  This text begins with a series of critical considerations on the initial
interpretation of quantum phenomena observed in atomic systems. The bewildering
explanations advanced during the construction of quantum mechanics are shown to
have distanced the new theory from the rest of scientific knowledge, by
introducing indeterminism, acausality, nonlocality, and even subjectivism as
part of its interpretative framework. The conclusion drawn from this
unsatisfactory interpretative landscape is that quantum mechanics lacks a key
ontological ingredient. Arguments are given in favour of the random zero-point
radiation field (ZPF) as the element needed to complete the quantum ontology.
The (wave-mediated) quantum stochastic process is shown to be essentially
different from Brownian motion, and more amenable to an analogy with the
hydrodynamic case. The new perspective provided by the introduction of the ZPF
is used to explain some salient features of quantum systems, such as the
stationary atomic states and the transitions between them, and the apparent
nonlocality expressed in the entangled states. Notably, the permanent presence
of the field drastically affects the dynamics of the (otherwise classical)
particle, which eventually falls under the control of the field. This
qualitative change is reflected in the transition from the initial classical
description in space-time, to the final quantum one in the Hilbert space. The
clarification of the mechanism of quantization leads us to consider the
possibility that a similar phenomenon occurs in other physical systems of
corpuscles subjected to an oscillating background, of which the walking-droplet
system is a paradigmatic example.
