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ntm wrote

I have some sympathies with what the author is trying to communicate, but when they use language such as "quantum changes" it can lead to many challenges when it comes to physicists trying to communicate quantum mechanics to a general audience. Describing it as "quantum" intends not to describe something accurately, but to pull in the weight of another frontier of science unnecessarily, ("quantum" becomes a meaningless buzzphrase).

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surreal wrote

i think what he means by quantum is that jump from one state to another without any intermediate states, nothing to do with quantum mechanics.

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ntm wrote

I get that, but why not use "discontinuous" or something less ambiguous?

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surreal wrote

yep he probably should but quantum also implies that the states are discrete and measurable. anyway the concept of quantum is like a century old and these new interdisciplinary sciences like to borrow buzzwords.

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