The Copenhagen Interpretation

Lars Becker-Larsen presents his film "The Copenhagen Interpretation" from 2004, which has received excellent reviews in Denmark as well as internationally. The presentation will be followed by comments on the film from the points of view of physics, philosophy and the history of science.

Lars Becker-Larsen, free-lance filmmaker

Lars Becker-Larsen describes his film as follows: The world cannot be so crazy, Albert Einstein is said to have stated about the philosophical lesson that Niels Bohr derived from quantum physics. This lesson is known as the Copenhagen Interpretation, and since it was first presented in the 1920s, it has been a bone of contention.

To this day, prominent physicists disagree about the far-reaching consequences of the Copenhagen Interpretation and what is to be understood as reality. In Vienna, the recent realisation in practice of some of the central thought experiments of quantum physics has demonstrated clearly that the tiniest building blocks of all things constitute a paradoxically different world. Now the strange quantum phenomena can be ascertained even at great distances, and physicists hope that they can be utilised in a future generation of extremely fast computers.

The film will be followed by ten-minute comments by - Eugene Polzik, professor of physics at the Quantum Optics Lab at the Niels Bohr Institute; Carl Henrik Koch, associate professor of philosophy at the University of Copenhagen;
Helge Kragh, professor of the history of science at the University of Aarhus.
After the comments, there will be a general discussion. The event is expected to last approximately two hours.