We cannot know as a matter of principle, the present in all of its details
– Werner Heisenberg
δxδp≥ ħ/2
The Uncertainty Principle was formulated by Werner Heisenberg around 1927. It shows how probability is blended into the fundamental architecture of reality. It highlights the mutual exclusivity of various attributes of the universe; and how there are limits as to how accurately we can simultaneously measure those attributes. More simply put… the more you know about one feature the less you can inherently know about the other and vice versa.
The most common elements used to describe this are the position and velocity or momentum of a single particle such as an electron. The principle insists that the more precisely you can measure and ascertain the location of a particle, the less you are able to divine about its velocity. In fact if we know precisely the exact location of the particle, then by principle we can know absolutely nothing about its velocity.
One way to understand why this is so is this: When we attempt to observe the location of a given object such as an electron we must interact with it somehow. That very action of observation interferes with and changes the electrons velocity. The tinier and more ethereal the particle is, the greater the energies are that are required to observe it.
Therefore it is a non-transmutable feature of quantum mechanics that it is impossible to precisely know the exact properties of a particle such as velocity and position simultaneously. This in turn is related to some degree to the observer effect in that in the quantum realm we cannot observe something without altering it in some way. It may even be meaningless to use our everyday terms of location and velocity. Taking this a step further we can certainly at least ask the question, can there ever be an objective reality?
“Can there ever be an objective reality?”
Just as multitasking is ludicrous, we cannot endeavour to locate a particle and measure velocity at the same time. We have limited abilities.
That said, the only objective reality (and often overlooked) I can think of is the natural world. Given that we are sentient beings, and given that we are rational beings, our experience of reality is all but objective. This is because we are no longer part of the natural world but observers of it. We have evolved to such a point that we have removed ourselves from the most elegant equation ever devised. Now we are looking for that equation in a frenzy, but the search is as meaningful as a decapitated chicken looking about for its head.
The very knowledge or concept of nature is a tacit (albeit involuntary) concession of our divorce from the natural world. Objective reality is lived, not conceptualized. It flows through the creatures of the natural world. If we could ask a wild animal what objective reality is (and if that animal could speak) he would probably not respond.
That is because the answer is quietly standing in front of the question itself.