The quantum world is different from the world you intuitively (and intellectually) understand. Very, very different. We know that the quantum physics (QP) works, in the sense that it can explain and predict observable phenomena, and in that sense it is certainly a good description of the physical reality. We know how to -compute- things using its mathematical apparatus, but no one really understands it at the same intuitive level as, say, classical physics, or even relativity. Feynman himself said so, so it must be right ;)
To many people this is profoundly troubling. We map physical systems, the whole universe included, into mathematical descriptions,and that works within some degree of accuracy, and then a deeper theory does it better, and so on. But mathematics is not physics, and mathematical concepts are not the same as the physical objects they describe.
This matters, not only because we want to understand the world, but also because QP is inherently probabilistic, and implies both some profound limitations of what can be known (e.g., via the Heisenberg's uncertainty principle), and possibly even that the world (not just the theory) is inherently probabilistic.
The debate has been going on from the very start, with people like Einstein, Bohr, etc. deeply involved, and it is still going on. For a recent dustup, see, e.g., this blog and follow the links.
To learn more, start with the Wikipedia article and follow the links therein. Also, look for the EPR pradox, Bell's theorem, and Bell test experiments.
Then let's talk about it.
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