Ask a theoretical physicist turned teacher, lecturer and author

[Alex K]

You might expect that I mention the usual cosmological phenomena like dark matter or dark energy, but I think what's much more complicated is the behavior of complex and chaotic systems such as high temperature superconductivity. Noted physicist and Nobel laureate Robert Laughlin has written an entire book moaning about how fundamental physics is doomed because we don't understand complex systems. He is wrong about fundamental physics, but it is true that deriving properties of complex systems from the basic laws is very difficult. In the same vainvein, for most controversial, I'd vote for the claim that consciousness is tied to the effects of quantum physics, and that quantum physics plays an essential role in how consciousness arises in the brain. Legendary physicist Roger Penrose has been a famous advocate of that idea. He's wrong though.

Yay! So glad to hear you say that. AI researchers generally just ignore him.

Which is related to a question I was going to ask you. Do you get annoyed with woo-ists, arm chair philosophers and new agey people justifying what they want to believe by explaining it as something to do with quantum mechanics? And is it a big problem with people with absolutely no experience or knowledge of physics thinking that they know a lot about it and arguing with experts who actually do? It certainly is a common occurrence in AI but I think that's because the field is still in its infancy and has so few successes.

Yes, that's highly annoying, and Germany is chock full with medical charlatans who claim to perform or teach Quantum Healing, exploiting the good name of physics to fleece customers. My wife just published an interesting book (as reader for the publisher, not as the author) on the subject.