Einstein's Unfinished Revolution

In the AI Story

Quantum mechanics in its standard form treats the wave function as a complete description of physical systems. The wave function evolves deterministically according to the Schrödinger equation until measurement, at which point it collapses non-deterministically to a single outcome. The standard Copenhagen interpretation, developed by Niels Bohr and his colleagues, treats this collapse as fundamental rather than apparent — as a feature of reality rather than a feature of our ignorance. The consequence is that physical systems do not have definite properties independent of measurement. The moon, in some strong sense, does not exist when no one is looking.

Einstein rejected this interpretation throughout his life. His famous debates with Bohr, his EPR paper with Podolsky and Rosen (1935), his comments about God not playing dice — all were expressions of his conviction that physics should describe a world that exists independently of observation, and that the non-realist interpretations of quantum mechanics were therefore incomplete. Einstein predicted that a deeper theory would eventually be discovered that would restore realism while preserving the empirical successes of quantum mechanics.

Smolin's book is an extended argument for Einstein's position. The book surveys the major interpretations of quantum mechanics — Copenhagen, many-worlds, de Broglie-Bohm (pilot wave), spontaneous collapse, and others — and argues that only a specifically realist and relational interpretation can finish the work Einstein began. The interpretation Smolin advocates draws on his own work on relational physics (space and time are not fixed containers but relationships between events) and his commitment to the reality of time (the wave function's evolution is not merely mathematical but temporal and causal).

The book is particularly relevant to AI because the question of what counts as real observation, and what role consciousness plays in defining physical outcomes, has consequences for how to think about AI systems. If measurement requires a conscious observer (one reading of Copenhagen), then AI systems that process information without being conscious are not making measurements in the fundamental sense. If measurement is simply any interaction that produces definite outcomes (a realist interpretation), then AI systems are engaged in measurement just as much as human observers are. The choice of interpretation bears on deep questions about the ontological status of AI cognition.

Smolin's realism also connects to the question of genuine novelty. If the wave function's evolution is a real temporal process — if the collapse to definite outcomes is a real event in the thick present — then each measurement is a moment where possibilities resolve into actualities that were not predetermined. This is genuine novelty at the quantum scale. Whether human and AI cognition participate in this resolution, or whether they are epiphenomenal to it, is a question the book poses without fully resolving.

Origin

The book was published by Penguin Press in 2019. It extends arguments Smolin had been developing across decades, incorporating his work on loop quantum gravity, his collaborations with Roberto Mangabeira Unger on the reality of time, and his engagement with the philosophy of physics.

Key Ideas

Quantum mechanics incomplete. Despite a century of success, the standard interpretations abandon the realism that Einstein insisted physics must preserve.

Realism required. A complete physical theory must describe a world that exists independently of observation — the moon exists whether or not anyone is looking.

Relational approach. Space and time are not fixed containers but relationships between events — the framework that makes realism compatible with relativity.

Time is real. The wave function's evolution is a real temporal process, not a mathematical abstraction on a timeless block universe.

Finishing Einstein's program. The book is an argument for completing the revolution Einstein began — restoring realism while preserving the empirical successes of quantum mechanics.