When will we accept we are like quarks ?

21^st century individuals are like quarks.  Quarks can be waves and particles at once, can be matter and antimatter simultaneously, can be in more than one place at one time, until observed or measured.   

As with quarks, a 21^st century individual’s state remains multiple and fluctuant until observed, at which point it crystalizes into singular form.  Indeed, we humans can be many and one at once, defined and measured mainly when observed… after which we resume our multiplicity until newly observed. 

This multiplicity is representative of how many of us live…  And now with the many mediums and channels which facilitate it, internet is clearly a catalyst which may have finally brought quantum mechanics into our classical, physical world.

What do I mean?  Time and space have been altered, overcome.  We can be in more than one place at a time.  Thanks to telecommunications and real time technology, we can be across the world and at home at the same time.  With the aspects of identity we project or perform via diverse exchange spaces on the world wide web or even via our avatars, we can be many at once.  Meanwhile, when “observed” we are singular (for the chat on our profession, we are our professional singular while for the chat on our hobby, we are hobby singular for the social network with which we are interacting at that time), albeit enriched thanks to all that we have learned and grown via our multiplicity.

So what?  It’s time for Western society to integrate quantum physics into our way of living.

1.   Space need not be physical.  For me, this means embracing more types of distance work.  Of course in manual professions workers need to be physically present but in many service-sector or financial jobs, it is possible to do much of one’s work load at a distance.  Concretely, this means that parents should be able to not be penalized when their child or parent is sick (can still work from home), or when they need to leave the office at a certain time to be able to get their children from school or supervise their homework.  The purpose:  allow them to still be regarded as valuable contributors to their company despite extra-professional obligations.

By extension, this means facing culturally ingrained habits such as “réunionisme” and “présentéisme” in France (but I’d be willing to bet in other countries too) by which employees are pushed to hanging out at the office just to be seen at late hours by their superiors (even if they’re no longer literally working) and at which meetings are often used for power play instead of making real decisions.  Some of this is inevitable, so the idea isn’t to eradicate it entirely but there should be a new way of evaluating based on results rather than process and concrete contribution rather than brownie points.  As for ‘inevitable’ part of it, a colleague could still participate in some of those power meetings by video conference (using means like skype, etc). 

The result would be a more flexible workplace… and a more flexible career slope.  Until we deal with these aspects, we’ll continue to spin out of control in terms of hours spent at the office.   We’ll exhaust all the 100% dedicated employees, providing too little time for discovery and experience.  We’ll penalize talents only because they have made life choices of including personal life.  And we’ll penalize the organization by missing out on all the diversity, maturity, and experiences that their live choices or situations could contribute to the organization.

I will stop here and come back in later blogs for 4 other benefits of integrating the quantum into our current way of living:

2.       Time need not be linear

3.       Individuals need not be singular

4.       Identity need not be definitive

5.       Love need not be crystalized

Rendez-vous next Thursday for a new bite from the apple.  In the meantime, share your comments based on your knowledge and consciousness!