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Chapter 40: Entanglement by Any Other Name is Still EPR I spent Christmas break with Mrs. W.

She had adopted a dog, a small, high-energy Jack Russell Terrier she named Monty, after her favorite movie actor, Montgomery Clift. It was cold and snowy so I assumed responsibility for walking him. On our walks he would return to me when whistled and would freeze in his tracks if I said anything in a loud voice, like stop! yo! or dammit, Monty! It didnt matter what I said, hed stop and look at me sheepishly. After I yelled, if we needed to cross a street hed wait until I could catch up and wed cross together, Monty wagging his tail. If I was ready to go a different direction than hed taken Id whistle and clap my hands and hed come running. A good dog. As soon as we got back to the house, though, hed look at me and wag his tail as if to say thanks, then trot off in search of Mrs. W. He was a good dog, but he wasnt my dog. On Christmas morning Mrs. W and I exchanged presents and had gotten each other the exact same present. Each of us had gotten the other a black cashmere scarf from Brooks Brothers. I had asked Ginny on the drive down what to get her, and shed recommended a cashmere scarf. Im not sure Id ever heard of cashmere before. I have to admit that, expensive as it was, it was seductively soft. The winter jacket I was wearing at the time was a World War II-era leather pilots jacket, and warm as it was when I walked Monty, the cashmere scarf seemed a little posh for the likes of me. A few days after Christmas, Stoney and Michael showed up again. Mrs. W. was glad to see them, of course, but at first they didnt intend to stay long. I think they were headed to Sea Island, Georgia, where one family or the other had a vacation home, and they were just intending to spend one night and then head on south in the morning. But it snowed overnight, and when I awoke the light through my bedroom window had that blue look it does when its snowed in Tnnessee and the skys still overcast. I could smell coffee and bacon and something else warm in the air as soon as I woke up. I brushed my teeth, pulled on my pants, and went downstairs. Stoney in his pajamas and Mrs. W. in her bathrobe were looking at the paper, just like the old days. They both smiled. Stoney pointed at the coffee pot and I poured myself a cup. Lots of bacon was drying on a piece of newspaper next to the stove. I snagged a piece and sipped my coffee. Nobody said anything, but Stoney handed me the front page section of the paper as I sat down at the kitchen table. I noticed there was a Pyrex bowl of batter next to the stove. Home. Id never felt that so strongly before, and never have since. A few minutes later Stoney and Mrs. W. both lit cigarettes at about the same time, and Stoney topped off all our coffee cups. Nobody had said anything, but we were all at home. We exchanged newspaper sections. After about twenty minutes Michael came down, shaved, combed, dressed, and ready for the day. Before speaking he went to Stoney and kissed his forehead. Stoney smiled. Bonjour, Henri. Bonjour the Divine Miss W, said Michael. I know thats inverted, but you know what I mean.

Mrs. W. smiled at him with a confused look in her eyes. Morning, Michael, she said. Sleep well? Like a baby, yes, maam, he said. Thanks so much for the hospitality. She smiled and went back to the sports section. Sweetie, Im thinking were not going to make it to Brunswick1 today, he said. Its just snow, said Stoney. We dont deal with snow as well here as they do in Detroit, said Mrs. W. They wont clear the interstate today, and may not clear the local roads tomorrow. We generally wait for it to melt off. How civilized, said Stoney. Pancakes? Michael kissed his forehead again and took his seat as Stoney stood to cook. The pancakes were perfect, of course. Afterwards Stoney poured us all another cup of coffee and he and Mrs. W. fired up cigarettes as Michael and I cleaned up. He ate breakfast without making a fuss about how he never does, said Stoney, softly, but not whispering. I know. I noticed, she answered. Michael shot a glance at me. I shrugged. Have you socialized him in some way the rest of us have failed to do? Stoney asked. He seems to understand quantum mechanics now. Maybe thats changed his world-view. They were kidding, and Im not sure if they knew I could hear them. Well, I sure as hell dont, said Stoney, still softly. Im okay with Newton, but I picked up one of Michaels EE books the other day and it went into the wavefunction and I had no idea what they were talking about. And when Michael tried to explain I just got deeper into the weeds. Why does Michael need to know wavefunction? she asked. Michael and I looked at each other, kind of taken aback and amused that they were talking about us as though we werent there. Hes an electrical engineer. After we graduate, hes going to work for Hewlett Packard in San Jose, California. They make those expensive little calculators that are so smart, said Mrs. W.
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Brunswick is a south Georgia coastal town about five miles from Sea Island. Port City Billiards is in Brunswick. So is the Georgia Pig, a barbecue joint. They do pork barbecue in Georgia about as well as it can be done.

Right. And right now, according to what they told Michael, their calculators are based on what are called integrated circuits, but what they want to do is move towards something called microchips that will be smaller and cheaper and use less current but theyre so small they run into quantum rules. Okay, said Mrs. W. Like I said, I dont understand quantum mechanics, but Michael does, and apparently electrons work a lot like photons and engineers at Intel and Hewlett Packard are a few years older and dont really understand quantum. Intel? she asked. Transistor manufacturer, I think, said Stoney. Michael looked at me and shook his head. So Michaels been doubling down on his engineering physics. So what are you doing post-grad? she asked. Michael cocked an ear. Ive applied to Stanfords Ph.D. program, he said. Robert Osserman is one of my oldest friends, said Mrs. W. Im sorry, who? asked Stoney. I heard Mrs. W. light another cigarette off of her Zippo. Hes the chairman of the Mathematics department at Stanford, she said. Oh, Dr. W., he said. I would love to get into Stanford. With your grades and your smarts I dont think you need any help, she said, but Ill call tomorrow and see. It was Sunday. Oh, Dr. W. It would mean so much to Michael and me. Youre family, she said. Michael and I were through washing up but werent sure what to do. They were having what seemed to be a very private conversation, but wed heard every word. He kind of shrugged and opened his hands and his mouth opened and he shook his head as though to communicate that he wasnt sure what to do. I wasnt sure what to answer. I shook my head. We turned around and made noise so theyd know we were listening again. After breakfast we all took a walk in the snow together, Monty bounding around excitedly. Frankly walks in the snow arent as exciting to me as they are to most people who grew up in the south. My toes get cold and go numb really fast. Its pretty, but thats what picture windows are for.

Stoney made a lentil soup and a sweet kind of cornbread for lunch, not a combination Ive ever had before but it was good, and we spent most of the afternoon with Mrs. W. and Michael trying to teach Stoney and me how to play bridge. The sun came out for a few minutes, but then it began snowing again, leading to speculation about when Stoney and Michael would be able to leave. That night Stoney cooked beef stroganoff, I think both because there was frozen round steak and sour cream in the refrigerator and because he knew Mrs. W. loved it. After dinner Michael and I cleaned up and Mrs. W. talked to Stoney a bout his educational goals. Stoney loved pure math but wasnt sure he had the temperament to teach, so he wasnt sure about a career. We finished cleaning up and theyd reached a lull in their conversation. What do they usually do now? he whispered into my ear. Drink, I said. His face lit up and he smiled dramatically. He hugged me briefly. All right, ladies, I am taking drink orders, he said, turning. Why thank you Michael, said Mrs. W. Theres a bottle of Armagnac in the front pantry, its hard to read but Oh, I can read French, said Michael. But thanks. Comin right up. Stonewall dearest? I think a little B&B, said Stoney, after a few seconds of reflection. Mrs. W. smiled. Youre welcome to a little of the Armangac, she said. I think I want something sweet, said Stoney, and placed a long Winston between his lips. Henri? he asked me. Mrs. W. and Stoney looked at me expectantly, which was a little surprising. Thanks, but I dont drink, I said to Michael. Everybody was looking at me funny. What? I asked, looking at Stoney and Mrs. W., who hadnt realized they were staring at me. Well, a few of your attitudes seem to have changed, said Mrs. W., after a pause. It was possible youd taken up drinking. Michael understood that I did not want a drink and left in search of B&B and Armagnac. I made myself a fresh glass of ice water. So, Henry, Ive been meaning to ask, said Mrs. W. Hows your checkerboard these days? Michael returned with two bottles and three glasses. In that brief amount of

time, hed managed to find a blown crystal brandy snifter, two tiny cut crystal liqueur glasses, the B&B, and a bottle of Armangac. Fast work. What brought that up? I asked. You seem different, she said. Has anything else changed? She and Stoney looked at me attentively, smoking on their cigarettes as Michael poured drinks. Like what? I asked. A girlfriend, maybe? she asked. No, I said. May I say without overmuch emphasis that since Stoney had changed from a lush who had sex with underaged foreign teenaged girls to a happy gay man who subsisted on thimbles of liqueur it seemed to me that focusing conversation on the changes in me seemed a little out of place, but we were all friends. Stoney looked at me dubiously. Henry, youre never in your room Sunday mornings, and Beatrizs door is always locked, said Stoney. Mrs. W. gave me a surprised, semi-happy look. Oh, gosh. No. Beatriz and I are just friends, I said. Stoney shrugged as if to suggest he wasnt sure he was buying it. So where are you every Sunday morning? asked Mrs. W. Ciscos been making me go to church, I said. What? Mrs. W., Stoney and Michael all said at once. I have been going to church with Cisco, I said, slowly. Ciscos a born-again Christian? asked Michael. With all the girls he f um, dates? he asked, glancing at Mrs. W. No, hes Catholic. Thats the point. They all looked at me, mystified. He says Im extremely Catholic and just happened to be raised in a Protestant household. I didnt believe him, so he started making me go to church. And? asked Mrs. W. I thought. Yeah, I guess I kind of like it, I said. The whole faith deal is a little out of my league, but I fit in there. There was a kind of stunned silence. Henry, I knew you had it in you but I didnt know youd find it, said Mrs. W.

I dont think Ive found anything, I said. Im just tagging along with Cisco. Theres no road to Damascus for me. No scales will be falling from any eyes. Im just tagging along with Cisco. Where, by the way, he manages to pick up girls even in the peace be with you deal. Hes truly amazing as a pickup artist, said Michael. Ive seen him do it. So how is your Catholic checkerboard holding up? Mrs. W. asked. Im not a Catholic. I just tag along with Cisco, I said. Henry plays checkers? Michael asked. He topped off the glasses. No, its an analogy, said Stoney. Henry sees the rules of the cosmos as following a regular pattern, and his mental image of that pattern is a regular checkerboard with nearly infinitely tiny squares, stretching off in all directions. Only Henry sees that there are occasionally small problems, places where the rules dont work, where the checkerboard doesnt match up because two patterns were started on inconsistent squares or in different colors. So the pattern of the universe has some flaws and aberrations, where the laws and principles of the cosmos appear to be violated. There are ripples and flaws and inconsistencies that can be observed if you look closely enough. Is that about it? he asked, speaking not to me but to Mrs. W. I think so, but I think Henry can visualize this in three dimensions. I can follow, but I can only see it in two, she said. Michael nodded. Three works, Michael said. Interesting analogy. Whoa, said Stoney. So the question was whether your Catholic self sees the checkerboard any differently, but I think the real question is whether your quantum self sees it any differently, Michael said. Mrs. W and Stoney looked at me speculatively. Things are so much worse, I said. Youre right. I used to see little things that didnt add up and think they were the result of tiny aberrations in Newtonian mechanics but now I have to think of them as possibly the aggregations of millions of waveform calculations stacking up in a way that is imponderably improbable to create a change in the observable universe. So my checkerboard isnt really even a checkerboard any more. If you look at any particular square, it may not even be solid, its made up of thousands of tiny dots or holes or patterns that are too small to see even with an electron microscope. So its all far more complicated than can be imagined. There was a pause. One of the possible outcomes here was that theyd all think I was stark raving mad. And you see this in your head in three dimensions? Stoney asked, lighting another cigarette and taking a tiny little sip of his B&B.

Yeah, sure, I said. Pull back enough and its just shapes and colors. Close in its just squares and cubes. The problem is when you close in some more the cubes and squares start to dissolve into something insubstantial. So? Stoney asked. The world is substantial, not insubstantial. As an analogy that informs all aspects of ones life, this one now appears to be lacking, and I have no other to take its place. Okay, said Mrs. W., after a pause. Im going to tell you a story. Its why I gave up Physics and stuck to Math. I met Albert in 1931. He was in and out of Caltech in the thirties, and I was at Berkeley, so whenever he was in Pasadena I would go down for a visit. Albert Einstein? I asked. She nodded. And you knew him as Albert? asked Stoney. She nodded again and lit a new cigarette. The last one was still burning in the ashtray, although almost gone. Ive heard he had an eye for the ladies, said Michael, and damned if Mrs. W. didnt seem to blush. Maybe it was just her mannerisms. Stoney discretely held up a hand as if to say shush for now, well talk about this later, and Michael good-naturedly poured another splash of brandy into Mrs. W.s glass. The journal we all read in those days, about Physics, anyway, was called Physical Review. I was up at Berkeley and in October of 1935 Albert published an article with these children I didnt know named Podolsky and RosenI presume they were research assistants at Princeton, called Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Reality Be Considered Complete? Michael looked at me intently, and I nodded. Wed heard of this. It took a few days for it to be my turn to read itthere was no Internet in those days of course and not even Xerox machines, but when I did I was amazed. Albert, or whoever wrote it, because there were words in that article that Id bet my left ventricle Albert didnt know, pointed out that the quantum rules allowed for well, its hard to describe, but we called it non-locality. Dont follow, Stoney said. Okay. So you remember Heisenberg, she said. You cant observe something without changing it, Stoney said. More simply, you can never know both the velocity and the location of a quantum particle at the same time. But youre right. The practical effect of this is that whatever energy is added to a system to measure either the location or velocity of a particle always changes one or both, she answered.

Okay. So say you create a bunch of photons all at once. A light beam, she said. Like a laser? Stoney asked. Yes, but no, she said. We didnt have lasers back then. No. Say you excite a bunch of phosphorus or sodium atoms to the point where they emit light and then focus that light through a lens. Okay, said Stoney. So youve got a beam of light created by the same chemical reaction. Theyre all identical photons. Okay, said Stoney, again. And then you pass the beam through a half-silvered mirror, so that half of them fly off in one direction and half of them fly off in another. Ahem, said Michael. We all looked at him as though he were interrupting something important. Yes? she said, quizzically. We may have left something out of the story, said Michael. What? Mrs. W. asked. Do you know about wave/particle duality? Michael asked Stoney. Oh, shit, youre right! said Mrs. W. I know that light sometimes appears to be particles and sometimes seems to be a wave, said Stoney. It started with Heisenbergyou know Heisenberg? We just mentioned him a minute ago, she said. You can know the location or the velocity of a particle but not both, Stony recited. I did go to high school. Just so. But Schrdinger took Heisenberg further on and developed what we call the wavefunction. In quantum, light appears to be a wave almost all the time. You can do experiments where two beams of light getting to the same place from different windows

cancel each other out just like ripples on a pond or sound waves. They make very wavelike interference patterns. But the instant you look at itobserve it or measure it in any way, it immediately becomes a particle, Michael said. Is that how they teach it now? Mrs. W. asked. Sure, said Michael. She looked at me. I nodded. Yes, maam. Why? I asked. Its just the terminology. I would have said that light appears to be a wave before observation and appears to be a particle after observation, she said. Interesting, I said. Were taught that thats a distinction without a difference, Michael said. She looked at me. I kind of shrugged. The verbiage they teach us wouldnt be much different, I said. Actually a physicist wouldnt be able to grasp the idea that a distinction didnt result in a difference but I didnt want to get into the whole physics/engineering deal with Michael. Hes a nice guy, and they always think were looking down at them. But there is a difference. And thats what Albert was talking about, she said. In what? Stoney asked. Physical Review. May of 1935. The journal for physics. We looked forward to every edition. The Department had one subscription and the library had another. The professors would all hand the departmental copy back and forth, so the grad students would go read the one in the library. A lot of times youd get there and see a friend in the reference area and youd just turn around and leave because you knew what he was reading. But in May of 1935 this article came out by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen that Im talking about. Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of Reality Be Considered Complete? The EPR? asked Michael. EPR? Mrs. W. frowned and lit another Benson & Hedges. Sorry for interrupting, please tell the story, said Michael, as soon as he could see she didnt follow his question. Go back to the example, she said. Youve got all these photons created by the same reaction, all identical, some of them going one way and some of them going another because of the half-silvered mirror. What Albert realizedand honestly, Albert didnt

write this. They were his graduate assistants or something, but Albert couldnt carry on a complicated conversation about anything other than Physics in English. My bet is that Podolsky wrote it and Rosen spiffed up his English, although eigenfunction made it into the final draft, she said. Even I know eigenfunction, said Stoney. Really? But you know German, too, she said, doubtfully. Ja, aber ich erfuhr von Eigenfunktionen in einem standard-Math-Klasse. Es ist ein linearer Operator-Funktion. Ich denke an ihn als einen Weg, um Vibrationen zu suchen, Stoney said. Michael and I looked at each other and shrugged. In Ordung, she said, and shrugged. Okay, so what did the paper say? Stoney asked. Albert pointed out that if you had two photons, two systems, he called them, with a common origin, like Ive described, that the two particles could violate the rules of physics. Under Heisenberg, you can never know both the velocity and location of a particle. And under Schrdinger, as soon as you measure a wave, it turns into a particle. What Albert, or Podolsky, or whoever, noticed, was that if you have these entertwined particles that were created by the same reaction and split apart by whatever means, if you measured one and then observed it as a particle you would have the exact same information about the intertwined particle. So, what? Whatever you knew about one you would know about the other. Would measuring one of the two waves cause the other of the two to turn into a particle, too? And if it did, what if the two particles were miles apart? Wouldnt the instantaneous change in the second particle violate Relativity? If the change is instantaneous no matter how far apart the particles are, the adage about the speed of light being an absolute doesnt look so good. It was just crazy. She took a drag from her cigarette and took a sip of her brandy, then propped her chin on her hand forlornly. The only time I got to speak about this stuff with Albert it was just for a few minutes, when we had other things on our minds. But he called the problem spooky action at a distance. She smiled and stubbed out her cigarette. Whys that? Stoney asked. He reached for the B&B bottle, then noticed that Mrs. W.s snifter was empty, and poured her another drink. Im not sure Id ever seen her drink this much before. We now call this issue non-locality, said Michael. At the time, people thought that all of physics was localthat there was no way to influence events in one place from another without some direct linka presence, a string, a wire, a radio wave. If measuring a wave in one place caused a wave in another place to immediately collapse into a particle, this is called a non-local event, and scientists at the time considered it implausible.

Not just implausible, impossible! said Mrs. W. Our science was physics, for Christs sake, which means the study of physical reality. An action taken in one place cant cause a result in change in another place without any communication. Its absurd. If I slam my fist down on the table here, and she did, it doesnt cause somebodys table to shake in Shanghai. Michael looked at me with a worried expression. I gave him a surreptitious sign like a first base umpire might give waving off an appeal of a no swing call from a catcher. Michael nodded. She continued, still agitated: Everybody knew Albert, Dr. Bohr, Schrodinger, all those Copenhagen boyseverybody knew that nonlocality was simply impossible, and if the mechanics allowed for it, something was wrong. There wasnt a doubt in anyones mind. Michael filled his tiny glass to the brim with B&B and drained it back in a gulp, then looked at the carpet with a speculative, worried look. If nothing else, it would violate the speed of light, she said. True, it does, said Michael. Mrs. W. didnt notice his phrasing. How did everyone react to the article? Michael asked. Stoney stood. Be right back, he said. I assumed he was going to the restroom but he returned shortly with a brandy snifter like Mrs. W.s. At first, it was fun, she said. The problem with quantum mechanics is that ever since Heisinger and Schrodinger, it works so well. Even if you dont understand why it works, all those little probabilities describe the way particles work and interact and stick together very well. Even those of us who think its incomplete or lacking agree on that. Stoney had poured himself a generous glass of Armagnac. Why is it incomplete if it works? Michael asked. Well, just because something works doesnt mean its right. Archimedes knew when the sun was gonna come up. He knew where the planets and stars would be and could predict eclipses of the sun and moon. Aristotles system, as it got elaborated over the years, was remarkably good at predicting astronomical events. So? Well, Hell, Michael, they all thought the Earth was the center of the Solar System. Physics needs to be about reality. I love math and like it that its not rooted in reality Ich gre dich fr diesen Gedanken, said Stoney, raising his glass. Toast. Mrs. W. clinked her glass to his and they both took a swallow. I guess Im too much of an engineer, said Michael. To me, if the equations and the tables in the books keep the bridges from collapsing and the generators working, Im good. I kind of just want to know that it works. If somebody I trust tells me it works, or if I know industrys been relying on it for dozens, or hundreds, of years, I dont necessarily need to look behind that.

Mrs. W. likes to understand why the calculations work, said Stoney. Somebody wise once said that there was no more common error than to assume that because accurate and prolonged mathematical calculations have been made that the application of the result to some fact of nature is completely certain, said Stoney. Michael nodded with an equivocal expression. Stoney, that was Whitehead, and he was a moron, said Mrs. W. Really? Stoney asked, swallowing some brandy and reaching for his Winstons. Well, he was smart, but he was an idiot. Complete ankle-biter. Read him if you want, but everything he got famous for was philosophical speculations on Alberts theories, and he really couldnt do the math. You and Henry and Im sure Michael too all know more math than Alfred Whitehead. You and Henry can sure as shit calculate better than Whitehead. She thought for a minute and gazed into the distance, taking a couple of drags from her cigarette. Bertrand Russell wrote Principia Mathematica and why he wanted to share credit with doddering old Whitehead is beyond me. He cant have added anything to it. Okay. So should I read him? Stoney asked. Whitehead? Yes, but quickly. He tries to make philosophical deductions from math he doesnt understand. Have your critical antennae up. She stubbed out her cigarette. Yes maam. You were saying? said Stoney. What was I saying? se asked. Einstein, Podolsky, and Rosen had published an article about entangled particles in Physical Review in March of 1995. It got everyones attention because it pointed out that quantum mechanics allow for non-local interactions that would violate Relativity because they would be instantaneous at distances impossible if the speed of light is an absolute limit, said Michael. She sat up a bit and lit a new cigarette. Yeah, thats right, she said. Entangled, you say. The two photons generated at the same time that passed through a half-mirrored glass. If you measure one, you automatically know about the other, non? asked Michael. Oui, said Mrs. W. Entangled. I guess thats a good word for it. She looked at Stoney. So ist er ziemlich schlau, diese? Stoney smiled. Ja, maam.

So it was fun for a few months, Mrs. W. said. We all started talking about what we knew and what we didnt know about quantum mechanics, and it almost seemed to open up the debate again about whether just basing our calculations on probabilities that we didnt understand was a sensible way for a bunch of scientists to proceed. Why? Michael asked. Mrs. W. frowned. She seemed puzzled by the question. Well, most of physics has been, throughout history, making observations and then trying to figure out how to express them on paper. Schrodinger and most of the quantum guys were sure that the way to get ahead was to focus on the calculations. Dont worry about why it works. Just shut up and calculate. And those of us who had an experimental, observational bias liked the fact that we were thinking about quantum and its relation to reality again. It was fun. So what happened? Michael asked. Niels Bohr happened. In the next issue of Physical Review. It was awful. Poor Albert. We havent seen the article. What happened? I asked. Oh, Dr. Bohr got all shirty. He said, more or less, that if our equations dont answer all the questions youre asking, then its not because our equations are incomplete, its because youre asking the wrong questions. Excuse me? said Michael. It really was just that rude, said Mrs. W. Dr. Bohrs idea was that the quantum equations explained things so thoroughly that there just was no room for argument, so if the equations disagreed with Alberts notion of reality, that it was our notion of reality that was lacking, not the equations. The equations were perfect. The Newtonian world and the quantum world complimented each other but were separate, and since any measuring device would have to be part of the Newtonian world, any measurement would be meaningless. Complimentarity, my ass. And the Physics community didnt rally behind Einstein? I asked. No not at all, she said, lighting another Benson & Hedges and raising her glass as if to drink, then noticing her glass was empty. There wasnt much of the Armagnac left. Michael looked up at Stoney, who nodded and got up to look for a replacement. Theres another bottle of it, said Mrs. W. Stoney smiled. Ill find it, he said, and Michael poured the last splash from the current bottle into Mrs. W.s glass. She smiled.

You boys sure are good hosts, she said. Youre the hostess, said Michael. This is your house, too, she said. Stoneys family, so you are too. You are the sweetest mathematician of all time, he said, as she smiled and took a sip. Tell me more about what people said in response to Dr. Einsteins article. Oh, well, everybody sided with Dr. Bohr, she said. It was awful. But why? asked Michael. He was Albert fucking Einstein, for Christs sake, said Michael. Excuse his French, I said. Excuse me. In French: Il tait Albert Einstein putain, pour l'amour du Christ, said Michael. Mrs. W. smiled and took a drag form her cigarette. But by that point all of Alberts triumphs were in the past, she said. Theyd all come in the teens and twenties, and we were twenty years past that by 1935. Physics moves fast. Plus, Albert never liked teaching. He liked thinking about things and talking to people. He didnt even particularly like writing papers. And Dr. Bohr always had dozens of students. And they went on to get jobs at every important university in the world. Albert had figured out all kinds of things he never wrote about. But Bohr was a much bigger deal academically. Sometimes Albert would have one or two graduate assistants around, but over in Copenhagen, Dr. Bohr had this entire school of young men, and all of them worshipped him. All any of them thought about was quantum. Relativity was something established It was old. Twenty-five years old. And Alberts paper re-focusing attention from quantum to Relativity was a little embarrassing to them. Like he couldnt move on. Thats the way the Bohr people saw it. Because that was the point of the paper. If what did you call it? she asked Michael. Entanglement? Entanglement. Good word. Because if entanglement was possible, it looked like the rules of Relativity, the absolute limit of the speed of light, would be violated, she said. But he was right, said Michael. Which he? she asked. Einstein was right, he answered. Well, it sure looked like it. Assuming the whole non-local thing could be worked out. And everybody just knew that non-locality was some kind of anomaly. A quirk. But

for Einstein to find a problem with their elegant equations because they disagreed with his old-fashioned Relativity was just seen as quaint and kind of pitiful. He had already started looking for the unified field theory, and he was out there working for pacifist and Zionist causes, and people just thought hed lost it. So the next edition of Physical Review had this piece from Bohr in which hed obviously been helped by that weasel Pauli and probably by Rosenfeld, too, because Bohrs English wasnt much better than Alberts. The whole tenor of the piece was that old men like Alberthe was 56didnt understand how to ask relevant questions any more. That the focus on physical reality was misplaced. That at the molecular level, the interactions between particles were so divorced from human perception that to try to analogize to the perceptible physical world was silly. I mean, it didnt say that, but thats what it meant. So what did it say? asked Michael. It said that Alberts concerns were misplaced, that he fundamentally misunderstood quantum reality, that there was no such thing as an observation which did not affect the thing observed, so, in essence, Alberts question and all of the assumptions underlying it were fundamentally misplaced. Albert was flummoxed at this. He wrote he doesnt look at it? I always loved that. All right, Ive heard this exchange discussed in the past, said Michael, and what I dont understand is why, if such a well-regarded scientist had posed such a fundamental challenge to the basic premises of their doctrine, why the Copenhagen school was so cocksure of themselves in blowing him off. Oh. Well there was this book, she said. I cant remember the name.2 It was by a man named John von Neumann. He claimed to prove that what are called hidden variables, things that might give an underlying reality to the quantum equations, was impossible. He said that because, he thought, the expected value of the position and momentum of a particle both measured at the same time is equal to the sum of the expected value for a measurement of the position and the expected value of the momentum. <P+Q>=<P>+<Q>, said Michael. Damn. He was good. Damn. Youre good, said Mrs. W., encircled by a wreath of smoke. But von Neumann offered no proof whatsoever of this. Heisenberg and all the Danes just glossed over it and let him get away with an utterly unfounded assumption. But
2

She refers to Mathematische Grundlagen der Quantenmechanik (Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Physics, published in 1935. It not only purported to unify the separate mathematical formulations of Heisenberg and Schrdinger, but also purported to prove that as unified quantum mathematics was complete and held no hidden variables, or things that might be filled in later to explain some of the weirder aspects of quantum mechanics. Bohr and his cronies did a lot of patting themselves on the back, but Einstein had read it and noticed that its premises were flawed. But Bohr, Pauli and Rosenfeld had all just read it in the few months before the publication of the EPR paper (explained later in the chapter) and all of them were very full of themselves because of it when they collectively responded to Einsteins paper. Note that Einsteins collaborators shared credit, but Bohrs collaborators did not. Basking in the great mans presence should be enough, no?

because the book was otherwise so elegantly reasoned, Heisenberg and Bohr and all the Copenhagen boys thought that it had been proven that no hidden variables were going to be later discovered that would give a physical reality to quantum mechanics. And when Alberts paper came out, they all saw it as an attempt to re-introduce the hidden variables question into quantum mechanics. So they knew from von Newmanns book that this nonsense had been disproved, but since Alberts reasoning was so sound they just didnt know what to say. At first. But nobody knew that <P+Q>=<P>+<Q> was just an assumption? Michael asked. Well, thats a more complicated question. Heisenberg did. He had a graduate student named Greta Greta something, said Mrs. W. Dr. Grete Hermann? asked Michael. Yes! Damn! How did you know that? she asked. This is more of a hot topic the last year or so than you seem to be aware, said Michael. Well, I met her at a meeting kind of thing during the War3, and she said that shed managed to convince Heisenberg that it was just an assumption, and that without it the idea that quantum mechanics had been proven to be free from hidden variables was completely false. She said shed published her conclusions in Germany, but it wasnt in a physics journal, it was in some philosophy deal, and so nobody really saw it. And then Heisenberg left for England because of what was going on in Germany and nobody seems to have told Dr. Bohr. And then Hitler invaded Poland and all Hell broke loose. People tried to keep up academic correspondence during the war but it just wasnt possible with Germans, and the Germans who had left Germany, like Albert and Dr. Heisenberg, were preoccupied with other things. But most of the Copenhagen people went to their graves thinking that von Neumann had proved that the quantum mechanics had to be complete. Did Dr. Einstein know it was not complete? I asked. Well, he wouldnt have believed it even if somebody told him it was. He wasnt just smart, he was the most God-awful stubborn man you ever met. But I met Rosen years later, and he said one day Albert took out von Neumanns book and pointed at the <P+Q>=<P>+<Q> equation and asked now why in the world should we believe that? So he knew von Neumann was wrong, and why. But still, hes Albert Einstein, said Michael. Everybody should shut up and listen.
3

Mrs. W. refers to World War II. In the seventies, young people of our age accustomed to hear our elders refer to the War, and even though the United States had been involved in two wars since, both in east Asia, the War was always understood to mean World War II.

Thats not how life at a university works, she said, lighting another cigarette and looking at her empty brandy snifter. Michael doled her out another shot, but it was smaller than the last one. At a university youre encouraged to think, but what youre encouraged to think is what everybody else already thinks. If the professors and grad students are all really, really focused on quantum calculations then you should follow their lead and do that, if you want to get ahead. If some strange old man who was really important twenty years ago seems to make an important point, well, however interesting that may be, its not going to help you get your Ph.D. Keep your eyes on the prize, what the dissertation committee is interested in. She shook her head and took a small sip of brandy. So what was the unified field theory? asked Stoney. Ive heard people talk about it, but only in generalities. And remember Im your math guy, not a science guy. He took a sip of his Armagnac. He kind of smiled at his snifter. Mrs. W., head propped on her hand, looking down at the table and her brandy glass, thought for a few seconds. Albert was looking for a group of equations that would apply to all the forces in the universe: gravity, the strong force, the weak force, electromagnetism, quantum mechanics. Everything. A unified field theory that explained all the forces of nature in terms of one field that could be explained by a single set of equations, like Maxwells electromagnetic equations. Stoney shot me a look. Having worked through Maxwell to get to Heavysides simplifications, it was hard to see how they could be reduced much further, much less replaced. Stoney took a prim sip of his Armagnac and shrugged. Seems sensible, said Michael. Stoney looked at me and shrugged again. What we now know as Maxwells equations dont explain anything, they just allow us to make calculations. Michaels an engineer. As long as the math allows him to build something, hes good. Ask physicist who is proficient in this area what is a force? and youll get a befuddled response. We know everything in the world about Physics, except what magnetism and gravity are. This doesnt bother engineers. Ambitious, I would say, I said. She shot me a look. I dont know, it might have been possible. For somebody like Albert, anyway. But everybody thought it was a waste of time. Bohr, Pauli, Feynman. We were supposed to be looking at small things that happened inside particles, not large things that governed galaxies. Relativity was okay, it worked, it predicted lots of things, but there was no career in studying it. The excitement was in quantum. So everybody in the university system had more or less dismissed Albert as a crank. A guy who once had great ideas, but who had petered out twenty years before and was now embarrassing himself by publishing articles out of step with the mainstream. Unified field theory? Give me a break. She had her head propped on her hand with her arm crooked pretty close to the table. She had a somber expression. Sometimes I worry that when I left Physics to concentrate on Math I abandoned Albert, too, she said. I never meant to do it. I was upset that science turned into camps, into sides. Sects. The Bohr people said were right, youre wrong, if you

dont agree with us youre an idiot. So ever since I left Physics, Ive worried that I should have stuck around and helped Alfred. What did you do instead? asked Michael. Got married and had children, she said. Its a lot of fun. Especially if you like your husband. There was a silence. Mrs. W. stubbed out her cigarette and drained her glass. Lordy. Im tired. Bed time. Im with you, Dr. W., said Stoney. Im tired. Fun day though. Have you noticed its still? No. Lordy. You boys are never going to get to Sea Island. I looked, and it did indeed look like a blizzard outside. Do you by any chance have copies of the articles from Physical Review? I asked. She looked at me as though surprised by the question. Ive never seen them, I said. Ive read about them, but never seen them. Why would you be reading a forty year-old magazine article? she asked. The story got picked up a few years ago by this Irish guy, I said. John Bell, said Michael. Its late now, but maybe if you could let us look at the articles, tomorrow Henry and I could catch you up on recent developments. Mrs. W shrugged and stood. She seemed a little unsteady. Stoney stood to accompany her. They walked into the den where the TV was, where she stored a lot of my books. I could see her try to reach for something on a high shelf, then saw Stoney reach it for her. They returned. May I say that finding within minutes something she hadnt looked at for four decades revealed a startlingly well-ordered mind. Here you go, she said, laying two bound reprints on the table. What I want you boys to remember when you read Dr. Bohrs response is that when you tell somebody that if your solution doesnt answer his question then hes asking the wrong question youre talking religion, or maybe politics. But youre sure as Hell not talking science. And if you tell someone his notion of reality is quaint and outmoded youre talking philosophy, not observation or deduction. Or maybe drugs, said Stoney. She laughed. Good night, boys, she said. Ill walk you up, said Stoney. Im beat, too, and Im betting these two are going to read the articles before they can go to sleep.

Toodles, said Michael, and blew Stoney a kiss. Stoney smiled, and they left. She asked him something about the Detroit Lions, and they talked as they went up the stairs. Michael moved his chair closer to mine and we opened Can Quantum Description of Reality Be Considered Complete?4 Any serious consideration of a physical theory must take into account the distinction between the objective reality, which is independent of any theory, and the physical concepts with which the theory operates. These concepts are intended to correspond with the objective reality, and by means of these concepts we picture this reality to ourselves. Seemed sensible enough. The introduction went on to say that for any theory to be deemed complete, every element of physical reality must be explained by the theory. Well, Id never heard it expressed that way, but okay. Then it went on to explain, in what seemed to me to be a roundabout way, what all Physics students whod taken elementary quantum mechanics call the entanglement problem. As you learned if you took high school physics (which I actually didnt) light acts like a wave until you measure it, but as soon as you measure it acts like a large number of discrete particles. Look at it, you have particles, dont, and youve got waves, both experimentally and mathematically. This weirdness has been demonstrated in thousands of experiments. As we had discussed earlier in the evening, entanglement arises when you have two identical photons5 that share a lot of properties that get separated somehow. As weve said over and over, theoretically, if you measure one of them, you have in effect measured the other one, too, and, theoretically, if you collapsed one wave into discrete particles, youd have collapsed the other as well. Einstein considered this to be a mathematical anomaly, a figment of the calculations, spooky action at a distance. Since it was so obviously impossible, it had to reveal a flaw in quantum mathematics. What Einstein, Bohr, and Mrs. W. didnt know, but both Michael and I did, was that not only was spooky action at a distance an acceptable part of quantum mechanics, it was a required part of quantum mechanics, had recently been verified to have occurred by lab experiments. What Mrs. W., Bohr and Einstein all considered impossible, in other words, was common. It was essential. Even though it appeared to violate the speed of light. If you can explain this to me, please do, because it still baffles the shit out of me. The odd thing about reading the piece was that it totally assumed that what we now accept as entanglement was completely impossible. This impossibility was so obvious to the authors that they didnt even bother explaining why they thought it was impossible.

It should be Can the Quantum Description of Reality Be Considered Complete? but Rosen, who probably wrote most of it, was Russian, and Russians wouldnt use an article here. 5 Of course calling them photons presupposes the end of the experiment. Light generated by a single chemical reaction will appear to be a wave until you measure it. A photon is a particle of light. If you never measure the wave, though, it will continue to be a wave. So the way Henry is describing the problem assumes the end result.

But if you measure one entangled particle, how can that change the quantum state of another particle in another place. Are they communicating, somehow? And if so, what of the speed of light? Michael and I read through it in silence. At one point he pointed to a mathematical notation thats not used any more and looked at me with a quizzical expression. Quantum math was much more advanced in the 1970s than it had been in 1935, but I had been taught by Mrs. W. in her thirties-era notation and could re-express it 1970s notation that Michael caught immediately. He turned the pages, and we were reading at about the same pace, so we ended at about the same time. He looked at me. The holy EPR,6 said Michael. Indeed. What do you think? he asked. Well-reasoned but long-winded, I said. Its only four pages, said Michael. Entanglement violates Relativity, I said, summarizing. Yes, youre clever, but youd still have to demonstrate it, sweetie. Lets look at Bohr, he said. He picked up the reprint of Niels Bohrs response. Shall we? I looked at the title page. I looked again at the title page of the original EPR article. Okay, I said. So the original EPR article came out on March 25, 1935. Then Niels Bohrs immediate, harsh, unthinkingly rude response to Einstein came out in October of 1935. Yes indeed. Although it does say that Dr. Bohrs response was received in July. All right. And its the next issue of the journal. We started reading. Let me say for the record that, as a budding physicist that night, and then again when I re-read the article as I wrote these memoirs down, Bohrs comments were gibberish that would not have been published had they been written by anyone other than Niels Bohr. Such an argumentation, however, would hardly seem suited to affect the soundness of quantum-mechanical description, which is based on a coherent mathematical formalism covering automatically any procedure of measurement like that indicated.
6

I dont remember if Ive mentioned this or not but its called EPR after the initials of the authors. In 2012 one author referred to it as the most cited physics article of all time. Actually Im not sure of the year. It must have been either that Scientific American article or the amazing Louisa Gilder in The Age of Entanglement.

said Bohr. Michael scowled. Covering automatically any procedure of measurement? asked Michael. I scowled back. Cocky bastard, said Michael. We looked back at the reprint. Bohr didnt even think Einstein knew what reality was: In fact, as we shall see, a criterion of reality like that proposed by the named authors containshowever cautious its formulation may appearan essential ambiguity when it is applied to the actual problems with which we are here concerned. Asshole, said Michael, without looking up. Bohr went through the two-slit experiments, in which beams of light (or radio waves, or x-rays, or anything else) shot through two tiny slits would behave just like waves all day long, but as soon as you measured them, or even looked at them, theyd immediately act like particles.7 He distinguished between classical physics and quantum physics and said what is knowable in classical physics is not knowable in quantum because of the interaction between the measuring instruments and the objects being measured. So the questions Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen raised were irrelevant: Just in this last respect any comparison between quantum mechanics and ordinary statistical mechanics,(sic) however useful they may be for the formal presentation of the theory,(sic) is essentially irrelevant. Indeed we have in each experimental arrangement suited for the study of proper quantum phenomena not merely to do with an ignorance of the value of certain physical quantities, but with the impossibility of defining these quantities in an unambiguous way. What an arrogant asshole, said Michael. He poured himself another tiny glass of B&B. Well, remember hed read von Neumanns book and didnt catch the mistake. He thought that the entire hidden variable question had been proved to be an impossible solution, I said. He thought Einstein was barking up not just the wrong tree, but a tree that von Neumann had proved didnt even exist. What an idiot, he said. I dont know, I said, dubiously. They figured out an awful lot in Copenhagen. I know, youre right, and everybody knew Einstein was stubborn, but hed revolutionized physics several times before. If theyd paid attention to him people would have understood entanglement before World War II. Its 1975, forty years after he pointed
7

In Physics, we never grow tired of thinking about two-slit experiments and wave/particle duality. If you go to a Physics lecture tomorrow, the lecturer will bring it up, and he or she will have an opinion about what it means. And he or she will be wrong.

this out and we still have no clue why it works. Dr. W. is right. When you point out a problem and somebody responds there is no problem, youre just asking the wrong question, thats religion, thats not science. I dont know. The math department seems to give me that response a lot, I said. Funny, he said, taking a sip. Youre religious? I asked. Was. Cradle Catholic. Altar boy. Angelic altar boy, if I do say so myself. Wanted to be a nun in the worst possible way. Now lapsed. What happened? I asked. I like swallowing dicks, he shrugged. They tell me this is a sin. I think they must be wrong and until they come around Im staying away and swallowing away. Gotcha, I said. Back to this asshole Bohr, he said, and we looked back at the paper. Bohr next said that our conception of time is faulty. Trust me, it makes no more sense to someone with a Ph.D. in physics than it does to you: It is true that we have freely made use of such words as before and after implying time-relationships; but in each case allowance must be made for a certain inaccuracy., which is of no importance, however, as long as the time intervals concerned are sufficiently large compared with the proper periods entering in the closer analysis of the phenomenon under investigation. As soon as we attempt a more accurate time description of quantum phenomena, we meet with well-known new paradoxes, for the elucidation of which further features of the interaction between the objects and the measuring instruments must be taken into account. I looked at Michael with what Im sure registered as a quizzical expression. Gibberish, he said. Bohr went on to say that clocks were unreliable indicators of time, if I followed him, because reading the clock changed the way it recorded time. In moving towards a close, he said more or less that classical physics was essentially meaningless in quantum mechanics: In accordance with this situation there can be no question of any ambiguous interpretation of the symbols of quantum mechanics other than that embodied in the well-known rules which allow to (sic) predict the results to be obtained by a given experimental arrangement described in a totally classical way, and which have

found their general expression through the transformation theorems, (sic) already referred to. By securing its proper correspondence with the classical theory, the theorems exclude in particular any imaginable inconsistency in the quantummechanical description, connected with a change of the place where the discrimination is made between object and measuring procedure we have only a free choice of this place within a region where the quantum-mechanical description of the process is concerned is effectively equivalent with the classical description. Exclude any imaginable inconsistency, said Michael. Pretty sweeping, I agreed. Gack, what an asshole, he said. Okay, so you dont think Dr. W. knows about Bells inequality or the entanglement experiments? Doesnt sound like it, I said. Do you think we should tell her? Sure, although I think shell be surprised. She stopped quantum in 1935. Even her vocabulary is old-fashioned. Non-local. When she first learned Physics from her father, who was educated in Germany I started. So thats where that came from, Michael said. What? I asked. She and handsome Stone-o are always talking German to each other, he said finishing his drink with a final tiny sip. I think I want to taste this Armagnac, he said. He reached across the table for Stoneys empty glass and poured himself a small portion. Wait, I said, as he did so. Where did you pick up handsome Stone-o? Oh, you called him that once when you were teasing him and I picked up on it. The only time Ive seem him blush was when he said he wouldnt explain. I expect a girl is involved. He apparently had terrible taste in girls, although you have to admit his taste in boys is impeccable. Indeed, I said, smiling. And note that I am not asking you to tell me the story. If he doesnt want me to know, I wont ask his best friend. Best friend? I said, puzzled.

Yes, Henri, youre his best friend. Actually, I am, but Im his lover so that puts me in a different category. I was surprised, and my expression must have showed it. He loves you, Henry. So do lots of people. Why? I asked. Because you accept people for what they are without judging them. Since you seem to be unaware of your effect on the cosmos, let me tell you that Im willing to bet, on extremely long odds, and I am not a betting man although I have heard stories told about you that demonstrate that you are, that both Beatriz and Cisco regard you as their best friends, too. Really, I said. This was all mystifying to me. And Mrs. W. loves you as the son she never had. She has a son, I said. Theyre just not close. Well there you go, he said. Why are you resisting this, Henry? People like you. I dont mean to resist, but I guess I spent so long alone that I think of myself as a loner, I said. Thats as may be but youre a good friend to lots of people. People like telling stories about you, but what the members of your fan club always talk about is that you never violate confidences, never judge people, and always accept them for who they are. I dont see Cisco describing me that way, I said. He stresses the trustworthy with secrets aspect of your personality, said Michael. There was a pause as he looked at me speculatively and I scowled at the carpet. I guess I find all this a little perplexing. I mean, I like all those people and now that I think about it I value their friendships, as well. I just dont think about that kind of thing too much. I thought for a minute. I also value my friendship with you, Michael, I said. I didnt mean to leave you out. Henri! he said. How extravagant to be named in such company. Not really. I like you. I just dont think about that kind of thing too much. And I regard Beatriz, Stoney, and Cisco as interesting people to know and be around. You, too. Its just odd to hear you speculate that they might think of me as best friends. I just dont think about that kind of thing a lot. Is it okay? he asked. I thought.

Yeah, I kind of like it, I said. And that Beatriz is drop-dead gorgeous, Michael said, slyly. I shrugged. Yeah, shes pretty, I said. Shes not Melissa pretty, but shes pretty. Ive heard Cisco say that, Michael said. Shes not Melissa pretty. What does that mean? I honestly dont know why I said that, I said. It means really, really pretty. In a way that particularly appeals to the viewer. I must have picked it up from Cisco. No, he says he picked it up from you. All the boys use it now, and its making its way into the Nashville gay scene, as well. I am pleased to report that a film critic I know tried to pick me up last weekend at The Other Side8 by telling me I was Melissa pretty. Did it work? No. Stoney was there. He took a sip of his Armagnac. You know Stoney thinks youre gay? he asked. He started saying that because I didnt respond the way he thought I ought to with Ginny, who is Mrs. W.s favorite niece. I can tell Im not as libidinal as some, but really, the last person I would hit on is Mrs. W.s favorite niece. Stoney also notes that both Beatriz and Toni have beautiful faces and perfect bodies and flirt with you constantly and that you do not appear to have fucked either one, although everyone speculates you could have done both and kept it a secret, he said. Three minutes ago you he was telling Mrs. W. that I was fucking Beatriz. Michael took a speculative sip of his drink. Stoney, like many gay men, started his sexual life with women. The fact that he thinks youre gay is not inconsistent, in his eyes, with the fact that most men would have had sex with both Beatriz and Toni by now, he said, looking at the ceiling. And you? I asked. Moi? he asked. Oui, vous9 I answered.

8 9

A Nashville gay bar in the seventies. Have I mentioned that before? Yes, you, I said.

You know, Ive heard a lot of men talk about how they were confused as children and found women attractive but I knew the first time I saw a Tarzan movie on TV that I thought Johnny Weissmuller was lots more attractive than Maureen OSullivan. Maureen was Jane? I asked. Oui. Very good iconic recall for a straight man, he said. Not really. I think Ive heard this story from other people, I answered. The Tarzan thing was a very powerful discriminator for people who grew up in the sixties, he said. The movies were on TV all the time. If you realized you were looking at Tarzan and your friends were all excited about Jane, it told you you were different. Thats where learning to keep a secret about who you are starts. Interesting, I said. Heavens, how off-topic we are, he said, waving his hand briefly as though to clear the air. So you claim that youre not gay and that youve never fucked either Toni or Beatriz? Yes, of course. Im surprised there are questions. Even I can tell theyre both really attractive, and I dont pay much attention to girls. Large hooters, tiny waists Oh, for Christs sake, I said. I couldnt have sex with Beatriz, I said. The reason she likes me is that I dont hit on her. She trusts me. And you like being trusted? he asked. Yes, of course, I said. More than you like getting laid? he asked. Apparently so. If Beatriz is interested in taking me as a lover, and I dont think she is. What an interesting young man you are, Henri, he said. Toni? he asked, brightly. Shes stark raving mad, I said. True. Still, this does not prove to be an impediment to most straights. Or most gays, for that matter.

She actually quizzed me on why I never hit on her one time. She said she didnt want to have sex with me but seemed miffed that I didnt act like I wanted to have sex with her, I said. What did you tell her? he asked. That she was stark raving mad and it was bad luck to have sex with crazy ladies, or something like that, I said. Another great Henry story, he said. So back to the original topic, he said, before I could respond. We need to tell Dr. W. about Bells inequality and the entanglement experiments tomorrow? Yes. Sure. Shell be interested. It may get her thinking about physics again. You should talk, though. Im not sure Im good at explaining things. I tend to listen and think to figure things out. I dont really talk unless somebody asks me a question. No trouble, he said. I find all of this fascinating. Which part? I asked. All of it. You, the wonderful Stoney, your circle of friends, the amazing and semimystical Dr. W., entanglement, the EPR paper, all of it. You live in an interesting world, mon cher. He swallowed the last of his drink. Toodles, he said, smiling, and stood to go. I moved the glasses to the kitchen, emptied the ashtrays, put the bottles away, and turned out the lights. After I turned out the lights I could see that the moon was out and it was snowing again. Somehow Monty sensed that I was about to go to bed and showed up wagging his tail, prancing and pawing near the door, so I bundled up and took him for a short walk, although he wasnt interested in being out for long. The snow was deep and he was short. The moon on the breast of the new-fallen snow gave the luster of mid-day to objects below, I said to Monty as we returned to the house. Where did I learn that line?

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