“If you think you understand quantum physics, you don’t understand it,” said famed physicist Richard Feynman once upon a time. This branch of physics humbles even those with the highest IQs. It requires a level of abstract thinking that even the greatest minds of our civilization can sometimes find frustrating when trying to unravel this field.
For decades, quantum mechanics (QM) has been synonymous with something “strange,” “magical,” or fundamentally “incomprehensible.” Most mortals have had to accept phenomena such as superposition or entanglement as dogma. In the pathological world, it seems that common sense simply shuts down. But what if this supposed “magic” were actually a simple logical misunderstanding? There is an Argentine figure willing to challenge this myth that physics is too difficult for ordinary human beings.
Alejandro A. Hnilo has a proposal that could restore coherence to quantum physics. According to him, the strangeness we see in physics is not a problem with nature, but with the logic we use to interpret it. To prove this, Mr. Hnilo proposes classical Euclidean geometry.
The Double Paradox
Quantum mechanics is simply the branch of physics that describes how the universe works on the smallest scale… The world of atoms and particles. At this level, things behave in ways that are completely unexpected to our human logic. The most famous phenomenon is called “entanglement.”
This involves two linked particles that, even when separated by light years, continue to act as if they were one. And when we measure a property of particle A, particle B immediately acquires the opposite property. This strange behavior forced physicists to consider a dilemma based on experiments inspired by Bell’s inequalities.
Quantum mechanics forces science to abandon one of the principles we consider untouchable: realism. This principle holds that the properties of objects exist and are defined before anyone measures them. For example, the moon is there, orbiting the Earth, even if we do not look at it or if it is a new moon.
The second principle is locality: it implies that no one can influence something faster than the speed of light. Entangled particles influence each other instantaneously at a distance, violating the principle of locality. If their properties did not exist before measurement, realism is violated. This is the famous mystery that baffled even Albert Einstein.
Hnilo’s Geometric Solution
Mr. Hnilo’s breakthrough focuses on the language we use. For centuries, physics has relied on classical Boolean logic, which states that a proposition can only be true (1) or false (0). Hnilo argues that this binary logic is inadequate and insufficient to describe the subtle relationships that govern the quantum world. In other words, we humans unknowingly restrict ourselves with the linguistic limits we use to operate.
As an alternative, Hnilo proposes using non-Boolean conditional logic based on visual and geometric representations. This uses vectors in a classic 3D space; that is, the same Euclidean geometry we learn in school.
In this model, a quantum property or proposition is visualized as a vector. The “truth value” is no longer absolute, but conditional.
The system only accepts the proposition as true if the vector representing it exceeds a certain threshold or satisfies a geometric condition. By applying this simple “vector threshold logic,” the results are better. With this model, it is possible to successfully reproduce the strangest experimental results, such as the GHZ theorem and the Kochen-Specker theorem.
What is important is that it does so without abandoning realism in the locality. The mystery of quantum mechanics is not solved with magic, but by changing the lens through which we view reality. Just like Mägo de Oz’s Emerald City, it’s all a matter of having the right glasses.