Preface

Summary

And they said one to another: Go to, let us build us a tower, whose top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name. And the Lord said: Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech.

(Genesis 11: 3–7)

Anyone who has taken part in a debate on the interpretation of quantum theory will recognise how fitting is the above quotation from the book of Genesis, according to which the builders of the Tower of Babel found that they could no longer understand one another's speech. For when it comes to the interpretation of quantum theory, even the most clear-thinking and capable physicists are often unable to understand each other.

This state of affairs dates back to the genesis of quantum theory itself. In October 1927, during the ‘general discussion’ that took place in Brussels at the end of the fifth Solvay conference, Paul Ehrenfest wrote the above lines on the blackboard. As Langevin later remarked, the Solvay meeting in 1927 was the conference where ‘the confusion of ideas reached its peak’.

Ehrenfest's perceptive gesture captured the essence of a situation that has persisted for three-quarters of a century. According to widespread historical folklore, the deep differences of opinion among the leading physicists of the day led to intense debates, which were satisfactorily resolved by Bohr and Heisenberg around the time of the 1927 Solvay meeting.