Erwin Schrodinger — "The quantum theory is an 'unpleasant' theory, which I should have liked to assum…"
The quantum theory is an 'unpleasant' theory, which I should have liked to assume to be true only if I were forced to do so by the facts.
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About Erwin Schrodinger (1887-1961)
Austrian physicist who shared the 1933 Nobel for the wave equation that bears his name and the famous cat thought-experiment. Closely associated with Werner Heisenberg (matrix-mechanics rival who reached the same physics by different math) and Albert Einstein (his pen-pal on quantum interpretation). For an intellectual contrast, see Niels Bohr, Danish physicist and architect of the Copenhagen interpretation — Schrödinger's cat thought-experiment was specifically designed to ridicule Bohr's 'observer-dependent reality' reading of quantum mechanics — Schrödinger thought the Copenhagen interpretation was absurd; the cat was meant as reductio ad absurdum.
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Understanding this quote
What it means
The speaker finds quantum theory philosophically objectionable — ugly, counterintuitive, and at odds with classical ideals of physical reality. He would only accept it reluctantly, under the force of experimental facts. This captures the tension between a scientist's aesthetic preference for elegant, deterministic, visualizable theories and the stubborn empirical success of a framework that defies intuition, demanding acceptance even when it offends one's deepest sense of how nature should work.
Relevance to Erwin Schrodinger
Schrödinger formulated wave mechanics in 1926, hoping to replace Heisenberg's abstract matrix mechanics with continuous, visualizable wave equations. Yet he grew increasingly hostile to the Copenhagen interpretation's probabilistic collapse — the very theory he helped build. His 1935 Schrödinger's cat thought experiment directly attacked quantum superposition applied to macroscopic reality. He spent decades advocating for deterministic foundations, aligning with Einstein's dissent, never reconciling himself to probability as a fundamental feature of nature.
The era
The 1920s–1930s saw classical Newtonian physics overthrown by quantum mechanics, which declared particles have no definite states until measured. The Copenhagen interpretation, championed by Bohr and Heisenberg, made probability fundamental — not merely a gap in knowledge. Einstein, Schrödinger, and de Broglie resisted fiercely. Einstein's 'God does not play dice' and the EPR paradox of 1935 defined an era of crisis where quantum theory's mathematical success clashed with deep philosophical convictions about objective physical reality.
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