logo

Quotes About Elementary processes

The general opinion in theoretical physics had accepted the idea that the principle of continuity ("natura non facit saltus"), prevailing in the microsoptic world, is merely simulated by an averaging process in a world which in truth is discontinuous by its very nature. This simulation is such that a man generally percieves the sum of many billions of elementary processes simultaneously, so that the leveling law of large numbers completely obscures the real nature of the individual processes.
~ John von Neumann
The world described by the theory is thus further distanced from the one with which we are familiar. There is no longer space that "contains" the world, and there is no longer time "in which" events occur. There are only elementary processes wherein quanta of space and matter continually interact with one another.
~ Carlo Rovelli
Non c'è più lo spazio che «contiene» il mondo e non c'è più il tempo «lungo il quale» avvengono gli eventi. Ci sono solo processi elementari dove quanti di spazio e materia interagiscono tra loro in continuazione. L'illusione dello spazio e del tempo continui attorno a noi è la visione sfocata di questo fitto pullulare di processi elementari.
~ Carlo Rovelli