Tea time at the Santa Fe Institute was held in the kitchen and I don’t remember the tea.
I do remember the stories Cormac would tell. He’d be happy for me to share mine.
We nibble on the cheese and chat. I’m with Cormac and a visitor. It comes up that I work in quantum computing. The visitor has a background in physics.
Oh entanglement the visitor says the results are correlated what is so mysterious about that? The visitor continues in this way completely missing the point of Bell inequalities convinced there is nothing strange there beyond a common cause producing correlations. There is a lot of confidence and volume and minutes of physicsplaining until eventually I peep up.
Well actually the entire point is that entanglement isn’t just correlation from a common local cause. Brief discussion of Bell inequalities.
Later, Cormac sees me in the common area. Dave you are very patient. How could you just sit there and listen to that guy go on and on about quantum entanglement when he had no idea about the meaning of Bell inequalities.
He was a remarkable writer, but also he deeply loved science and the quest to understand our world around us. And damn straight he understood why quantum entanglement is interesting.