The uncertainty principle
From physics to philosophy, everything points to embracing unpredictability
With the pandemic raging on, my mind has turned into a hyperactive radio station without an off button. The dominant station relays horrific news all day long. The doom and gloom are interspersed with several other stations that go on and off as per their own whim. There’s a pop station, playing consolingly familiar retro pop, with a preference for Roxette. A soothing nature station, relayed by David Attenborough. Classical music, philosophical wisdom, select memories, and random information. Such a cacophony in these supposedly silent times.
Quantum of solace
In that brief, misleading window between the 2020 Covid wave and its far more virulent 2021 resurgence, we all managed to live some depleted version of regular life. This, for me, involved frenzied visits to whichever bookshops would have me. When Mumbai’s Kitab Khana reopened after a fire, I managed to sneak in on the very first day. Sitting magnetically on a shelf was a slim paperback titled Physics and Philosophy by Werner Heisenberg, the scientist credited with the Uncertainty Principle, which ushered in a revolution of daring new ideas in the fixed world of physics. As Alok Jha explains in The Guardian, “The uncertainty principle says that we cannot measure the position (x) and the momentum (p) of a particle with absolute precision. The more accurately we know one of these values, the less accurately we know the other.”
What a radical departure from classical Newtonian physics and its clear-cut processes and conclusions! Science can be counterintuitive. Mindblowing.
The idea shook the foundations of what we knew about the natural world and has had far-reaching effects on philosophy – and that favourite realm of poets: metaphysics.
Intrepid cooking
All the big truths and realities of the universe somehow get challenged at the subatomic scale. In that “somehow” lies the lure and the enigma of quantum mechanics. Somehow – that beautiful word, again – this is a consoling thought in these brutal, baffling times. In the Covid era, the Uncertainty Principle takes on a whole new meaning. If there’s one thing we’re sure of, it’s that we don’t know. We’re all familiar with Schrodinger’s virus
– the one you have between being tested for Covid and receiving the result. In fact, we now inhabit that fuzzy, grey zone full time – a smoky vagueness where productivity once lived. “I love deadlines. I like the whooshing sound they make as they fly by,” said Douglas Adams, the author who hooked us on to intergalactic
hitchhiking. From doing the laundry to completing one’s novel, the pandemic has turned the days into a crazy airfield where endlessly whooshing deadlines leave you not so much anxious as numb.
I’d say I’m far more comfortable with uncertainty than the average person, and I have my early kitchen experiences to thank for this. Pouring mismatched contents into a messily bubbling Maggi; trying to soften keema with apple cider vinegar; putting dhania into dishes where it doesn’t belong, etc. When you attempt cooking with an intrepid attitude, an allergy to recipes and indifferent instincts, you truly really never know what you’ll get – other than the occasional stomach ache and lifelong revulsions.
IN THE COVID ERA, THE UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE TAKES ON A WHOLE NEW MEANING. IF THERE’S ONE THING WE’RE SURE OF, IT’S THAT WE DON’T KNOW
Just like a prayer
There’s wisdom at the end of this long, dark tunnel we’re all stumbling through together, yet apart. “All things are so very uncertain, and that’s exactly what makes me feel reassured” wrote Tove Jansson, the celebrated Finnish children’s book creator. Somewhat on the lines of that famous literary declaration: “When you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there” – made by the Cheshire Cat to a floundering Alice. (In general, I find the situation is a code red when I feverishly google Alice in Wonderland and Winnie the Pooh quotes to find solace.)
The radio station in my head is now throwing trivia at me like harrowed passengers discarding their PPE after a fraught flight. Do you know, for instance, what the full-form of SCUBA is? (It’s workoutable.) Or which of the two is older, Mumbai’s Taj Mahal Palace Hotel at Apollo Bunder, or The Gateway of India that stands across from it? Or what ‘sesquipedalian’ means? In uncertain times, it’s consoling to brush up on unchanging, unassailable facts, while listening to Madonna at an unholy volume as deadlines whoosh past.