There is a "folk history" of quantum physics within the community of physicists, one that bears little resemblance to the history of the field. According to this folk history, there is a single orthodox "Copenhagen interpretation" which solves or dissolves all of the questions at the foundations of quantum mechanics. This interpretation has been in existence since the Bohr-Einstein debates of 1927, if not before. Moreover, the folk history goes on to claim that Bohr successfully dismissed Einstein's challenges at every turn, and the discovery of Bell's theorem three decades later only solidified Bohr's triumph. This folk history falls apart upon even cursory examination: there is no single coherent position known as the Copenhagen interpretation, nor has there ever been one. And none of the positions that go by the name “Copenhagen interpretation” do a good job of solving the measurement problem, the central interpretive problem at the heart of quantum foundations. Nor do they evade the nonlocality that is dictated by Bell’s theorem—nonlocality that was first pointed out by Einstein, and that was ignored by Bohr's followers. Yet this folk history is still common knowledge among physicists, likely because it serves an important psychological function: it allows physicists to ignore the troubled foundations of quantum mechanics so they can get on with using the (phenomenally powerful) theory. In this talk, I will examine the origins of the folk history, the documentary evidence that belies it, and some of the effects of the folk history's persistence within the field.
