Not everything spooky is a figment of your imagination. Quantum entanglement (described by Einstein as “spooky action at a distance”) is a real physics phenomenon.
But what’s real about a quantum entanglement wedding ceremony?
When certain sub-atomic particles interact they can become entangled, meaning after they separate they still share certain properties such as momentum, spin and polarization. The entanglement continues indefinitely over time and space until one of the particles is measured or interacts with another particle.Experimental philosopher Jonathon Keats brought his quantum entanglement ceremonies to New York’s Arts Current Institute over the summer.
The ceremony consists of two people being exposed to photons which have become entangled in a nonlinear crystal. The entangled state is supposedly translated to bodies of the participants, entangling them in a quantum wedding.
Participants are encouraged not to be too skeptical of the process as their entanglement would be “literally broken up by skepticism about it.”.
However, being skeptical about entangled particles does nothing to collapse their entangled state. Quantum entanglement collapses when those particles are physically measured, not when they are skeptically considered.
Also, a skeptical thinker may already have noted that exposure to entangled particles does nothing to entangle one human being to one another. The particles become disentangled immediately upon interacting with other matter. They would not settle in the bodies of wedding participants and maintain entanglement in any meaningful way.
Keats seems aware that the entanglement ceremonies are metaphorical, at least according to this video explaining the ceremony. However, much of the news coverage of the ceremonies and the AC Institute’s online description of the experiment is missing that crucial point.
The ceremony is lauded as a way for any couple to share a form of marriage outside of exclusionary man-made laws. While it’s a clever idea with a fun nod to a scientific phenomenon, there’s no need to portray quantum wedding ceremonies as something other than a lovely bit of science fantasy.
For a look at how quantum entanglement may be used in more meaningful applications, check out quantum cryptography.
Cynthia Horwitz is a science communicator, journalist, neophiliac and futurist. You can follow her on Twitter here.