Object Knowledge and Supersense Cognitive Modules offer possible explanations as to why physicists look for alternatives to the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics.

1. Quantum Psychology
{ Andrew Lang
COSE 2013-03-13

2. PROSPERO
A devil, a born devil, on whose nature
Nurture can never stick; on whom my pains,
Humanely taken, all, all lost, quite lost.
- The Tempest 1610
Nature vs. Nurture

3. Empiricism: Are we born as “blank slates”
without built-in knowledge or
understanding? Does knowledge and
understanding only come through sensory
experience?
Proponents: St. Thomas Aquinas, John Locke,
Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Joseph Stalin
Opponents: Plato, St. Augustine, Descartes,
Ayn Rand, Steven Pinker, Noam Chomsky,
Elizabeth Spelke, Bruce Hood
Tabula Rasa

4. If we’re not born a
blank slate, then what
knowledge, skills or
abilities are "native" or
hard-wired into the
brain at birth?

5.  Language (Pinker, Chomsky)
 Mathematics (Leibnitz)
 Supernatural Belief (Hood)
“Supersense”
 Aristotelian/Newtonian Mechanics (Spelke)
“Object Knowledge”
Cognitive Modules

6. “This weird gravity error reveals some interesting
things about the minds of young children. The
first is that they reason in a theory like way. They
try to apply knowledge they already possess to
make sense of and predict what might happen
next. ” - Bruce Hood
Gravity Error: Video on YouTube
Hardwired for gravity? Naïve Physics

7. Object Knowledge Cognitive Module
 “Objects do not go in and out of existence like the
Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. Their solidity
dictates that they are not phantoms that can move
through walls.”
 “Objects are bounded so that they do not break up
and then come back together again.”
 “Objects move on continuous paths so that they
cannot teleport from one part of the room to another
part without being seen crossing in between.”
 “Objects generally only move when something else
makes them move by force or collision.”
Elizabeth Spelke

8. “How do we know that these rules are operating in babies?
For the simple reason that babies look longer when each of
them is broken in a bit of stage-show magic. By applying
the principles of conjuring and illusion, scientists have been
able to show that young infants have knowledge about the
physical world….”
Bruce Hood – Psychologist, Magician

9. In quantum mechanics objects do go in and out of existence
like the Cheshire Cat in Alice in Wonderland. They are
phantoms and can move through walls.
Quantum Tunneling
Quantum Mechanics is not Intuitive

10. In quantum mechanics objects are not bounded, they do break
up and then come back together again.
Wave particle duality
Quantum Mechanics is not Intuitive

11. In quantum mechanics objects do not move on continuous
paths and they can teleport from one part of the room to
another part without being seen crossing in between.
Particle in a box – 2nd energy level
Quantum Mechanics is not Intuitive

12. Zero Point Energy
In quantum mechanics
objects move all the time, it
is impossible to make them
stand still.
Quantum Mechanics is not Intuitive

13.  A system is completely described by a wave function,
representing the state of the system, which evolves smoothly in
time, except when a measurement is made, at which point it
instantaneously collapses to an eigenstate of the observable
measured.
 The description of nature is essentially probabilistic, with the
probability of a given outcome of a measurement given by the
square of the amplitude of the wave function. (The Born rule,
after Max Born)
 It is not possible to know the value of all the properties of the
system at the same time; those properties that are not known
exactly must be described by probabilities. (Heisenberg's
uncertainty principle)
 Matter exhibits a wave–particle duality. An experiment can show
the particle-like properties of matter, or the wave-like properties;
in some experiments both of these complementary viewpoints
must be invoked to explain the results, according to
the complementarity principle of Niels Bohr.
Copenhagen Interpretation

14. “Quantum mechanics is certainly imposing. But an inner voice
tells me that it is not yet the real thing. The theory says a lot,
but does not really bring us any closer to the secret of the "old
one." I, at any rate, am convinced that He does not throw
dice.” – Einstein
“For those who are not shocked when they first come across
quantum theory cannot possibly have understood it.” – Bohr
"I think I can safely say that nobody understands quantum
mechanics.“ – Feynman
Quantum teleportation - Quantum entanglement - EPR
Paradox: “Spooky action at a distance” - Einstein
“Quantum Weirdness”

15.  Hidden Variables: Hidden variable theories contend
that quantum mechanics is incomplete and there are
“hidden variables” needed to fully describe reality.
Local hidden variable theories were shown to be
incompatible with quantum mechanics by Bell in 1964.
 Many Worlds: The many-worlds interpretation (Everett
1957) is an interpretation of quantum mechanics that
asserts the objective reality of the universal
wavefunction and denies the actuality of wavefunction
collapse. Many-worlds implies that all possible
alternative histories and futures are real, each
representing an actual "world" (or "universe").
Alternative Interpretations

16. Quantum Mechanics is not hard to
understand it is just hard to believe.
Part of the appeal of alternatives to
the Copenhagen Interpretation is
that they satisfy our native object
knowledge cognitive module.