Wednesday, August 8, 2018

Why Can't I Be In Two Places?

I have never seen a vase, car, book, pillow, or other material object occupy two separate spatial areas at once.  On a “normal” scale, all objects I have observed behave just like my body: they only reside in one point of space at a time.  If subatomic particles can exist in multiple areas simultaneously, as has been reported with electrons, why can’t I do the same?

By nature of what it is, my body is restricted to inhabiting only one spatial location at a given time.  I cannot will my body to duplicate itself or to coexist in multiple spatial areas.  In one sense, though, it is not wholly surprising to me that subatomic matter does not necessarily behave exactly like my body does.  It does not follow from my body being shackled to one place by spatial limitations that electrons are too, and it does not follow from an electron occupying multiple spaces that my body can as well.

The fallacy of composition invalidates any argument claiming the contrary.  What is true of the part is not necessarily true of the whole: scientific uniformitarianism is not logically necessary.  The only thing that governs the entirety of matter, at the "normal" or quantum level, is logic alone.  Thus, there is nothing intrinsically bizarre about subatomic particles existing in multiple places even though I can only be in one place.  It is the fact that this is so foreign to ordinary human experiences that strikes some as abnormal.

I have no way of knowing if subatomic particles appear in two places simultaneously because I have never directly observed the quantum realm.  Taking the word of scientists is a stance of faith contrary to reason, yet reports of such phenomena can be easily accessed via the internet.  The quantum realm appears to defy many expectations grounded in scientific observation of the "normal" scale of ordinary life, and yet there is nothing irrational, impossible, or inherently strange about this.

Why can't I be in two places at once?  Just because subatomic particles can do so does not mean that the same is true of my body as a collective unit of matter.  This disparity might seem jarring, but it only seems so unusual because human existence locks humans into a particular scale.  Accumulated experiences of a particular type can make experiences that do not fit the status quo seem abnormal, though, as far as scientific laws go, there is not necessarily anything "normal" about how matter behaves, only something normal about the behavior of matter with respect to a specific perspective.

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