The issue of the Irish border is bedevilling Brexit negotiations. But physics can provide a novel solution: the border should be a Schrödinger border.
Let me explain.
Instead of a Newtonian border (with a clear demarcation of the location of the border) a Schrodinger border would have uncertainty about it: the closer one came to defining where the border was, the more uncertain would the existence of the border become. Similarly, one could be certain of the border’s existence, but then completely unsure about where it was. One would, however, be able to detect which side of the border one was on, but not when one crossed the border.
Using quantum tunneling, a lorry carrying goods would at one instant be in Northern Ireland, and the next instant in the Republic. Because of the uncertainty about the existence of the border, it could instantly arrive into the Republic, without it being at all clear where it had crossed the border. Thus, because of the delocalization of the border, there could be no possibility of policing it.
(I wrote about this originally in https://lestheprof.com/2018/11/07/a-schrodinger-border/ : but there’s more mileage in this now that the issue is becoming more urgent.)
Two years ago I finally decided to take up a new instrument, and I chose the clarinet. It was portable (unlike the piano – even the electric piano), and is played in jazz, klezmer and classical music. What more could one wish for?
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