The one question most often asked by all human children is "Why?" "Why is the sky blue?" "If the earth really rotates, why don't we fall off?" As we age, the questions we ask become even more difficult to answer: "Why are we here?" "How was the universe created?" These questions, and a myriad of others have driven scientists, philosophers, and poets to ponder the meaning of our existence and the nature of reality for thousands of years. In the earliest of times, the answers were almost always provided by a system of spiritual or religious beliefs. It was an act of God or some supernatural being that created the universe, and things happened because God or the Gods wanted them to. As the human race increased its intellectual capacity, thinkers began to seek more detailed answers. The early Greek philosopher Plato posited that the things we see in this world are not real at all, but rather imperfect copies of "forms" which represented the archetypal, perfect representations of all that is. These forms existed in a state of true reality, beyond time and space, and were not visible in this material world. Another Greek, Democritus, hypothesized that all matter was made of invisible building blocks called "atoms." He believed that the unique manifestations visible in our world were merely a result of different arrangements of these same atoms. Today, we have discovered many secrets unknown to the ancients. Many of our new discoveries have been accompanied by paradoxes that pose new, even more intriguing questions. In no area of modern thought has this been more evident than in the field of quantum physics. Experiments in this field have exposed a strange and interesting world where the accepted "laws" of physics break down; a world where particles can seemingly be in two places at once; a world where faster than light travel seems possible. Indeed, the new view of reality presented by quantum physics challenges many long held beliefs regarding everything from the nature of matter to the question of whether or not humans really have free will.

For over two centuries, the science of physics was largely based on principles published by Isaac Newton in 1687. In his "Principia Mathematica," Newton described three postulates, now referred to as Newton's laws, which described the nature of forces acting on physical bodies. The principles were largely based on the concept of cause and effect; if a person knew the exact mathematical description of a cause, it would be possible to determine the precise effect by using calculations based on Newton's postulates. In Newton's universe, time and space were absolute standards that all measurements adhered to. Over the next two centuries, the use of the postulates as applied to macro- atomic structures proved so reliable that they were no lobger referred to as postulates, but as laws. Some philosophers and scientists brought forth the notion that if it were possible to know the exact position and velocity of every particle in the universe, we could predict the future with certainty as a result of the application of these laws. Hence, the concept of determinism was solidified in the minds of many scientists and philosophers; there was no free will - everything, including human thoughts and actions, was the result of a causal chain of events. This ideology held prominence for many years and resulted in many scientific advances. But as science progressed, and the experiments grew more complex, paradoxes began to arise. It was apparent that something was missing from the descrition of reality offered thus far and that new theories would have to be formulated.

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