I just saw a comment that linked to an article explaining how Nobel prize winners recently discovered the universe is not locally real. My brain isn’t functioning properly today, so can someone please help me understand what this means?
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Locality is the idea that cause precedes effect limited by the speed of light/causality.
Realism is the idea that the rules of the universe apply the same to everything equally.
The most common demonstration that the universe cannot be locally real is that if you take two entangled particles in an indeterminate state (superposition). Because they are entangled the definite state one particle ends up in will match the other particle.
This holds true even if the particles zoom in opposite directions and resolve into their deterministic states despite being separated by a distance that rules out any kind of synchronizing intersection between the two particles
Other experiments have proven that there aren’t hidden properties where the particles have somehow determined what state they have ended up in from the start.
You may have heard it referred to as spooky action at a distance. Particles despite having no cause/effect relationship simply end up in consistent states.
The overall conclusion is that despite our instinct to the contrary, that’s just how physics works. Time and distance are simply irrelevant to how entangled indeterminate quantum systems evolve into definite systems. No cause, only effect.
Thus the rules of the universe are non-local.
The alternative is that the rules of the universe are not real.
That is instead of having nice consistent physics, the rules just change to make things work out. Maybe we really are living in a simulation. Maybe every single possible interaction occurs and the multiverses that aren’t consistent wink out of existence. Or other equally extreme and or unsettling propositions. Most people would rather believe in non locality than non reality though.
Lastly physics may be both non local and non real, which is again not a super common take on the matter.
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