THE ENORMOUS IMPORTANCE OF QUANTUM PHYSICS (Chapter 1)

From de book: Quantum Mysticism. THE SPIRITUALITY OF QUANTUM PHYSICS. Second Edition 2021.

Author: Luis Eduardo Sierra S.

President of Universal Alliance

Importance, prominence and applications of quantum physics – The century of science – From Homo sapiens to the internet – Quantum physics, war and the arms race – The use of nuclear energy – Chernobyl and Fukushima – Science, a double-edged sword.

In the twentieth century, physics was considered the science of sciences. Given its transcendental importance and the applications that derived from it, it was the one that attracted the most resources from private and governmental companies, having its most leading role from the moment that quantum physics made its appearance on the scientific scene, which would snatch the crown that classical or Newtonian physics held for two centuries.  the same one they teach us in schools.

Nanotechnology, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and quantum theory, with their various branches, constitute the great pillars on which current scientific progress is built, while at the same time they have made room for a great diversity of other sciences to join this interdisciplinary endeavor. But it is quantum physics that served as the foundation for all the technologies that emerged. It is the basic theoretical tool for disciplines such as chemistry, nuclear, atomic and molecular physics, condensed matter physics and particle or high energy physics, molecular biology and electronics. Its influence on other sciences such as medicine, transport, communications, food, in many fields of engineering, etc., has been preponderant.

The nineteenth century was identified as the era in which modern science emerged, surpassing the intellectual activity inherent in a small group of natural philosophers, proving its worth in society at large. However, the twentieth century can be called, with even more justification, the century of science, because it was when science came to dominate not only the intellectual sphere but also a large part of the social, economic and military spheres of life. Entering the 21st century, it is easy to venture to predict that it will dethrone the last century and will be identified as the new century of science, if we base ourselves on the exponential way in quantity and quality with which modern science advances. Its dynamics are such that the number of scientific articles published is estimated to double every two years.

If we consider the history of the human species since its beginnings, taking homo sapiens as a starting point with reference to the anatomical prototype of current populations, the oldest remains are found in Morocco with 315,000 years. If its age is measured by its mental capacities, the oldest evidence is located in South Africa with 165,000 years. Until the birth of the printing press in 1440 with Gutenberg, human isolation was almost total. The Internet was created in 1969, at the height of the Cold War, by the US Department of Defense when it created a communications system that would prevent or resist a nuclear attack. This single invention, which completely changed the history of humanity and human knowledge, had its seats in quantum physics.

It is estimated that quantum physics is responsible for a third of the gross domestic product of the most developed countries, a figure that is already eloquent enough to measure its interference in the world economy. Its applications brought with them the invention of computers, mobile phones, microwaves, CD players, televisions, CT scanners (Computerized Axial Tomography), lasers, space rockets, GPS global positioning systems, the scanning electron microscope, semiconductor circuits, the transistor, superconductors, nuclear energy, in addition to many other devices of daily use by the common citizen.

When we go to the supermarket and the cashier passes an item in front of the barcode reader, the name and the invoiced value are instantly left and in the accounting system the taxes and discounts are settled if necessary, and the supplier of the item already knows when and how much he has to replenish the sold products on the shelves.  The invoice records the buyer's data and other information that the supermarket considers useful... all thanks to quantum physics.

Nowadays it is very difficult to find an industry that does not use it directly or indirectly. It has been integrated in such a way into our daily lives that it goes unnoticed. With the advancement of artificial intelligence and the fourth industrial revolution, our lives are becoming more and more immersed in this quantum delirium.

The terrifying atomic bomb, released by the United States on August 6, 1945 against the Japanese empire, dropped on Hiroshima, would cause the death of some 80,000 people. Not content with this, as if the death and destruction had not been enough, President Truman would order the detonation of a second bomb three days after the first, in Nagasaki. By the end of 1945 the total number of deaths in both cities, caused by both bombs, was estimated at 246,000, not counting the wounded and the disaster in material goods. The use of nuclear energy would thus be evidenced with the famous Manhattan Project, with three Germans as protagonists, Oppenheimer as leader of the project, supported by the developments in quantum physics achieved by Heisenberg and with the active participation of Einstein in 1941 when he urged President Roosevelt to take decisive action, through written communication,  in the face of the threat that the Germans would anticipate the manufacture of the bomb.

With a terrifying result to its credit, the end of the Second World War was marked in its favor, although the Germans and allies were already defeated before the use of the bombs and Japan was about to succumb. They were blown up out of vanity, to intimidate potential enemies and to justify the two billion dollars that this project cost, the highest cost of research at the time, demonstrating in the process that science was capable of winning wars and changing the course of history. The end of World War II was the result of terror produced thanks to the use of human ingenuity aimed at mass murder, forcing the opponent to surrender in the absence of a similar or superior power on the part of the adversary. What led immediately after the war was over was not precisely the achievement of peace, but a paranoid arms race, which certainly has not stopped today.

The splitting of one atom releases a very tiny amount of energy, but the splitting of a large number of atoms releases an enormous amount of energy, fifty million times more than chemical energy, while also releasing a controlled chain reaction. When chained, it grows exponentially. A chunk of enriched uranium, no bigger than a tennis ball, can turn a city into a ball of fire. The sugar to sweeten a cup of coffee contains a mass energy equivalent to 100 kilotons of TNT, enough to devastate New York. From the bomb exploded in Nagasaki, the United States went to the H-Bomb, with a 500-fold power of destruction, a race in which Russia was not far behind. Today the circumstances of time, manner and place have certainly changed, there are other schemes, types of arsenals and combatants, already related to cyberwar or cyber warfare.

But, in the same way that less than a gram of mass was converted into energy to create an atomic bomb, covering a city with corpses, with the peaceful use of nuclear energy enormous and widely beneficial projects are carried out. An example used to illustrate this was the use of nuclear energy to supply electricity to the population. It was envisioned at that time as the energy source of the future because it is cheap, clean and safe. The energy used is the same, the human or anti-human intentionality is what gives it the positive or negative polarity in its effects. Over time, it would turn out that nuclear energy is very expensive, not cheap or clean, and much less safe, which is why it has been progressively ceding prominence to wind and solar energy. There are currently an estimated 448 nuclear reactors generating 2,490 terawatt-hours in a total of 35 countries, which depend on them to a large extent for energy supply. Another 57 reactors are under construction.

Two examples are enough to lapidarily demonstrate the above assertion: 1) Chernobyl, Ukraine, 1986. 2) Japan and the devastating earthquake it suffered in 2011, severely affecting the nuclear plant in Fukushima. The radioactive elements emitted by nuclear reactors are present in the rains produced by atomic bombs. In the mislabeled "accident" of Chernobyl, whose radioactive materials expelled were quantified at 500 times that released by the atomic bomb in Hiroshima, 116,000 people had to be evacuated in an emergency and radioactivity was detected in no less than 13 countries of Central and Eastern Europe. The thousands of deaths were incalculable, there was no consensus on the matter, but they far exceeded those caused by the nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The traces left were and continue to be terrifying in the affected areas, which are still depopulated today.

Popular physicist Michio Kaku draws this significant parallel: "Of course, science is a double-edged sword; it solves problems, but it creates as many problems, and these are always of a higher level. There are two competing trends in the world today: one is the one that attempts to create a planetary civilization that is tolerant, scientific, and prosperous, but the other glorifies the anarchy and ignorance that could tear at the fabric of our society. We still have the same sectarianism, the same fundamentalism and the same irrational passions that our ancestors had, but the difference is that we now possess atomic, chemical and biological weapons. Today, a mobile phone has more computer power than all of NASA did in 1969, when it took two astronauts to the moon."