A Watched Kettle Never Boils

By Fred Alan Wolf

Ever wonder how lucky or unlucky you are? Or do you think that whatever success or failure you've had had nothing to do with luck? Well, if the quantum world has anything to do with it, there is a way to beat Lady Luck at her own game. All you need to do is look at the world vigilantly and carefully.

Quantum physics is the theory of the behaviour of matter and energy, particularly at the level of atoms and subatomic particles. It is nearly ipossible to imagine the strange behaviour of matter at this level. An electron in an atom, for example, performs a trick much like the crew on Star Trek when it "beams" from one energy level to another without going in between. But if we aren't watching it jump, we have no control as to when it will happen. But suppose we do watch? Well, if current experiments in quantum physics are relevant to our everyday experiences, we will actually be able to alter the matter - and thereby the crapshoot of life. But there is a catch to all this: to do it you need to begin to see things quantum mechanically.

Take the old proverb "A watched kettle never boils." Now imagine a tiny, quantum-sized "pot of water" being heated on a really tiny stove.

We all know pots of water boil, given a few minutes or so. You would certainly think the watched quantum pot would also boil. It turns out, however, that if you vigilantly watch the pot, it will never boil. In fact, all vigilantly watched "quantum pots" never boil, even if they are heated for ever. The only requirement for this to happen is that observers must have the intent to see the object in its intial state.

This intent is determined by the frequency of their observations. The observers must look repeatedly in very short time intervals to find the object in the same state. Suppose physicists don't watch vigilantly, or suppose they do but with the intent of seeing the quantum pot boil naturally. Then what? If the physicist looks intermittently, expecting ti to boil eventually, the pot will follow its natural course and will boil. Infrequent observations have little effect on the result. Or if the physicist wish, they may vigilantly observe the object along its natural evolution and will observe the same result. in other words a watched pot boils if you intend it to.

Finally, there is another bizarre aspect to all this. What if you want the watched pot to do something weird? If your intent to observe that occurence is vigilant enough, the object will actually follow the strange path. Hence a watched pot boils on a cake of ice, if you intend it to.

Here I need to point out that "intent" and "intentions" are not the same thing. By "intent" I an referring to a person's active observation. To make what you desire come true you need to pursue your vision vigorously, not passively dream about it and hope it will come true.

If this "watched pot" theory turns out to be correct at the human level, then our desires and accompanying actions are what actually govern our daily lives. Luck has nothing to do with it.