long been taught as quantum physics\u2019 reigning orthodoxy, a neat tale of collapsing wavefunctions and observer-dependent reality. But the history tells a stranger story. Noemi Bolzenetti, Utrecht University Historian and Philosopher of Science, reveals the patchwork of competing ideas, stitched together into a myth that still dominates textbooks and surveys today. Unpacking Bohr and Heisenberg\u2019s actual disagreements reveals not closure, but a richer set of puzzles still waiting to be faced.<\/p>\n
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1. Introduction<\/p>\n
What if the most famous interpretation of quantum physics never actually existed? We have been taught to picture Niels Bohr as the father of a mysterious doctrine called Copenhagen interpretation, where quantum reality collapses under the gaze of an observer. But dig into the historical record and a very different picture emerges: not a single doctrine, but a patchwork of views occasionally in tension with one another and developed over decades. The actual story is stranger and more revealing than the myth.<\/p>\n
But first, a reminder for readers of one of the quantum riddles we are going to deal with in this article. In typical textbook quantum mechanics, a quantum system can be described by a wavefunction\u2014a mathematical object that fully encodes the state of the system\u2014as a superposition of possible states. This means, for instance, that an electron can be described as being in multiple positions at once, each position associated with a certain probability of being measured. The evolution of this wavefunction through time is continuous, or \u201csmooth,\u201d and deterministic, governed by the Schr\u00f6dinger equation. Yet, when we measure the position of an electron (or, as it is sometimes said, \u201clook\u201d at it), what we get is one definite location, not a superposition. One might say that the wavefunction appears then to \u201ccollapse\u201d<\/a> to a single definite outcome. This marks a discontinuity: a shift from the smooth, probabilistic evolution of the wavefunction to a single definite outcome, an abrupt jump. Why this happens, or how, is one of the riddles of quantum\u00a0mechanics.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n 2. The strawman game<\/p>\n There is a game with simple rules and an almost guaranteed victory. It is called the strawman game. The game is played by conjuring two reference figures, two clear and distinct images, neatly polarized, and then setting them against each other in an eternal duel: good versus evil, right versus wrong, black versus white\u2014forever blind to the shades of grey.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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