An Uncertainty Principle

One way of articulating the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle is this: the position and the momentum of a given electron at a given point in time cannot be known; the more precisely one of those values is known, the less precisely the other is known.

The wildness of this statement of particle physics comes in large part because there is, according to the prevailing interpretation of the principle, no objective fact that is both of these precise values at a single point in time. There is but a probability cloud, so to speak. Useful, yes, but certain, no. The problem in our not-knowing is not an epistemic problem; it's an ontic one. There simply is no fact to know. It's not that we are unable to know it because of the failings of our perceptual faculties, the imprecision of our instruments, etc. Measure and measure and measure more, but there's nothing there to calculate with genuine precision. Not an epistemic problem. Rather, an ontic one.

I guess I've learned, so much as I've learned anything, that it's a waste of my own precious energy to try to figure out someone who hasn't figured out him- or herself. Trying to calculate what someone wants when he or she him- or herself does not know. Measure and measure and measure more, but there's nothing but a cloud of probabilities. The problem is not an epistemic one. It's an ontic one.

And what can I possibly do about that? How much less futile is it to fight that than it would be to shake my little fist in the air while railing against those damned electrons?