Could Chopra be any more muddled? First he claims that “quantum” is just a metaphor, and then he accuses all those fundamentalist physicists of hijacking his word and using it wrongly.
Quantum physics is a very specific discipline that currently has no direct applicability to medicine — every time Chopra opens his mouth and uses the word inappropriately, he’s committing quackery.
You’re talking about quantum. He’s talking about quantum quantum. It’s different. It’s more quantum.
Didn’t you post that already somewhen ?
Or he’s talking about the wooist version of quantum: “quantumn.”
Clearly, Chopra’s Quantum goes to Eleven.
I’m no physicist, but I was under the impression that quantum theory has direct applications in medicine (like MRT- and PET Scans). Not to mention the indirect applications through the use of computers which also require quantum physics. (e.g. for the design of the transistors)
I think Julia Sweeney summed it up nicely in her “Letting Go of God” presentation.
“Deepak Chopra is full of shit!”
It’s one of my biggest pet peeves in life when the people who coin a term hijack its meaning from those who weren’t using it.
The more we know about how muddled Chopra is, the less we can know about what his muddled bullshit is supposed to mean. It has something to do with quantums, which are metaphors stolen by physicists.
How dare these arrogant physicists criticise alt-med quacks for hijacking one of physics’ own core concepts! What’s next, evolutionary biologists complaining about the creative interpretation of fossils by creationists?
I follow @DBagChopra on Twitter – illustrating the trouble with Poes, it might as well be the real thing. Funny as quantum, though.
Agreed. MRIs wouldn’t be possible without quantum mechanics. Nor laser surgery. Nor computer-assisted techniques, like CT scans, laproscopy, radio-transmitting endoscopic probes, … Quantum mechanics has had a huge, direct effect on modern medicine… just not remotely in the ways Chopra prates endlessly about.
what Comuholic said. there is quantum physics used indirectly in medicine, especially for imaging technologies. also, accelerators create radionuclides that can be used to destroy cancer cells. the accelerators can even be used to directly irradiate tumors.
I do rather like Prof D’s “WTF?” expression @the 2:20 mark.
Being a chemist, my experience with quantum mechanics has been limited solely to the interaction between light and those leptons orbiting the nucleus, but even this very basic level contains more craziness than Chopra here can spout. Once you understand the mechanism behind things like tunneling or electron exchange, you can’t help but laugh at such amateurish degrees of insanity. Oooh, you think conscious thought can magically heal you, and that those mean physicists have hijacked a word from you over century ago? Boring! Why don’t you take a look at…I dunno, those creation/destruction operators? Maybe you can come up with something more entertaining eventually…
I don’t think by “directly” PZ meant that. Or else it would be obvious that not only in medicine, but also old boring mundane me using quantum mechanics “directly” on a daily basis.
Holy quantumn shit!
#5 Cpmpuholic
Actually Pet and MRT scans would also be considered an indirect uses of quantum physics in medical applications (it is only the designers of such tools that require knowledge of the physics behind their working) — the point PZ is making is that no doctor need know “directly” one wit of info about quantum physics in order to do their job well, even if some of their tools depends (seemingly) more heavily upon quantum effects than others.
And, not to be argumentative but merely to clarify — to point out to say transistors are an indirect use of quantum physics is similar to saying every human being is an indirect user of quantum physics simply because each of us has chemical reactions in our bodies happening right now that depend upon known quantum effects. Quantum physics “indirectly” is part of everything that happens, so I don’t think your usage of “indirect” here is all that informative — in this sense everything we do is an “indirect application” of quantum physics.
Damned scientists, they think just because they have stuff that works that it’s so much better than mumbling “quantum” as a confusing metaphor. And scientists don’t know everything!
Make that man a DI fellow.
Gee, wasn’t there already a word for “quantum” leaps of mind, like Gestalt? But why would Chopra just use an accepted word in psychology/cog-sci, when he could take over a physics word that sounds rather wooish to a lot of naive folk?
Cause he’s a creative quantum thinker.
Glen Davidson
Here we are in this particular thread talking about Chopra and quantum mechanics,and yet no one has posted a Futurama clip? For shame!
As in a superposition of wave functions muddled?
” … once qualified as a doctor …”
That is pretty nasty.
“We think that many times patients may feel healed, even though they may die from a disease, if they learn to go beyond their personal fear of death.”
Because feeling healed is what medicine’s about, really. So many of medicine’s arrogant afficionados have hijacked the word to mean preventing death and stuff.
Oh, the charlatan Deeeeepak Chop-Chop…
From now on my metaphor for Chopra is “idiot”.
Chopra is in a superposition of many quantum states: batshit insane, freaking stupid, fraudulent, hyper confused and bloody weird.
My quantum lunch salad is quite tasty.
BTW if any of you haven’t seen it, the show this clip is taken from is excellent.
Just fill this out and you too can give advice like Deepak Chopra
http://www.calamitiesofnature.com/archive/?c=555
Example of @DBagChopra. It’d be nice to see hir get more followers, they always put a smile on my face.
Denephew@3 quantumn is my favorite season – but I like springtumn too…
I just found some cheese(?) in the back of the fridge.
Is quantumn green and fuzzy?
Only if you’re doing it right.
I always thought of a “quantum leap” in the mind as more of a “Eureka” moment.
Eureka moments don’t seem to fit into the “discontinuity” category. It’s more of an example of broadly distributed, continuous processing power.
Excerpt from “Eureka Hunt,” an article published by the New Yorker in July, 2008:
chigau:
No. Quantumn is orange, yellow and red. ‘Specially ’round the Quantumnal Equine.
So if SOPA passed would Chopra be charged with copyright infringement for taking a word coined by a scientist and claiming credit for it? Or is it just another case of a religious fraud getting a religious exemption?
The DBag tweets are hilarious.
If you think “quantum” has it bad try “quark”.
Schroedinger’s Duck?
If it muddles like a duck and quarks like a duck, is it in the box?
Ray, rude-ass yankee
Quantum was only used to describe the discrete nature of energy levels and its derivation from quantus is nothing more than an indication of quantity.
I prefer this appropriation, at least it cleans dishes well.
And thank you Og for Schroedinger’s Duck, that one gave me a hearty chuckle.
Quark is quantumn joyce cheese.
These days, whenever I hear a huckster like Chopra utter the word ‘quantum’, I simply replace it in my mind with ‘abracadabra’. His blather doesn’t make any less sense with this simple word substitution – I wonder why that should be?
Why, it is almost as if he uses the word without any inkling of its actual meaning, but that can’t be right. Afterall, he coined the
preciousterm, and those sneaky little physicistsese stole it from him!Excellent mental image. I think that explains my favourite joke –
Q: what is the difference between a duck?
A: one of its legs is both the same
Obviously it’s a Schroedinger’s Duck.
I could explain quantum mechanics, but I can’t. It’s a dual-state problem. . .
There is a guy who teaches “Quantum Jujitsu” which means who-the-hell-knows. Jujitsu that works by small discrete movements over small distances instead of smooth continuous motions over long distances? It has become, in popular culture, one of those words that just means “somehow better than something else”. The BS in the martial arts is comparable to the BS in medical quackery. However, it is probably less dangerous to mankind.
Metaphor can be useful for communicating difficult concepts. If I’m trying to explain something unfamiliar to you, and I use as metaphor a concept you’re familiar with, that can help lead you to understanding. But if instead I choose my metaphor from an area of science which is notoriously hard to grasp, isn’t that pretty much an admission that I’m using it to obfuscate, not enlighten?
@tim rowledge, Ersatz Haderach
Wow, that’s my #1 too. My friends wondered why I was rolling around the floor while reading a generally unfunny student RAG rag. More recently I’ve never been able to adequately describe it to various Slavic mates of mine, I swear that it’s a language thing. :-/
I had to get to Moggie’s comment to get anything useful out of these comments. Quite right, you use objects of our everyday experience as analogies to try to explain difficult concepts. For example waves and particles to explain the various behaviours of electrons passing through double slits. You don’t use concepts no one understands to explain common everyday experiences.
I do like the quantum duck though
I pray to the quantum gods that some future interviewer asks Mr. Ageless Body, Twisted Mind why he is aging the same as everyone else.
I use the word quantum. So I sound very intelligent.
Mike Haynes wrote:
No, Deepak Chopra is full of Qrap!
Once I finish my degree in one of the (very) few fields that actually involves both quantum mechanics and medicine, I’m going to have to take up public debate…”That’s Doctor knows-what-he’s-talking-about to you, faux-quantum-dude.”
Hooray, here comes another quantum.
—Mustrum Ridcully
Daz #53
+1 for the pTerry citation.
I know you are but what am I?
dbagchopra:
A quantumn tomato?
The Universe provides the entire salad. I just toss it for you.
Oh! Well, then, that’s a horse of a different color.
Me thinks Deepak is suffering from quantum entanglement.
And yes, this thread has elicited the most spontaneous expressions of quantum mirth in a long time
In at least one universe, Deepak Chopra understands and uses quantum mechanics properly.
@55Ha! If you build it, xie will come. I’m a fan. And a follower. Though definitely not a quantum. Probably.
Deepak’s quantum duality. He is either talking or he is making sense. Both states cannot coexist.
And +1 Internets to Kel.
Wow, I thought surely you must be exaggerating, PZ, when you said he accused physicists of hijacking the word “quantum”. But no, he just flat-out said that. Wow. Chopra may be staggeringly ignorant, but you have to admire the sheer depth and breadth of his chutzpah.
May be.
I think it’s more likely that he’s a shyster
Pet Peeve. Actually, no I don’t.
Question: While completely disregarding Chopra, is it possible for a person to alter his or her epigenome through a profound experience most people would say was religious? I saw a TED video with Dan Gilbert a few years ago where he said there was evidence that some things that we “make up” could cause a deep subconscious change.
So So should Deepdish Chutney’s next book be titled THE QUANTUM OF DUMBASS?
Far be it for me to even sound like I’m defending Deepshite, but isn’t he claiming that scientists have “hijacked” the word “discontinuity“, not “quantum” as is being argued above?
3:00 – 3:35
A small point maybe, but…
Deepak Chopra is laughing his ass off all the way to the bank.
Bullshit and lies = money.
Truth and integrity = …truth and integrity!
This “bullshit baffles brains” schisterism is going to keep on being used as long as the scientifically illiterate masses keep lapping it up and paying big bucks for it.
Now, let me see if I can think of some sciency sounding words, and tie them all together in a babbling brook of nonsense, and mix it in with the word healing, maybe I could retire independently wealthy. I know, “healed by the exponential faraday rotated, mass-spectrometer-quark, light beam, calculus derivative”! You’ll be amazed at how it can make you feel younger, and more vibrant, and more in tune with your central limit theorem!
Anyone have any better ideas?
So let me get this straight, he wanted a poetic comparison for consciousness, and that immediately led him to some of the most opaque and math laden ideas in science?
What an obnoxious bullshitter this guy is.
Why would I admire people who shit on science by being deliberately dishonest about what it means?
The ability to be assertive and confident while lying is a horrible thing to admire.
shorter Chopra:
“I put my goalposts on JETPACKS, motherfucker!”
Is this his idea of payback for being shown up as a fraud?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/deepak-chopra/dawkins-magic-of-reality_b_1004216.html
“The afficianados in the world of quantum physics have somehow hijacked the word for their own use.”
By the phrase “afficianodos in the world of quantum physics”, he’s either referring to the pseudo-scientific bullshit con-artists of which he is a member and prime exponent, OR he is referring to quantum physicists and is therefore a liar of exceptional proportions.
Now, isn’t THAT an interesting…distinction?
Might anyone wonder which one of these he might means? Not me. Either way, he’s still a dishonest schmuck.
Must say, RD is doing a sterling effort at keeping a straight face. You can almost not see the microtwitches.