There could be variables beyond the ones we’ve identified and know how to measure. But they can’t get rid of quantum weirdness.
Ever since the discovery of the bizarre behavior of quantum systems, we’ve been forced to reckon with a seemingly uncomfortable truth. For whatever reason, it appears that what we perceive of as reality — where objects definitively exist, in definite locations, with intrinsic properties that can always be measured exactly — isn’t exactly an accurate description of “what is real?” Instead, many of those physical properties themselves cannot be fundamentally determined by any means. As long as you don’t measure or interact with your quantum system, what we interpret as “reality” exists in an indeterminate state; we can only speak of the properties it possesses and the outcomes of any potential measurements in a statistical, probabilistic sense. Each measurement always returns one and only one answer, but predicting exactly what physical state we’re going to measure ahead of time cannot be done via any known method.
But is that a fundamental limitation of nature, where there exists an inherent indeterminism until a measurement is made or a quantum interaction occurs? Or could there be a “hidden reality”…
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