Quantum mechanics is not weird

In my two previous postings State vector collapse? and Spooky action at a distance? I have talked (ranted?) at some length about commonplace misunderstandings of quantum mechanics. I find the awe in which QM is held to be quite annoying. It is described using words like "spooky" or "weird" or "mysterious", which are used by journalists and scientists alike. Remember the parrot cartoon? Yes, this is another example that is very aptly described by that cartoon.

QM has been around since 1925. How long does it have to be around before people accept it as is? Why should anything about the universe be called "weird"? The only explanation for this behaviour is that we start with a prior prejudice that those phenomena that are directly accessible to us via our senses are representative of all phenomena in the universe. When we unearth something that is not directly accessible to our senses, we therefore register surprise if it does not fit into our "standard" intuitive understanding that serves us so well for those phenomena that are directly accessible to our senses.

One of the benefits of a scientific education is that it extends one's standard intuition into areas that were not previously accessible. QM is just one example where one's intuition needs to be built up from almost no prior intuitive understanding of QM. At first, QM will seem weird because it behaves in ways that are very dfferent from standard intuition. But once one has understood that one's standard intuition must be limited in scope, it is easy to open one's mind up to the novel features of QM, and thus to achieve an "extended" (i.e. "standard" plus the extra bits needed to incorporate QM) intuition.

Of course, there are also people who love things that don't fit into their standard intuition, because they are then things to be worshipped rather than to be understood. QM is a perfect candidate for these people, because they see QM as having a mystical favour that eludes direct comprehension. Certainly QM eludes standard intuition, but that doesn't mean that QM is mystical.

So, QM is not weird, provided that you are humble enough to acknowledge that the standard intuition (e.g. common sense) that you develop using your standard senses (e.g. eyes, ears, etc) is necessarily limited to the sorts of phenomena that they can sense. You need to use entended sensing apparatus (e.g. laboratory apparatus) in order to build an extended intuition (e.g. feeling for QM).