Ode to Quantum Mechanics

Quantum mechanics deals with the behaviour of small particles such as electrons. This turns out to be important for engineers when they deal with semiconductors. That's how I got in touch with this exotic subject myself when making my master's thesis in 1988.

Quantum mechanics leaves no doubt: everything is uncertain. On the one hand, this is a damper on the revelry of science. At the end of the nineteenth century, it seemed that the world was deterministic and that science could understand and predict everything. Since then, we have discovered counter intuitive phenomena and uncertainty principles. Schrödinger's cat was no longer to be found where we thought.

There is also a good side. Quantum mechanics introduces a certain magic to science. Georges Lemaître's primordial atom, the idea that quantum mechanics could be at the origin of our existence, may not make the miracle of being any less miraculous, but it is already somewhat possible in the scientific sphere. In quantum mechanics, measuring is really observing. The observer inevitably influences the measurement he makes. John Archibald Wheeler's thought experiment even suggests that quantum mechanics plays a role in our perception of the origin of the universe.

It may be just a dreamy thought, but quantum mechanics seems to be a scientific basis for love. Just like in love, in quantum mechanics there is attraction, repulsion, ambiguity and unpredictability. A colleague of mine once asked me the question: "How can you be so sure that an atom has no consciousness?". Perhaps the behaviour of small particles is unpredictable because they have consciousness. Alles Leben ist eins. But this is not a scientifically based claim.

I also refer to my blogs: "The origin of time" and "The nature of light".

Image by WikiImages from Pixabay

Stay with the Trouble

As a decent, devoted and diligent worker, you may feel like you are entitled to enjoy the fruits of your work and remain at peace with your colleagues, your friends and your family. Reality may be quite different. You or your loved ones may be struck by physical or mental illness. You may suffer from unexpected lack of time and money. You may be deeply concerned by trouble with your colleagues, your life partner or your children. You may even suffer from multiple plagues simultaneously. The Matthew effect tells us that misery easily multiplies. Misery is as endless as an ocean. You may even ask the strange question how come you are still there. It feels like if you are on a ship in a storm which has no intention to go down. A ship, however, has one big advantage: it forces you to stay with the trouble.

Coping with the cruelties of daily life, you may find peace in watching Saint Walburgis on this painting by Peter Paul Rubens. As a missionary, Saint Walburgis had to cross the English Channel several times in her life. It was a dangerous activity which she survived remarkably often. She looks frightened on the painting but remained confident in her prayers that God would protect her important mission. In the Middle Ages, people prayed to Saint Walburgis to ask for protection against storm at sea and storm at life. Let us do the same and let us stay with the trouble.

You will find many churches and other references to Saint Walburgis in seafaring towns in Flanders (Antwerp, Bruges, Oudenaarde), in Holland and in Germany. We commemorate her yearly on this 25^th of February. Rembrandt painted his Storm on the Sea of Galilee thirteen years later.

I refer to my blogs Poise, Bravery and Hope and Resilience and to my Dutch blogs The Comfort of Art, the Art of Comfort and Stella Maris.

Picture: The Miracle of Saint Walburgis, to be seen in the Museum der bildenden Künste, Leipzig

Pale Blue Dot

Pale Blue Dot was a famous image taken by Voyager 1 from a distance of 6 billion kilometres, in which Earth appeared as a pale blue dot. This happened on February 14^th, 1990, now almost 35 years ago. We learned only this week Voyager 1 has now travelled over 25 billion kilometres, and this at a relative speed of 17 km per second away from us.

From a purely scientific point of view, we didn't absolutely need this picture. We knew perfectly well Earth would appear as a pale blue dot from such a large distance. However, as a scientist concerned about the world, Dr. Carl Sagan decided back in 1990 that it would be worth the trouble to take this shot.

Indeed, the meaning of this image can’t be underestimated. Knowing how something will look like is not the same experience as actually seeing it from such a distance, be it with a remote probe. Humankind took a radical change of perspective there.

Pale Blue Dot sheds feeble light on our extreme isolation and our extreme vulnerability in the universe, something Carl Sagan had extensively explained in his famous television series Cosmos.

I refer to my blog Voyager’s Amazing Tales. 

Picture: By NASA/JPL-Caltech - https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA23645.jpg, Public Domain, Link

The Yerkes - Dodson Law

On this Blue Tuesday, we may want to have a look at yet another work performance theory, namely the Yerkes-Dodson law. In its most classical representation, it shows work performance on the Y-axis versus arousal (stress level) on the X-axis. The curve typically has an ‘inverted u’-shape or bell shape. For complex tasks, the stress level tipping point (maximum) typically occurs at lower levels of stress than for simple tasks.

The scope of validity of the Yerkes-Dodson law may be a point of discussion among experts, but we all feel it corresponds to our own experience. We need a little bit of stress to come to good performance – we call this ‘flow’. However, when stress gets too high, we tend to get anxious, superficial, confused and we lose our concentration.

In a certain way this law pleads against additional pressure and against multitasking. Multitasking may be required when individuals need to achieve a certain productivity for the money they are paid. Productivity has become a major concern in labour market policies. Nowadays, you couldn't afford giving an employee a single task, although it could be better for his stress level.  Multitasking increases the complexity of work and increases our stress level. We will inevitably end up on the lower right-hand sides of the curves and show relatively poor work performance. Stress and all related inefficiencies seem to be unavoidable in this valley of tears. It may make sense to spare our colleagues and ourselves from more.

Let us further reflect on the Yerkes-Dodson Law at work and at school.

I refer to my blog: The Disconnected Worker.

Picture: Afbeelding van Enrique Meseguer via Pixabay

Poise, Bravery, and Hope

New Year’s resolutions usually aim at doing something, either more or less. We may intend to do more sports, eat less, smoke less, or even work less. Could we also aim at changing our attitude and state of mind to a certain extent? It may be needed in this time when everyone around us seems to be in deep despair about our future, whether it relates to work, war, immigration, climate, or the dangers of eating Christmas trees.

In this valley of tears, there is really a lot to worry about. Although there is always a slight irony in my blogs, our common tendency to be pessimistic is not totally unjustified. Our fears are triggered by the incredible rate at which everything changes. We are missing solid structures in our lives. The solid structures of religion, marriage, family, work often turn into liquids, and it sometimes looks as if we always need to restart reconstructing them like Sisyphus. It makes us extremely vulnerable. Even worse, pessimism may become self-fulfilling.

My New Year’s resolution would be to stay steadfast in the face of uncertainty. We can’t really decide never to be afraid. Fear is an emotion and usually catches us unexpectedly. We can however try to keep our poise and stay brave in the face of what is coming. The brave attitude is certainly less comfortable than the ‘run away’ or ‘blame it on the others’ attitude but it is the one which we regret the least later on. What keeps us going is the hope. The pessimists may be right but hope never dies.

Picture: pedestrian bridge in Tours, France 2019 ©Wim Lahaye

Ode to EYE

On December 17^th, 1994, exactly 30 years ago, on a dark rainy Saturday morning a few European young engineers gathered in the town of Ghent and signed a Declaration of Intent, which led to the birth of EYE six months later.

In my view, this was the most decisive moment in the genesis of EYE. At that time, I was president of the Young Flemish Engineers’ movement K VIV-Jongeren. Earlier in that famous year 1994, the Dutch young engineers of KIVI (Alex van der Veen, Roel Coppoolse) had come to Antwerp to convince us of starting a European Young Engineers’ movement. It didn’t take them long and soon we started editing a ‘Declaration of Intent’, together with Philippe Stas, Luc Bongaerts and with Jan De Strooper, the young VIK president.

We discovered the Dutch had a national reality, whereas we Belgians lived in a regional country, where several organisations may co-exist in different regions. This difference between Belgium and the Netherlands proved to be fruitful in the long term. It required some diplomacy to develop a first declaration which would be suited for all European countries, and which would later become the basis of EYE. December 1994 was the moment the whole machine needed to get started; at the same time the moment we had invested so much time in. 

When the Declaration of Intent was signed, I referred in my speech to the symbolic nature of the town of Ghent, be it with some black humour. We had signed our treaty near the place where in 1576, the Pacification of Ghent had been signed between the states of Holland, Utrecht, Zeeland and a number of states in today’s Belgium. Only six months later, on June 16th, 1995, the first general EYE meeting took place. England, Finland, Germany and Ireland were among the first nations to join us.

Therefore, as this is also Beethoven’s birthday, let us play his Ode to Joy, the European Hymn!

I refer to EYE, the origins and to my blogs: “European Young Engineers” and “The Dream of the Silent” (Dutch).

Picture 1: Afbeelding van Niek Verlaan via Pixabay

Picture 2: Oldest EYE group picture in front of Gravensteen, Ghent, 17 December 1994

Let so much suffering not be in vain

"Tantus labor non sit cassus" is a sentence in the Dies Irae (Day of Wrath) sequence (form of poem – song). The cheerful subject is the end of man and the end of the world. The man who anxiously awaits his final judgment begs to be saved. The title sentence is a sort of warning, almost a threat: if at least a number of people are not allowed to be saved (including me), then the suffering of Christ will have been in vain. So don't let the first happen (and save me) lest the second happen. One might even recognize in the sentence a certain moral blackmail against God: if He does not save me and my peers, then He will have made the suffering of His own Son meaningless.

We can also apply it to the salvation of our world: "Let so much suffering not be in vain." The Church regularly points out that man is appointed to the management of nature and that he must be accountable for it. If man is letting the world perish by continuing his clear-cutting, then all the sacrifices made by Christ and his followers, including all the sacrifices made by climate activists, will have been in vain.

It can be good to be reminded of this every year. Do I consider the climate activists here to be the modern-day followers of Christ? In a certain way, yes. Of  course, the climate deniers also have their arguments, but in general I do advocate caring and good stewardship with our earth and it is a good time of the year to bring that up again.

I also refer to my blog: "Day of Wrath".

Afbeelding van Peace,love,happiness via Pixabay