Alice in Quantum Land. Quantum machanics and its influence in (pop) culture

In this seminar we will discuss Quantum Mechanics (QM) not so much from the traditional point of view of Physics, but to assess the inevitable “reverberations” that this discipline has had, and still has, in popular culture. Indeed, one of the aspects known even to the layman is the strangeness of the laws that govern the subatomic world, where totally counterintuitive things happen. Those who are used to doing science in the traditional way, resting their research on solid epistemological foundations, when confronted with QM must “suspend judgment” and very often use it – very pragmatically – as a simple tool (which Physicists have shown they can do very well). The seminar will focus on the bewilderment that the forerunners of this discipline already had to overcome to accept the “rules” it imposed, and we will see that among them even eminent minds made an enormous effort to accept these rules, when not even going so far as to reject this “new Physics” altogether. The seminar will then briefly explore the more “pop” side, which is how, from the point of view of popularizing science, QM offers excellent tools to intrigue a lay audience.