What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics book cover

What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics

Paperback – September 3, 2019

by
Price
$15.99
Format
Paperback
Pages
384
Publisher
Basic Books
Publication Date
ISBN-13
978-1541698970
Dimensions
5.45 x 1.2 x 8.25 inches
Weight
9.6 ounces

Description

"In What Is Real? Adam Becker tells a fascinating if complex story of quantum dissidents...An excellent, accessible account."― Wall Street Journal "A thorough, illuminating exploration of the most consequential controversy raging in modern science...[Becker] leads us through an impressive account of the rise of competing interpretations, grounding them in the human stories, which are naturally messy and full of contingencies. He makes a convincing case that it's wrong to imagine the Copenhagen interpretation as a single official or even coherent statement."― New York Times Book Review "Becker's book is one of the first attempts we have at telling this story in a way that acknowledges how it actually turned out--acknowledges, that is, who won these debates about the Copenhagen interpretation, who lost them, who pretended otherwise, and how they got away with it.... He has clearly done extensive and meticulous historical research."― David Z. Albert , NewYork Review of Books "Splendid.... With deeply detailed research, accompanied by charming anecdotes about the scientists...[Becker] hopes to convince us that the Cophenhagen interpretation has had too great an influence on physics for historically contingent reasons."― Washington Post "Becker...make[s] a case for the importance of philosophy. That's a key call, with influential scientists such as Neil deGrasse Tyson dismissing the discipline as a waste of time. What Is Real? is an argument for keeping an open mind."― Nature "A riveting storyteller, Becker brings to life physicists who have too long remained in the shadow of Bohr and Einstein.... What Is Real? offers an engaging and accessible overview of the debates surrounding the interpretation of quantum mechanics."― Science "Impressive...[Becker's] strength is the excavation of stories that show how deeply quantum physics was in thrall to the personalities of its developers. The cast is colourful and expansive, and provides engaging drama...The subtext running through this hugely enjoyable book is that, if we still have a long way to go before we understand reality, we may only have our own prejudices to blame."― New Scientist "A joy to read...For anyone who has been intrigued by other popular accounts of the quantum world but came away feeling somewhat cheated by the Copenhagen sleight-of-hand."― Physics World "Remarkable... What Is Real? is a superb contribution both to popular understanding of quantum theory and to ongoing debates among experts...It deserves wide attention and careful study."― Physics Today "Spellbinding....This very book could prove to be a watershed moment for the physics community if it faces up to its own past and its present....If you have any interest in the implications of quantum theory, or in the suppression of scientific curiosity, What is Real? is required reading. There is no more reliable, careful, and readable account of the whole history of quantum theory in all its scandalous detail."― Boston Review "Becker has done a great service in putting this fascinating story together into a single easily-digestible volume that is gripping, authoritative, and true....I sincerely hope it gains an extremely wide readership and manages to have a powerful influence."― Quantum Times "A page turner...Becker writes very well...To any one with more than a passing interest in QM, how it came to be the way it is, and how it might be otherwise, this book will be irresistible."― MAA Reviews " What Is Real? cuts through the confusion, providing a vivid account of this often arcane field, its history, and its numerous controversies."― Gizmodo "[Becker] unveils a story of the competing schools of thought within the weirdest parts of weird physics."― Popular Mechanics "Becker...takes readers on a deep dive into the battle for the heart of quantum physics."― Unbound Worlds "Admirably explains the intricacies of quantum physics...[Becker] brings to the foreground the hegemonic nature of a dominant scientific theory in crushing dissent."― Scroll India "Tremendously appealing...[Becker] smoothly, easily dramatizes the great debates and the outsized personalities of quantum physics and fits it all into an enthusiastic, readable narrative."― Open Letters Monthly "[A] fresh debut.... Vivid biographical portraits enliven even dense theoretical explanations with wit and bite.... With his crisp voice, Becker lucidly relates the complicated history of quantum foundations."― Publishers Weekly (starred review) "[Becker's] research is as detailed and meticulous...The narrative is enlivened by the personalities of key scientists and physicists....A fascinating revision of pivotal decisions around quantum physics discoveries."― Library Journal "A useful introduction to the history of quantum theory for scientifically inclined readers."― Kirkus Reviews "Quantum mechanics is an extraordinarily successful theory, but for decades physicists have been in stubborn denial about what the theory actually says about the nature of reality. Adam Becker's wonderful book recounts the colorful history of the reality debates, and makes the case that Einstein was right all along."― Sean Carroll, author of The BigPicture "In this immensely well-researched book, Adam Becker explores the little-known history of principled critiques of the quantum physics establishment, tracing a fascinating skein from the Einstein-Bohr debates all the way to the proliferation of alternatives in the 1970s and beyond. Thorough in its detailed treatment of the key players and their contributions, What Is Real? offers an essential guide to the great quantum controversies that are still raging strong."― Paul Halpern, author of TheQuantum Labyrinth "Quantum mechanics is astoundingly successful, but its proper meaning and interpretation remains an open question that vexes physicists to this day. Adam Becker brings this topic to life by explaining the science, and the ongoing human struggle to make sense of the quantum world. His book reads like a novel."― Art Friedman, co-author of Quantum Mechanics and Special Relativity and Classical Field Theory Adam Becker is a science writer with a PhD in astrophysics. He has written for the New York Times , the BBC, NPR, Scientific American, New Scientist , and other publications. He is a visiting scholar at University of California, Berkeley's Office for History of Science and Technology. He lives in California.

Features & Highlights

  • "A thorough, illuminating exploration of the most consequential controversy raging in modern science." --
  • New York Times Book Review
  • An Editor's Choice,
  • New York Times Book Review
  • Longlisted for PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science WritingLonglisted for Goodreads Choice Award
  • Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's solipsistic and poorly reasoned Copenhagen interpretation. Indeed, questioning it has long meant professional ruin, yet some daring physicists, such as John Bell, David Bohm, and Hugh Everett, persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics.
  • What Is Real?
  • is the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for truth. "An excellent, accessible account." --
  • Wall Street Journal
  • "Splendid. . . . Deeply detailed research, accompanied by charming anecdotes about the scientists." --
  • Washington Post

Customer Reviews

Rating Breakdown

★★★★★
60%
(602)
★★★★
25%
(251)
★★★
15%
(150)
★★
7%
(70)
★
-7%
(-70)

Most Helpful Reviews

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MWI advocate overlooks advantages of alternatives

What is real by Adam Becker gives an interesting historical overview of the Copenhagen interpretation of Quantum Physics, the Bohr Einstein debates, the double slit experiment, EPR, locality versus nonlocality, entanglement, Bells Theorem and related experiments, and more. The book discusses the problems with the Copenhagen interpretation, the measurement problem, complementarity and the Copenhagen interpretation’s connection to logical positivism. The author introduces several alternatives to the Copenhagen interpretation including Bohm’s pilot wave interpretation, the many worlds’ interpretation, spontaneous collapse theory, and information theoretic interpretations.

I am an engineer not a physicist, but I’ve taken several classes in quantum physics and I am interested in the topic. When I took my first class in quantum physics, I encountered the De Broglie wave (quantum wave) for a free electron. The speed of the wave is: [ w = L * f ] (wavelength times frequency) = h/p * E/h (h is the Planck constant, p is momentum, E is energy) = E/p = mv^2 / mv = v/2 (v is the velocity of the electron). Voila, an apparent contradiction. The wave is moving half as fast as the particle. You do a few Galileo transformations, and you see that you can assign the wave any speed that you like. Since, it is the wave packet (indicating an approximation for position as well as velocity) that’s important and the wave packet moves with the particle, it is not a true contradiction, well unless you claim that the wave is a physical object in itself. Add to that the fact that QFT assigns completely different speeds to the individual waves and that Heisenberg’s representation of Quantum Physics did not even include waves, and you will have problems if you claim that the matter waves a la De Broglie and Schrödinger are physical objects in themselves. This is never discussed in the book.

None of the interpretations are without issues. The author briefly discusses the information theoretic interpretations on half a page while vaguely invoking Bell’s criticism about it possibly leading to logical positivism and even solipsism, critique I do not understand and do not agree with. Information theoretic interpretations is that the quantum wave represents an observer’s knowledge of the system and is not a physical object in itself. This is my favorite (so far). On the other hand, he extensively discusses and defends and even extols the bizarre many-worlds interpretation (MWI). Basically, every time there is a quantum transition (or anything happens) the Universe is split into several Universes resulting in quintillions times quintillions times quintillions …etc., of Universes being created every millisecond, and they in turn all create many Universes every millisecond, exponentially and virtually infinitely. I should clarify that the many-worlds interpretation is distinct from the multiverse hypothesis, which envisions other universes, born in separate Big Bangs, that have always been physically disconnected from our own. I do not have a problem with the multiverse hypothesis, but I do with MWI.

MWI has some advantages, it is a realist, deterministic and local theory (if you consider those to be advantages). However, in addition to being bizarre there are many problems with MWI, one being that the wave function is a physical object, another that the alleged multi-Universes are uncontactable. Other problems include that it muddles the concept of probability and creates a new difficulty in interpreting probabilities in Quantum mechanics (do they exist?). Consciousness is built on experience; how does that work with constantly splitting worlds? Also how does these Universe splits happen and how quickly? A critic of MWI Andrew Peres argued that the "various many-worlds interpretations merely shift the arbitrariness or vagueness of the collapse postulate to the question of when "worlds" can be regarded as separate, and that no objective criterion for that separation can actually be formulated". Philip Ball another critic of MWI states that MWI "really denies is the existence of facts at all". He states, "if you say everything is true, you have said nothing." I don’t have a big problem with nonlocality or indeterminism or putting the observer at the center. The problems that MWI introduce are much worse, which is why I find his infatuation with MWI a hindrance to me liking this book.

The author discusses a couple of the objections to MWI, but not in an unbiased way. He is not stating that MWI is his favorite but the way he is approaching the topic shows his bias. While he is shortchanging, for example, the information theoretic interpretations he is clearly promoting MWI. Also updated versions of the Copenhagen Interpretation solve many of its problems (decoherence), so his critique of the 1930’s Copenhagen Interpretation, without mentioning the updates, isn’t fair either. Personally, I wanted more balance in this book. That’s why I am not giving this book a good rating, and I wanted to explain why. I am not giving it a bad rating either since it is discussing an interesting but complex topic in a fairly lucid way (but biased way). Also, the history of quantum physics that he is telling us is interesting reading. So, three stars.
11 people found this helpful
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Great reading for a physicist.

The Nobel prize for physics was awarded to 3 physicists working on Bell's theorem. This book describes the work on the fundamental interpretations of quantum mechanics including great biographies of the people involved. There are no equations, but many of the ideas will be unfamiliar to the general public and perhaps difficult to understand. I recommend it to all fellow physicists.
2 people found this helpful
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An Opus Magnum

Adam Becker is one of the most brilliant and lucid science writers I've ever read -- and I've read a lot of them.

His _What is Real?_ spans the discovery and development of quantum physics throughout the twentieth century and beyond. Becker brings to light -- and to life -- the consequences of only focusing on the tremendous predictive success of quantum mechanics without any real regard for understanding the foundations -- that is, what's really going on in nature. That was the great weakness of quantum physics in the twentieth century -- the lack of desire to understand why it worked so well. His analysis is extremely well researched.

He largely casts the evolution of quantum theory in light of the measurement problem. Bohr and Copenhagen ignored it. Einstein of course wanted answers, but he was the minority report. Von Neumann's proof was flawed, and that delayed for decades any need to work on foundational understanding. De Broglie and, decades later, Bohm offered the pilot-wave solution, and became pariahs. Everett's many-worlds idea was ridiculed. Even John Bell (the father of the foundational revival) and his 1964 proof of nonlocality were disregarded for years. Finally, Ghirardi's spontaneous-collapse theory (GRW) has not been taken very seriously.

Foundational work is back, at least to an extent. The drive to understand "what is real" is again percolating in some quarters. Adam Becker clearly documents its resurgence and why this effort is so important. His book is a must-read for anyone interested in quantum physics and the community of scientists that have comprised the field over the last century.
2 people found this helpful
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A blind Einstein fan with complete bias

The author simply disregards the wisdom of all other physicist of that day claiming them to be incoherent, obscure and arrogant while labeling Einstein’s “spooky action at a distance” as the accurate and clear interpretation (or the lack of it) of quantum world. The author cherry picks quotes and attempts to blanket disregard all the facts from a vast pool of scientist just to state that only Einstein is (was) the greatest scientist in the world. Which Bohr and others proved wrong! Totally avoidable book!
2 people found this helpful
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I really enjoyed this book.

This was a great read. I have read many popular science books on the history of quantum physics and yet this book had a lot of bits on the history and many ways quantum physics is interpreted.
1 people found this helpful
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Bad

Repeating yourself over and over again. The book stinks really bad like it has been on a shop floor for a while, it looks the way too. Almost every page defaced with markers by a 10 year old ? Hard to read that way. It's worth 1 $ at a used book sale.
1 people found this helpful
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A fascinating, excellent account of quantum physics and its history.

This is the best non-fiction book I've read in years. It presents a fascinating, excellent account of quantum physics and the controversy over its interpretation. In addition to explaining some of the central ideas in quantum physics in layman's language, it also sets out the history: the scientists involved, the clash of their ideas, the surrounding politics.

Quantum physics is an outstandingly successful theory in superb agreement with experimental results. Yet Becker forcefully argues that the dominant explanation behind that theory--the Copenhagen interpretation--is among the least satisfactory. He discusses how alternate interpretations (pilot waves and many-worlds especially) arose and how they were treated (not well). Many physicists were happy to brush aside the underlying controversies, and, in the words of David Mermin "Shut up and calculate!"

Here is a quote dating back to 1966 that Becker selected for the start of Part II: "We emphasize not only that our view is that of a minority but also that current interest in such questions is small. The typical physicist feels that they have long been answered, and that he will fully understand just how if ever he can spare 20 minutes to think about it." -- John Bell and Michael Nauenberg.

I very highly recommend this book to anyone interested in how science happens, including how good ideas can be sidelined, as well as to those interested in the strangeness of quantum physics, such as the notion that we may live in a multiverse, or in a universe with, in Einstein's words, "spooky action at a distance."

About my reviews: I try to review every book I read, including those that I don't end up enjoying. The reviews are not scholarly, but just indicate my reaction as a reader, reading being my addiction. I am miserly with 5-star reviews; 4 stars means I liked a book very much; 3 stars means I liked it; 2 stars means I didn't like it (though often the 2-star books are very popular with other readers and/or are by authors whose other work I've loved).
1 people found this helpful
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A must read for anyone even a little interested in how quantum physics started.

This book is fantastic. I am only halfway through and have learned so much already. It is written very well and contains a chronological study of quantum physics which is hard to find outside of a textbook. Highly recommend reading this book and listening to Adam Becker’s episode on the Ologies podcast
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4.9 stars

This book is about the measurement problem and the history of its study. Most people have never heard of the measurement problem in quantum physics, but it may have profound consequences for the way we think about science and possibly even philosophy and religion. I am not a physicist but as a career electron microscopist I feel qualified to review Becker's book. If you've never heard of it, the measurement problem is the skeleton in the physics community's closet. It can be expressed mathematically as the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, but the intuitive meaning of this mathematical relationship is anyone's guess. The standard interpretation of the measurement problem is called the Copenhagen interpretation, and if you believe the Copenhagen interpretation is correct and if you believe there is no limit to the applicability of quantum theory, then it logically follows that we may live in a capricious, non-deterministic world where we can't predict the weather or the stock market. Or worse, the universe we live in could be nothing but a hologram created by some computer like the holodeck on the starship Enterprise. This book will take you out of your comfort zone and force you to consider these possibilities.

In this book, Becker does a superb job of describing the history of science's attempts to understand the measurement problem and the work of the brave scientists who dared to question the status quo and point out the weaknesses of the Copenhagen interpretation and propose other possibilities. I especially liked Becker's treatment of Bell's Theorem, where he brilliantly makes the complex mathematics of the theorem accessible to anyone with a solid high school level math and science background. However, I have to deduct one-tenth of a star because Becker inserts just a little too much of his own editorial slant advocating for the many worlds interpretation of quantum physics. Becker clearly clings to the nostalgia of the "real world out there" and, in my opinion, doesn't give competing theories all of the credit they might deserve.

Despite my one-tenth star deduction, I highly recommend this book. Becker takes the skeleton out of the physics community's closet, and proposes that the measurement problem isn't something to be feared, but is a legitimate scientific question that is worthy of serious, peer-reviewed, experimental and mathematical inquiry. Becker insists we have to remove the stigma of the measurement problem. Becker insists we have to throw the kitchen sink at this problem. I am glad someone is taking a stand and advocating for the urgent need of more research on the measurement problem. On a separate note, I really like the binding of this book. At first glance it looks cheap, but the binding is really well done. I wish all of my paperback books have held up as well as this one. This book belongs on the bookshelf of any scientist or the serious amateur.
1 people found this helpful
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Essential reading on the foundations of Quantum Physics

Clear, engaging, well-researched, and a delight to read. Weaving together the people, ideas, politics, and cultural forces at play both in society and in original physics research, Becker creates a powerful map of the forces that created the landscape we find today. If you are interested in the foundations of Quantum Theory, then you will find Becker’s work here invaluable in laying bare the open questions and significantly different interpretations of the foundations of quantum physics.
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