(January 29, 2015 at 11:38 am)bennyboy Wrote: Really? So it is your position that the top of the desk in front of me is a single, solid surface, rather than a collection of a gazillion QM wavefunctions vibrating in space?What you have presented is a false dichotomy; the desktop is both. Understanding the mechanics of its constituent parts doesn't make the desktop any less solid; in fact, it explains it. The fact that we can't directly perceive the constituent parts can be explained via evolutionary biology and the scale of the environment in which we evolved. Not being able to directly perceive atomic or sub-atomic particles does not mean that their existence, interactions, and effects on higher level assemblies cannot be known with a high level of confidence.
Tell me, how sure are you that QM particles exist, and what is your basis for being sure (assuming you are)?
Regarding the second question: are you really asking for the history and demonstration of the efficacy of QM? Or are you poking around the concept of justified true belief?
