Is the strageness of quantum mechanics necessary for the universe to operate?

Question

Could stars and planets exist if sub atomic particles were simple indivisible particles with no wave/particle duality and light was a simple wave, or is there some underlying reason why the strageness of quantum mechanics is necessary

Answer 1

Good question. I don't think the universe had to turn out the way it has and still is, but I do know that the large scale world we call "reality" is derived from quantum mechanical principles. Quantum mechanics is not as strange as people think if you can visualize its logic properly. We as human beings are just barely reaching the surface of knowledge to be learned about our universe, so don't be disappointed if you can't find an exact answer to you're question.

Answer 2

I'm sure if you tried hard enough you could come up with a set of physical laws and particles with classical properties that could evolve into stuff kinda like what we see, and run it on a computer or something. Things might have to be somewhat contrived here and there and you'd need godlike control over initial conditions to make it work, though. Such experiments have been performed with super-simple digital universes to study the basic mechanisms of evolution, for example. Quantum strangeness, though, is likely necessary for such a thing to occur naturally and spontaneously. It's been suggested by Paul Davies, for example, that indeterminacy is required for a natural solution to the fine tuning problem of universal constants.

Answer 3

Quantum Mechanics is a theory, it is strange to us because it operates counterintuitively. However, a theory is not necessary for the universe to operate, a theory is merely put forth as an attempt to explain observations and predict behavior. The observations require such explanations for they are counterintuitive themselves. But the things being observed do exist, and as such the universe is 'strange'.

Quantum Mechanics has been astoundingly accurate in its predictions of our 'strange' universe, and we should not discount it because it is 'weird'. Remember that the idea the Earth was round was once considered a counterintuitive statement. The universe is 'strange' and as such our theories must be too.