Nothing to see here.

There is a notion in Quantum Theory whereby just looking at a thing – just by the look – you change it. And for years now whenever I look or examine a thing a clock, or a gadget, a pen with a spring inside the result is always that I change the item. As a child I was fascinated by clockwork. I would spend hours just looking inside various clocks and then emboldened I would tinker with less than suitable tools. I was thrilled to discover that there was a spring driven “train” powering the big hand and the little hand. Then also that there was a separate “train” driving the bell for the chimes or for the alarm. My first adventure with the travel alarm clock ended dramatically when I injudiciously loosened some screws – it exploded. Cogs flew everywhere, two landed on the table and spun round and round for ages. I was fascinated and, Quantum Theory or No, I had definitely changed that travel alarm clock by looking at it. I never got that thing back together again.

Another time my electric toothbrush conked out. Electrically the only technical terms I am fully conversant with are ON and OFF. No amount of pressing the button would make it leap into action and buzz away as before. There was some kind of impenetrable sealed-unit casing no doubt to keep the water out. I set it aside and went out and bought another one. New electronics are amusing so I played with all its modes and cleaned my teeth several times to see what the new gadget would do.

Then, as I had done with the old electric toothbrush, I tossed it in the wastebasket. It fired up and buzzed away merrily. So in this case NOT looking at it, indeed shunning it with not even a glance, had changed its state from busted to working just fine and dandy.

I need to have a word with those Quantum Theory Physicists to report this new discovery – NOT looking at something can also change it. I am humbly prepared to accept a Nobel Prize for this discovery as I need the dosh.

Note: The physicist who schooled me in Quantum Theory is disappointed as the atom-sized photons he talked of have, I fear, shot over my head and have failed to change me.