“How little we know of what there is to know. I wish that I were going to live a long time instead of going to die today because I have learned much about life in these four days; more, I think than in all other time. I’d like to be an old man to really know. I wonder if you keep on learning or if there is only a certain amount each man can understand. I thought I knew so many things that I know nothing of. I wish there was more time.” ― Ernest Hemingway, For Whom The Bell Tolls Knowledge is not something that you possess. It is a flowing river of information that runs over you, under you, and through you. What you know now is only in this moment, and in the next, you will become something different. We are not computers, geniuses, or masterminds of any kind. We are observers being swept along through time’s currents and though we have a pen, paper, and maybe a camera to record what we see, ultimate we can only know what is right in front of us, and everything else is fleeting. Sorry if I made your head spin there, but that’s the kind of thought I had today when I was reading about the concepts of quantum entanglement and more importantly, a recent breakthrough in the field. Until this morning, I was fairly certain I knew how the world worked. Not in a profound and scientific way, mind you, but a lofty kind of understanding that made me feel, I don’t know, comfortable. Then I read this, and suddenly I was uprooted from my place under the tree of knowledge. It started raining apples and it was all I could do not to run for cover. We are not the owners of knowledge my friends, we are simply custodians of its gifts and temporary tenants of the information therein. What we know now will be challenged, changed, and turned into something else entirely. Nothing is set in stone and we need to accept the fact that every discovery, every breakthrough, and every step we take forward is nothing more than the shuffling gait of a toddler taking their first steps. Alright Confucius, What’s The Point Here? On a very basic level which is fueled by my minimal understanding of the concept, quantum entanglement represents a phenomenon where two particles become “entangled” at which point they suddenly become exact copies of one another. Whatever characteristics they had individually are now gone. They exist as a single identity and what’s more, if you change something about one of them, the other one mimics the change instantaneously, no matter how far apart they are. This change happens so quickly that is completely ignores the laws of space and time. It literally occurs without a single measurable increment of delay. Einstein actually first explored this phenomenon, but he didn’t think it was possible. He called it “spooky action at a distance.” … Read More