A theory does not allow you to pick or choose its predictions you like and refuse the ones you dislike. You can’t embrace general relativity yet reject the probable existence of black holes or the possibility of wormholes simply because it leaves an aesthetic bad taste in your mouth. Accept a theory and all its predictions that follow, then compare predictions to evidence/experiment. Whenever prediction and evidence significantly depart, that’s usually a good sign that the theory needs to be improved or abandoned.

The predictions of QM are straightforward enough. If you accept a probabilistic interpretation of the Schrödinger equation for a wave function evolving through time, then a continuous superposition of quantum (eigen) states will reduce to a single state when observed. The predictions do not allow you to categorically declare the observable state is the one, true, real state while the superposition is somehow unreal, an illusion, or simply a mathematical artifact.

At first blush, it is hard to understand why this result should cause so much consternation. The idea that the (relatively speaking) calm reality of our everyday existence emerges from a sum of fuzzy probabilistic microstates is fascinating, with its own set of questions. Does space itself emerge from this process? Does time? Is there only one way this picture resolves, or are there several copies each with its own separate reality? What happens to all those other worlds? Can we detect them by experiment? What does it mean to observe? What counts as a measurement?

None of this would bother us if the other predictions of QM did not conform with such exact precision to experiment. It’s apparent success leads us to accept all of the predictions. The real question is why does this bother us? Is the prediction anymore bizarre than a black hole or the speed of light being constant? A result can not be judged as nonsense simply because it doesn’t conform to normal everyday observation. Especially since normal everyday observation is inherently a brute cudgel of guesswork.

Science with the aid of powerful mathematical ideas has incessantly led us to shrink the dominion of the kingdom of humankind. From the center of God’s eye, we became a lonely little world of remote significance on the grand stage of the universe. Most scientists accept this fate, but QM for whatever reason seemed a bridge too far for many. You can reduce my domains, but how dare you take away my uniqueness! The violation of a uniform self, the last protected sphere of an infinite conscience, multiplied and stretched out across a (perhaps) infinite Hilbert Space became the straw that broke the camel’s back. Here, we must object! Here we must draw the line and make our final stand against this inerrant assault on humanity’s greatness and fortune.

But this is not science. It is faith. And until we break the arrogance of faith, our science will suffer, has suffered, has stalled on the fear of the power of imagination to build upon the foundation of QM. Is QM the final say? Of course not. But we will go no further so long as we insist on reducing scientific interpretation to mere positivism.