Peter Moller - Collaborator, Physicist, Los Alamos
Date1988
Mediumchromogenic color print
Dimensions20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)
ClassificationsPhotography
Credit LineAlbuquerque Museum, museum purchase, 1989 General Obligation Bonds
Object numberPC1990.69.49
DescriptionThis color photograph is of the physicist Peter Moller with a signature and typed inscription by Moller underneath. Moller is seated at a desk with a roll of film in his hands.The inscription reads:
What is my view of reality? In quantum mechanics, the question, "what is reality" has a well-defined answer. It is what completely automatic experiments record about the world they observe, for example the photo from a satellite or the outcome of an automatic temperature measurement. Here automatic means that the result is written on some permanent records without human interference. However, the question is, what is my view of reality. First let me point out that despite our precise scientific definition of reality there are in science some problems with it, partly because at some point there is an interaction between the experimental result and human consciousness. Perhaps some of the difficulties arise because there is not the vaguest of scientific understanding of the nature of consciousness. I personally find it particularly intriguing that our level of consciousness depends on the hardwiring of our brain. If a frog were asked "What is your view of reality?" we would receive no answer. I, at least, can say "I do not know." Perhaps the world would be a totally uninteresting place to live in if the answer were precisely known. In quantum mechanics it is not possible to know the position and momentum of a particle to infinite precision simultaneously. In a wider context, perhaps the simultaneous existence of consciousness and a precise understanding of "reality" are mutually incompatible. I therefore contend myself with observing the world for clues, and in the absence of a great insight I solve simpler problems.
On View
Not on viewTerms
