Newton discovered an algorithm by which he could calculate the gravitational effects of matter on matter. He also famously refused to embroider his algorithm with a story purporting to explain by what mechanism or process matter acts on matter.

While the Newtonian gravitational action of one body on another depends on the simultaneous positions of the two bodies, the electromagnetic action of matter on matter is retarded: if here there is a charge and there there is another, and if you jiggle the charge here, then the charge there begins to jiggle after a time T = D/c, where D is the distance between the two charges and c is the speed of light. This retardation made it possible to transmogrify the algorithm for calculating the electromagnetic effects of matter on matter into some kind of physical process by which matter acts on matter.

Fact is that the calculation of electromagnetic effects can be carried out in two steps: given the distribution and motion of electrically charged objects, we calculate the six components of the electromagnetic field (a tensor function of position and time) using Maxwell's equations, and given these six components, we calculate the electromagnetic effects that these objects have on any other charged object using the Lorentz force law.

Fiction is that the electromagnetic field is a physical entity in its own right; that it is locally generated by charges here, that it mediates the action of charges on charges by locally acting on itself, and that it locally acts on charges there.

By Eric Scerri

From the September 2004 issue of Skeptical Inquirer Magazine  

People who espouse New Age philosophies are not generally known for their knowledge of modern science or their respect for critical thinking. Ironically enough, though, when it comes to quantum mechanics, everything seems to change, and they embrace it wholeheartedly. Given half a chance, many of them have something to say on the subject. But what New Agers really seem to like about quantum mechanics is all those alleged bizarre effects that they mistakenly believe can be appropriated to support their views on the nature of reality and the cosmos.

It therefore comes as no surprise that the makers of a recent New Age movie making its way across the country decided to inject a massive dose of quantum mechanics into the film's storyline. What the #$*! Do We Know!? is packing them in. Many people who have seen the movie are already claiming that it has changed their lives. I tried to go to one of the first screenings in Los Angeles and was turned away because it was sold out. So what is this movie that uses quantum mechanics to change people's lives?