Re: quantization of space and time

[Tucker Hiatt <hiattu00@USFCA.EDU>]

In his recent book, "The Fabric of Reality" (Penguin Press, 1997), Oxford
bigshot David Deutsch has this to say about the scope of quantization:

"Even for quantities like distance (between two atoms,say), the notion of a
continuous range of possible values turns out to be an idealization.  There
are no measurable continuous quantities in physics." (p.36)

- Tucker ("Feeling Broken-Up About It") Hiatt

John Denker wrote:

> I wrote "there's no evidence that space is quantized" and people have been
> wondering why I didn't say "space is not quantized."
>
> Answer:  In principle, it might be quantized at some ridiculously small
> scale, such as 10^-999 meters.  Dynamics in such a lattice would be
> indistinguishable from dynamics in a continuum. We see an analogous effect
> in crystals, where electrons near the bottom of a band act like free
> particles (with some effective mass).  At higher energy, one sees
> anharmonicity, band gaps, et cetera.  If our universe has such
> anharmonicities and band gaps, they are at such high energies that we
> cannot detect them.
>
> Bottom line:  it is safe to _assume_ we live in a continuum, but it is
> impossible to _prove_ it.
>
> The same goes for quantization of time.


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Tucker Hiatt, Director
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