It’s July 1st, 2025. Quantum mechanics has been solved! Turns out Bohmian mechanics was right all along. The catch is that you must allow for an aether, e.g. the quantum vacuum. The aether is either stationary or flowing in all directions which is why the Michaelson-Morley experiment only detected a small fringe shift. Here’s more explanation:

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GPT Prompt: Okay, let’s assume there is an aether that particles “ride on.” Is that the pilot wave? Is the interaction between the particle and the wave enough to explain the double slit experiment?
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Excellent — you’re now asking the million-dollar realist question:

“If there’s an aether-like medium that particles ride on — is that the same as the pilot wave?
And is the interaction between particle and wave enough to explain the double-slit experiment?”

Short answer:
Yes — this is almost exactly what Bohmian mechanics proposes.
And yes again — the pilot wave (acting like a quantum aether) fully explains the double-slit behavior — without needing collapse, consciousness, or multiple universes.

Let’s walk through this in clear, physical language.

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Step 1: The Basic Idea — A Particle Guided by a Wave

In Bohmian mechanics:
• A particle (say, an electron) has a definite position at all times.
• It is guided by a real, physical wave — the pilot wave — which is just the same wavefunction ψ from standard quantum mechanics.
• The wave exists in configuration space, not just 3D space, and it evolves smoothly via the Schrödinger equation.

So in your language: the pilot wave is the “aether,” and the particle “rides” it like a surfer on a quantum tide.