Ken Wharton
@kenwharton.bsky.social
Physics professor at San Jose State. Quantum Foundations. Big fan of space and time, and also many things therein.
The talks from a recent quantum foundations conference at Chapman U. are now online... Each day is its own 5-hour video, I guess. My talk, "A realistic alternative to the wavefunction", happened to be the first on day 1 (skip to the 10 minute mark). www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPwj...
john templeton foundation at chapman iqs conference day 1 720p
YouTube video by Institute for Quantum Studies
www.youtube.com
February 9, 2026 at 7:04 PM
The talks from a recent quantum foundations conference at Chapman U. are now online... Each day is its own 5-hour video, I guess. My talk, "A realistic alternative to the wavefunction", happened to be the first on day 1 (skip to the 10 minute mark). www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPwj...
Reposted by Ken Wharton
The CSU/OpenAI contract is set to expire June 30, 2026.
Sign this petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/cancel-chatgpt-edu-invest-in-humans/ for the CSU NOT to renew the contract and to use the savings to protect jobs at CSU campuses facing layoffs.
Sign this petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/cancel-chatgpt-edu-invest-in-humans/ for the CSU NOT to renew the contract and to use the savings to protect jobs at CSU campuses facing layoffs.
January 31, 2026 at 2:00 AM
The CSU/OpenAI contract is set to expire June 30, 2026.
Sign this petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/cancel-chatgpt-edu-invest-in-humans/ for the CSU NOT to renew the contract and to use the savings to protect jobs at CSU campuses facing layoffs.
Sign this petition: https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/cancel-chatgpt-edu-invest-in-humans/ for the CSU NOT to renew the contract and to use the savings to protect jobs at CSU campuses facing layoffs.
Thanks for the nice "shout-outs" in the second half! And even more thanks for working up to a wonderfully clear account of how entanglement might be explained by a retrocausal hidden variable model, Bell's theorem notwithstanding.
@danielwhiteson.bsky.social
@weinersmith.bsky.social
@danielwhiteson.bsky.social
@weinersmith.bsky.social
Can quantum measurements change the past?
Daniel and Kelly talk about the problem of time in quantum mechanics and how the past might depend on the future.
www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...
Daniel and Kelly talk about the problem of time in quantum mechanics and how the past might depend on the future.
www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...
January 21, 2026 at 4:58 PM
Thanks for the nice "shout-outs" in the second half! And even more thanks for working up to a wonderfully clear account of how entanglement might be explained by a retrocausal hidden variable model, Bell's theorem notwithstanding.
@danielwhiteson.bsky.social
@weinersmith.bsky.social
@danielwhiteson.bsky.social
@weinersmith.bsky.social
Reposted by Ken Wharton
Here's the data:
January 15, 2026 at 1:22 AM
Here's the data:
Reposted by Ken Wharton
Globally, no single day in 2025 was cooler than its 1991-2020 average.
climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...
climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...
January 14, 2026 at 12:44 PM
Globally, no single day in 2025 was cooler than its 1991-2020 average.
climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...
climate.copernicus.eu/global-clima...
Reposted by Ken Wharton
A year after the Eaton fire, the loss of Altadena is still raw
A year after the Eaton fire, the loss of Altadena is still raw
A reporter reflects on the loss of her hometown, Altadena, remembering what it was and imagining what it will become.
www.latimes.com
January 7, 2026 at 1:46 PM
A year after the Eaton fire, the loss of Altadena is still raw
Today I ran across my FQxI podcast interview from (gulp) nine years ago… Still holds up! But was I ever really that well-spoken? I suspect they must have cut out all the uhs and ums. qspace.fqxi.org/podcasts/dat...
FQxI Podcast: December 12, 2016
The Foundational Questions Institute, FQxI, catalyzes, supports, and disseminates research on questions at the foundations of science, particularly new frontiers and innovative ideas integral to a dee...
qspace.fqxi.org
November 19, 2025 at 3:46 AM
Today I ran across my FQxI podcast interview from (gulp) nine years ago… Still holds up! But was I ever really that well-spoken? I suspect they must have cut out all the uhs and ums. qspace.fqxi.org/podcasts/dat...
This was actually very good! Only real complaint is that they missed the retrocausal option. And superdeterminism is always getting more attention than it deserves. But I liked the early focus on randomness, and they tried harder than most to motivate an explanation of the classical limit.
Daniel and Kelly talk about the confusing aspects of quantum entanglement, and try to untangle the concepts.
www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...
www.iheart.com/podcast/105-...
November 14, 2025 at 10:25 PM
This was actually very good! Only real complaint is that they missed the retrocausal option. And superdeterminism is always getting more attention than it deserves. But I liked the early focus on randomness, and they tried harder than most to motivate an explanation of the classical limit.
It’s really too bad that my sub-field of quantum foundations research doesn’t have any Halloween-related or spooky aspects, no way that anyone could ever use the season to drum up any... any fake-quoted, overdramatic…
Oh.
Oh dear.
molotovsunsets.substack.com/p/the-univer...
Oh.
Oh dear.
molotovsunsets.substack.com/p/the-univer...
The Universe Knows How You Die
Retrocausality and the Backward Reach of Time
molotovsunsets.substack.com
October 30, 2025 at 4:10 PM
It’s really too bad that my sub-field of quantum foundations research doesn’t have any Halloween-related or spooky aspects, no way that anyone could ever use the season to drum up any... any fake-quoted, overdramatic…
Oh.
Oh dear.
molotovsunsets.substack.com/p/the-univer...
Oh.
Oh dear.
molotovsunsets.substack.com/p/the-univer...
Reposted by Ken Wharton
Great news for Michael Berry who has received the Isaac Newton medal of the IOP. What I absolutely love about his work is that it cuts across so many different areas of physics - from the foundations of quantum physics to understanding the rainbow. physicsworld.com/a/theoretica...
Theoretical physicist Michael Berry wins 2025 Isaac Newton Medal and Prize – Physics World
Berry recognized for his contributions in mathematics and theoretical physics over a 60-year career
physicsworld.com
October 15, 2025 at 8:50 PM
Great news for Michael Berry who has received the Isaac Newton medal of the IOP. What I absolutely love about his work is that it cuts across so many different areas of physics - from the foundations of quantum physics to understanding the rainbow. physicsworld.com/a/theoretica...
Reposted by Ken Wharton
Let me try to explain why it's important to study the foundations of quantum mechanics. (1/n)
(Have to do some breathing exercises, b/c to me it's blindingly obvious that "understanding the most important theory in physics" is something physicists should care about, but apparently opinions differ.)
(Have to do some breathing exercises, b/c to me it's blindingly obvious that "understanding the most important theory in physics" is something physicists should care about, but apparently opinions differ.)
Nature (and @lizziegibney.bsky.social) take a more-than-usually systematic look at the greatest failure of modern physics: the fact that we can't even agree on what quantum mechanics says.
And the leader is an approach that is notoriously not well-defined. Ugh.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
And the leader is an approach that is notoriously not well-defined. Ugh.
www.nature.com/articles/d41...
July 30, 2025 at 4:35 PM
Let me try to explain why it's important to study the foundations of quantum mechanics. (1/n)
(Have to do some breathing exercises, b/c to me it's blindingly obvious that "understanding the most important theory in physics" is something physicists should care about, but apparently opinions differ.)
(Have to do some breathing exercises, b/c to me it's blindingly obvious that "understanding the most important theory in physics" is something physicists should care about, but apparently opinions differ.)
Reposted by Ken Wharton
Why The Quantum State Only Exists In Our Mind
A metaphysical shift that’s happening in the foundations of physics: the wave function is no longer regarded as something real, but just as a description of what we know about the world.
youtu.be/SgQdDD3SY84
A metaphysical shift that’s happening in the foundations of physics: the wave function is no longer regarded as something real, but just as a description of what we know about the world.
youtu.be/SgQdDD3SY84
Why The Quantum State Only Exists In Our Mind
YouTube video by Essentia Foundation
youtu.be
June 7, 2025 at 1:58 PM
Why The Quantum State Only Exists In Our Mind
A metaphysical shift that’s happening in the foundations of physics: the wave function is no longer regarded as something real, but just as a description of what we know about the world.
youtu.be/SgQdDD3SY84
A metaphysical shift that’s happening in the foundations of physics: the wave function is no longer regarded as something real, but just as a description of what we know about the world.
youtu.be/SgQdDD3SY84
Uhoh – looks like a few people on Reddit have started playing around with the central ideas in my latest arXiv preprint. Must be time to polish it up and actually submit the damn thing.
(But still, always nice to read "it's kind of blown me away"...)
www.reddit.com/r/QuantumPhy...
(But still, always nice to read "it's kind of blown me away"...)
www.reddit.com/r/QuantumPhy...
"A Localized Reality Appears To Underpin Quantum Circuits" (with consequences for entanglement)
www.reddit.com
May 19, 2025 at 7:19 PM
Uhoh – looks like a few people on Reddit have started playing around with the central ideas in my latest arXiv preprint. Must be time to polish it up and actually submit the damn thing.
(But still, always nice to read "it's kind of blown me away"...)
www.reddit.com/r/QuantumPhy...
(But still, always nice to read "it's kind of blown me away"...)
www.reddit.com/r/QuantumPhy...
Heading to Alaska soon, where apparently even the landslides are beautiful.
May 11, 2025 at 9:39 PM
Heading to Alaska soon, where apparently even the landslides are beautiful.
Reposted by Ken Wharton
Thanks to @mercurynews.com for covering the $55.9M in NIH cuts to Bay Area research funding. I appreciate that they didn't just focus on the elite institutions (a colleague and I are quoted) & want to share some key takeaways 🧪 1/ www.mercurynews.com/2025/05/05/b...
Bay Area universities in chaos amid research funding cuts
The Trump administration has canceled hundreds of research grants.
www.mercurynews.com
May 7, 2025 at 2:59 AM
Thanks to @mercurynews.com for covering the $55.9M in NIH cuts to Bay Area research funding. I appreciate that they didn't just focus on the elite institutions (a colleague and I are quoted) & want to share some key takeaways 🧪 1/ www.mercurynews.com/2025/05/05/b...
Unsolicited advice for making progress in quantum foundations:
1) If there were a gentle tweak or simple idea that would make clear sense of quantum theory, beyond the for-all-practical-purposes-level, it would certainly have been found by now.
1) If there were a gentle tweak or simple idea that would make clear sense of quantum theory, beyond the for-all-practical-purposes-level, it would certainly have been found by now.
May 6, 2025 at 9:59 PM
Unsolicited advice for making progress in quantum foundations:
1) If there were a gentle tweak or simple idea that would make clear sense of quantum theory, beyond the for-all-practical-purposes-level, it would certainly have been found by now.
1) If there were a gentle tweak or simple idea that would make clear sense of quantum theory, beyond the for-all-practical-purposes-level, it would certainly have been found by now.
A very good, wide-ranging interview with Emily Adlam -- most of it on quantum foundations, along with a strong case for retrocausal/all-at-once approaches. youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs?...
The "All At Once" Universe Shatters Our View of Time
YouTube video by Curt Jaimungal
youtu.be
April 13, 2025 at 11:22 PM
A very good, wide-ranging interview with Emily Adlam -- most of it on quantum foundations, along with a strong case for retrocausal/all-at-once approaches. youtu.be/6I2OhmVWLMs?...
Reposted by Ken Wharton
Latest version of my work on entanglement with @kenwharton.bsky.social. We propose that entanglement is a kind of selection artefact. This was a talk at @griffith.edu.au, and the slides are accessible here: bit.ly/4h9dMeo
#philsky #PhilSci #quantum #entanglement
#philsky #PhilSci #quantum #entanglement
A Mechanism for Entanglement?
YouTube video by The Quietist
www.youtube.com
March 6, 2025 at 3:44 AM
Latest version of my work on entanglement with @kenwharton.bsky.social. We propose that entanglement is a kind of selection artefact. This was a talk at @griffith.edu.au, and the slides are accessible here: bit.ly/4h9dMeo
#philsky #PhilSci #quantum #entanglement
#philsky #PhilSci #quantum #entanglement
A little fun news for me... Apparently the last science fiction story I ever wrote, 20 years ago, is now being discussed in at least one Philosophy course! The story is called "Aloha", originally published in the magazine Analog.
Today in our course on the philosophy of space and time: subsystems with opposite arrows of time interacting; does a lone champagne bottle in an empty universe pop or unpop?; and Ken Wharton's tragic scifi love story on retrocausation
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6rV...
www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6rV...
Entropic Time (Backwards Billy Joel Parody) | A Capella Science
YouTube video by acapellascience
www.youtube.com
March 3, 2025 at 5:21 PM
A little fun news for me... Apparently the last science fiction story I ever wrote, 20 years ago, is now being discussed in at least one Philosophy course! The story is called "Aloha", originally published in the magazine Analog.
Tonight I got to see the first-ever spacecraft image of Mars, from Mariner 4's flyby. Apparently, before the raw image was processed, people at JPL printed out paper strips of numerical pixel values and -- coloring by hand! -- used pastels to distinguish different brightness levels.
March 2, 2025 at 7:11 AM
Tonight I got to see the first-ever spacecraft image of Mars, from Mariner 4's flyby. Apparently, before the raw image was processed, people at JPL printed out paper strips of numerical pixel values and -- coloring by hand! -- used pastels to distinguish different brightness levels.
I actually shelled out 4 bucks so I could peek behind the Popular Mechanics paywall and see what they are saying about retrocausality in quantum foundations. Maybe I got about 40 cents worth? www.popularmechanics.com/science/a637...
Your Consciousness Can Reach Back in Time to Shape the Past, a New Theory Suggests
In the quantum realm, the past, present, and future blur into a boundless structure. But consciousness may operate on a plane beyond this timeless mist.
www.popularmechanics.com
February 14, 2025 at 5:08 AM
I actually shelled out 4 bucks so I could peek behind the Popular Mechanics paywall and see what they are saying about retrocausality in quantum foundations. Maybe I got about 40 cents worth? www.popularmechanics.com/science/a637...
Richard Feynman’s former house in Altadena burned to the ground last week in the Eaton Fire. So did thousands and thousands of others -- including mine.
1/
1/
January 18, 2025 at 3:42 AM
Richard Feynman’s former house in Altadena burned to the ground last week in the Eaton Fire. So did thousands and thousands of others -- including mine.
1/
1/
Why is it always "Last but not least"?
Surely, every now and then, it should be:
"Last, and -- coincidentally -- also least".
Surely, every now and then, it should be:
"Last, and -- coincidentally -- also least".
January 5, 2025 at 7:10 PM
Why is it always "Last but not least"?
Surely, every now and then, it should be:
"Last, and -- coincidentally -- also least".
Surely, every now and then, it should be:
"Last, and -- coincidentally -- also least".
Reposted by Ken Wharton
December 4, 2024 at 3:54 PM
We’ve started a tradition in our department where the faculty give 5-minute “silly talks” for the last physics seminar of the semester. Here was my contribution:
The Hidden Tragedy of Back to the Future
1/7
The Hidden Tragedy of Back to the Future
1/7
December 24, 2024 at 6:51 PM
We’ve started a tradition in our department where the faculty give 5-minute “silly talks” for the last physics seminar of the semester. Here was my contribution:
The Hidden Tragedy of Back to the Future
1/7
The Hidden Tragedy of Back to the Future
1/7