8. Delayed Choice

In the previous post, we discovered that how we look at things actually determines what they are. But does it also determine what they were?

One of the most incredible discoveries of all time, is actually a very little known, weird kind of fact. Almost quirky.

When electrons pass through a barrier with two slits, you can choose to observe them as waves, in which case they went through both slits, or as particles in which case they went through only one.

Let's get into this for a minute. One of the implications of this discovery is that once you observe the electron as a wave, it was a wave all the way back to when it was emitted from the electron gun. Similarly if you chose to observe it as a particle, it was a particle not only at the time of observation, but retroactively all the way back to its origin.

"Whoa!" Says the logical brain. "How can it be that an observation I make now is changing things earlier? It makes no sense. There must be some mistake here."

But there is no mistake. In 1978, physicist John Wheeler concocted a thought experiment to test this time-travel effect observers have on quantum systems, and lo-and-behold by 1984 it was proven in the lab and replicated dozens of times since. Today there is no doubt about it. Observer choices made now determine the history of particles in the past, whether it's nanoseconds, minutes, or millennia ago.

And it's not just a matter of proton here and a neutron there. The entire cosmos is made of this stuff, so it turns out that any observations and all observations share this remarkable property. We recreate all of history and even pre-history just by opening our eyes in the morning!

In Judaic terms it's not all that strange. Jews celebrate the renewal of the universe every day in their morning prayers, "hamechadesh b'tuvo b'chol yom tamid, maaseh b'raisheet" which speaks of the Creator's "daily, constant renewal of the work of Creation." And all of that is because of us, as the Mishna states that every individual is obliged to say, "bishvili nivra ha'olam – For my sake was the world created."

But this whole retroactive reality business has an even a deeper spiritual significance. It refers to the power of teshuvah, repentance, or more accurately return, restoration.

With the approach of the Jewish New Year, also known as the Day of Judgment, we all have some fixing up to do. But in this there are different levels. There's a kind of restoration that rights a wrong, repays a debt, gets us back to level ground. But then there's another, higher mode of teshuvah, where negatives get transformed to positives. A teshuvah where errors become assets, where even intentional sins become merits. Where darkness is transformed to light.

And here's where photons can illuminate our spiritual life as well. By choosing to return in the best possible way, we demonstrate to our Creator that we are in tune with the possibility of reinventing ourselves, of transcending sustainability, surpassing even tikkun olam, achieving a perfection within ourselves and the world.

It's all a matter of how you look at it.

Further reading:
Likutei Amarim – Tanya, Part 1, Ch.7