Quantum Reality

by Jim Baggott

  42. George Ellis and Joe Silk, Nature, 516 (2014), 321–3.

  43. James Ladyman, personal communication, 29 March 2019.

  Epilogue: I’ve Got a Very Bad Feeling About This

  1. Lee Smolin, Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies beyond the Quantum (Allen Lane, London, 2019), p. 180.

  2. Ibid., p. 277.

  3. Maximilian Schlosshauer, Johannes Koer, and Anton Zeilinger, ‘A Snapshot of Foundational Attitudes toward Quantum Mechanics’, arXiv:quant-ph/1301.1069v1, 6 January 2013. Before you ask, no, I did not attend. But I was extremely gratified to be invited to talk at a follow-up conference on the same subject, held in Traunkirchen in November 2013, following publication of my book Farewell to Reality.

  Bibliography

  Here’s an interesting question. In a popular science book, what is meant to be the purpose of a bibliography? To provide some reassurance to the reader that the book is well researched and thorough, and based on the publications of recognized authorities on the subject? Or it is supposed to demonstrate the cleverness of the author—look at what I had to read in order to bring you this book?

  In making my decisions on what to include here, I’ve chosen to imagine an inquisitive reader who might be encountering the conceptual and philosophical problems of quantum mechanics for the first time, and who might be sufficiently motivated by what they read in this book to want to find out more. The result is the kind of bibliography that would have been useful to me back in 1987 when, in exasperation, I wanted to know why somebody hadn’t told me about all this before.

  Popular Science

  These are books that anyone with an interest but no formal education in quantum physics should be able to pick up and enjoy. I’ve biased this list towards more recent publications, but there are some golden oldies that are just too good to be excluded.

  Aczel, Amir D., Entanglement: The Greatest Mystery in Physics (Wiley, London, 2003).

  Albert, David Z., Quantum Mechanics and Experience (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1992).

  Ananthaswamy, Anil, Through Two Doors at Once: The Elegant Experiment that Captures the Enigma of Our Quantum Reality (Dutton, New York, 2018).

  Ball, Philip, Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics is Different (The Bodley Head, London, 2018).

  Baggott, Jim, The Quantum Story: A History in 40 Moments (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011).

  Baggott, Jim, Farewell to Reality: How Fairy-tale Physics Betrays the Search for Scientific Truth (Constable, London, 2013).

  Baggott, Jim, Quantum Space: Loop Quantum Gravity and the Search for the Structure of Space, Time, and the Universe (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2018).

  Barrow, John D., and Tipler, Frank J., The Anthropic Cosmological Principle (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1986).

  Becker, Adam, What is Real: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics (John Murray, London, 2018).

  Carroll, Sean, Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime (Oneworld, London, 2019).

  Davies, P. C. W., and Brown, J. R. (eds), The Ghost in the Atom: A Discussion of the Mysteries of Quantum Physics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1986).

  Deutsch, David, The Fabric of Reality (Penguin, London, 1997).

  Feynman, Richard, The Character of Physical Law (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1967).

  Feynman, Richard P., QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter (Penguin, London, 1985).

  Gamow, George, Thirty Years That Shook Physics (Dover, New York, 1966).

  Gell-Mann, Murray, The Quark and the Jaguar (Little, Brown, London, 1994).

  Greene, Brian, The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory (Vintage Books, London, 2000).

  Greene, Brian, The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time and the Texture of Reality (Allen Lane, London, 2004).

  Greene, Brian, The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos (Allen Lane, London, 2011).

  Gribbin, John, Schrödinger’s Kittens (Penguin, London, 1995).

  Kumar, Manjit, Quantum: Einstein, Bohr and the Great Debate About the Nature of Reality (Icon Books, London, 2008).

  Lindley, David, Where Does the Weirdness Go? (Basic Books, New York, 1996).

  Orzel, Chad, How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog (Oneworld, London, 2010).

  Penrose, Roger, The Emperor’s New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and the Laws of Physics (Vintage, London, 1990).

  Penrose, Roger, Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness (Vintage, London, 1995).

  Penrose, Roger, The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe (Vintage, London, 2005).

  Penrose, Roger, Fashion, Faith and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 2016).

  Raymer, Michael G., Quantum Physics: What Everyone Needs to Know® (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2017).

  Rae, Alastair, Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality? (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1986).

  Rees, Martin, Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces that Shape the Universe (Phoenix, London, 2000).

  Rovelli, Carlo, Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (Allen Lane, London, 2015).

  Rovelli, Carlo, Reality is Not What it Seems: The Journey to Quantum Gravity (Allen Lane, London, 2016).

  Rovelli, Carlo, The Order of Time (Allen Lane, London, 2018).

  Sachs, Mendel, Einstein versus Bohr: The Continuing Controversies in Physics (Open Court, La Salle, IL, 1988).

  Smolin, Lee, Three Roads to Quantum Gravity: A New Understanding of Space, Time and the Universe (Phoenix, London, 2001).

  Smolin, Lee, The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next (Penguin Books, London, 2008).

  Smolin, Lee, Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe (Penguin Books, London, 2014).

  Smolin, Lee, Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution: The Search for What Lies beyond the Quantum (Allen Lane, London, 2019).

  Susskind, Leonard, The Cosmic Landscape: String Theory and the Illusion of Intelligent Design (Little, Brown, New York, 2006).

  Tegmark, Max, Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality (Penguin Books, London, 2015).

  Von Baeyer, Hans Christian, QBism: The Future of Quantum Physics (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 2016).

  Weinberg, Steven, Dreams of a Final Theory: The Search for the Fundamental Laws of Nature (Vintage, London, 1993).

  Wilczek, Frank, The Lightness of Being: Big Questions, Real Answers (Allen Lane, London, 2009).

  Scientific Biographies

  I’ve always believed that one of the best ways to try to understand how quantum mechanics developed to its present form and why it continues to baffle new generations of students and consumers of popular science is to study the biographies of those responsible for it. You quickly realize that all the clever arguments—one way or the other—were already being made in the late 1920s, by scientists who really did know what they were talking about. But—watch out—many of these biographies are technical and require some background in quantum mechanics.

  Bernstein, Jeremy, Quantum Profiles (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1991). Contains biographical sketches of John Bell and John Wheeler.

  Bird, Kai, and Sherwin, Martin J., American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Atlantic Books, London, 2008).

  Cassidy, David C., Uncertainty: The Life and Science of Werner Heisenberg (W. H. Freeman, New York, 1992).

  Enz, Charles P., No Time to be Brief: A Scientific Biography of Wolfgang Pauli (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2002).

  Farmelo, Graham, The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Quantum Genius (Faber & Faber, London, 2009).

  Feynman, Richard P., ‘Surely You’re Joking, Mr. Feynman!’ (Unwin, London, 1985).

 
; Gleick, James, Genius: Richard Feynman and Modern Physics (Little, Brown, London, 1992).

  Goodchild, Peter, J. Robert Oppenheimer (BBC, London, 1980).

  Heilbron, J. L., The Dilemmas of an Upright Man: Max Planck and the Fortunes of German Science (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1996).

  Heisenberg, Werner, Physics and Beyond: Memories of a Life in Science (George Allen & Unwin, London, 1971).

  Hoffmann, Banesh, Albert Einstein (Paladin, St. Albans, 1975).

  Horgan, John, ‘Last Words of a Quantum Heretic’, Scientific American, February 1993, p. 38. In part a biographical sketch of David Bohm.

  Isaacson, Walter, Einstein: His Life and Universe (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2007).

  Klein, Martin J., Paul Ehrenfest: The Making of a Theoretical Physicist, Vol. 1, 3rd edn (North-Holland, Amsterdam, 1985).

  Kragh, Helge S., Dirac: A Scientific Biography (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1990).

  Macrae, Norman, John von Neumann: The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer, Game Theory, Nuclear Deterrence, and Much More (Pantheon Books, New York, 1992).

  Mehra, Jagdish, The Beat of a Different Drum: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1994).

  Monk, Ray, Inside the Centre: The Life of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Vintage, London, 2013).

  Moore, Walter, Schrödinger: Life and Thought (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1989).

  Nasar, Sylvia, A Beautiful Mind (Faber and Faber, London, 1998). A biography of the mathematician John Nash, containing a biographical sketch of John von Neumann.

  Pais, Abraham, Subtle is the Lord: The Science and the Life of Albert Einstein (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1982).

  Pais, Abraham, Niels Bohr’s Times, in Physics, Philosophy, and Polity (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1991).

  Pais, Abraham, J. Robert Oppenheimer: A Life (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2006).

  Peat, F. David, Infinite Potential: The Life and Times of David Bohm (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1997).

  Poundstone, William, Prisoner’s Dilemma: John von Neumann, Game Theory and the Puzzle of the Bomb (Random House, New York, 1992).

  Wheeler, John Archibald, with Ford, Kenneth, Geons, Black Holes and Quantum Foam: A Life in Physics (W. W. Norton, New York, 1998).

  Whitaker, Andrew, John Stewart Bell and Twentieth-Century Physics: Vision and Integrity (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2016).

  Advanced Texts

  Specifically for those who are considering studying, are studying, or have studied quantum mechanics at university. I’ve included here some relevant books on the philosophy of science and the philosophy of quantum mechanics.

  Ayer, A. J., Language, Truth, and Logic (Penguin, London, 1936).

  Baggott, Jim, The Quantum Cookbook: Mathematical Recipes for the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2020).

  Beller, Mara, Quantum Dialogue: The Making of a Revolution (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1999).

  Bohm, David, Quantum Theory (Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, 1951).

  Bohm, David, Causality and Chance in Modern Physics (Routledge, London, 1957).

  Bohm, D., and Hiley, B. J., The Undivided Universe (Routledge, London, 1993).

  Cartwright, Nancy, How the Laws of Physics Lie (Oxford University Press, 1983).

  Cushing, James T., Quantum Mechanics: Historical Contingency and the Copenhagen Hegemony (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1994).

  Cushing, James T., Philosophical Concepts in Physics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1998).

  De Broglie, Louis, Matter and Light: The New Physics, translated by W. H. Johnston (W. W. Norton, New York, 1939).

  d’Espagnat, Bernard, The Conceptual Foundations of Quantum Mechanics, 2nd edn (Addison-Wesley, New York, 1989).

  d’Espagnat, Bernard, Reality and the Physicist: Knowledge, Duration and the Quantum World (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1989).

  Dirac, P. A. M., The Principles of Quantum Mechanics, 4th edn (Clarendon Press, Oxford, 1958).

  Duhem, Pierre, The Aim and Structure of Physical Theory, translated by Philip P. Wiener (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1954).

  Feyerabend, Paul, Farewell to Reason (Verso, London, 1987).

  Feyerabend, Paul, Against Method, 3rd edn (Verso, London, 1993).

  Feynman, Richard P., Leighton, Robert B., and Sands, Matthew, The Feynman lectures on Physics, Vol. III (Addison-Wesley, Reading, MA, 1965).

  Fine, Arthur, The Shaky Game: Einstein, Realism and the Quantum Theory, 2nd edn (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1986).

  Gardner, Sebastian, Kant and the Critique of Pure Reason (Routledge, London, 1999).

  Gillies, Donald, Philosophy of Science in the Twentieth Century (Blackwell, Oxford, 1993).

  Griffiths, David J., Introduction to Quantum Mechanics, 2nd edn (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 2017).

  Hacking, Ian, Representing and Intervening (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1983).

  Heisenberg, Werner, The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory (Dover, New York, 1930).

  Heisenberg, Werner, Physics and Philosophy: The Revolution in Modern Science (Penguin, London, 1989; first published 1958).

  Holland, Peter R., The Quantum Theory of Motion: An Account of the De Broglie-Bohm Causal Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1993).

  Isham, Chris J., Lectures on Quantum Theory (Imperial College Press, London, 1995).

  Jammer, Max, The Philosophy of Quantum Mechanics (Wiley, New York, 1974).

  Kragh, Helge, Quantum Generations: A History of Physics in the Twentieth Century (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1999).

  Kragh, Helge, Higher Speculations: Grand Theories and Failed Revolutions in Physics and Cosmology (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2011).

  Kragh, Helge, Niels Bohr and the Quantum Atom: The Bohr Model of Atomic Structure 1913–1925 (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012).

  Kuhn, Thomas S., The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, 2nd edn (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1970).

  Kuhn, Thomas S., Black-body Theory and the Quantum Discontinuity 1894–1912 (University of Chicago Press, Chicago, 1978).

  Ladyman, James, and Ross, Don, with Spurrett, David and Collier, John, Every Thing Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalized (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2007).

  Lakatos, Imre, and Musgrave, Alan (eds), Criticism and the Growth of Knowledge (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1970).

  Lockwood, Michael, Mind, Brain and the Quantum. The Compound ‘I’ (Blackwell, Oxford, 1990).

  Mehra, Jagdish, Einstein, Physics and Reality (World Scientific, London, 1999).

  Murdoch, Dugald, Niels Bohr’s Philosophy of Physics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1987).

  Omnès, Roland, The Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1994).

  Omnès, Roland, Understanding Quantum Mechanics (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1999).

  Omnès, Roland, Quantum Philosophy (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1999).

  Popper, Karl R., The Logic of Scientific Discovery (Hutchinson, London, 1959).

  Popper, Karl, Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1963).

  Popper, Karl R., Quantum Theory and the Schism in Physics (Unwin Hyman, London, 1982).

  Preston, John, Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions: A Reader’s Guide (Continuum, London, 2008).

  Psillos, Stathis, Scientific Realism: How Science Tracks Truth (Routledge, London, 1999).

  Rae, Alastair I. M., Quantum Mechanics, 2nd edn (Adam Hilger, Bristol, 1986).

  Russell, Bertrand, The Problems of Philosophy (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1967).

  Ryle, Gilbert, The Concept of Mind (Penguin, London, 1963).

  Saunders, Simon, Barrett, J
onathan, Kent, Adrian, and Wallace, David (eds), Many Worlds? Everett, Quantum Theory, & Reality (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2010).

  Schacht, Richard, Classical Modern Philosophers: Descartes to Kant (Routledge & Kegan Paul, London, 1984).

  van Fraassen, Bas C., The Scientific Image (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1980).

  von Neumann, John, Mathematical Foundations of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton University Press, Princeton, NJ, 1955).

  Wallace, David, The Emergent Multiverse: Quantum Theory According to the Everett Interpretation (Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2012).

  Anthologies and Collections

  Where necessary, I’ve put references to the ‘primary’ scientific literature—meaning original research papers and review articles—in the Endnotes. But some of the most important papers in the history and philosophy of quantum mechanics have been collected together and published in book form, which makes them nicely accessible for interested readers who don’t have ready access to a university library. Here is a selection of some of the best.

  Bell, J. S., Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK, 1987).

  Born, Max, Physics in My Generation, 2nd edn (Springer, New York, 1969).

  DeWitt, B. S., and Graham, N. (eds), The Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (Pergamon, Oxford, 1975).

  French, A. P., and Kennedy, P. J. (eds), Niels Bohr: A Centenary Volume (Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1985). This includes the chapter by N. David Mermin, ‘A Bolt from the Blue: The E-P-R Paradox’, which got me started back in 1987.