How to ruin your life with quantum physics

Disclaimer

This is a talk I presented to the Theosophical Society…a fact that will become relevant by the end.

First, the title is a joke. So, if you came here for life-ruining advice, sorry. It’s quite the opposite, in fact — I will try to convey some life-affirming advice from quantum physics.

The popular premise of a “lecture” is that an expert will expound on facts that convey profound truths one can only distill through a lifetime of study. But when people speak, you are listening to their opinions, not facts from a secret tome they have deciphered. Granted, listening to experts' views is a much wiser option than listening to random internet influencers. So, good choice. But know that, upfront, these are my opinions. I have decades of professional experience in quantum physics, but I’m not going to give the textbook description of it that you can find anywhere — I’m going to give you the personal lessons I have learned because I think, like you, I went all the way down the rabbit hole of quantum physics searching for one thing: truth.

Who am I?

So, who am I, and why is that important? The interpretation of a speaker’s message is influenced by a complex interplay of factors, including the listener and speaker’s implicit biases, social context, past…