What Is Real?: The Unfinished Quest for the Meaning of Quantum Physics
Review
This book gets its justification from the negative review it got from the journals. The self-inflicted blindness quantum physics community nurture every day, cannot be dispelled by one such tiny effort.
Even if these journals are right in some of their criticism, the central argument stands. Much of the defence for Copenhagen Interpretation is, in a nutshell, unscientific.
Key Points
- Quantum physics predicts extremely well. Therefore, has a huge amount of usage in technology. Hence, the tendency of "Shut up and calculate!" is the strongest.
- However, the Copenhagen Interpretation has some flaws:
- It is positivist.
- Can easily lead to solipsism.
- Dogmatic.
- Have enough contenders with similar prediction but better interpretative scheme.
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 Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favoured practical experiments over philosophical arguments. As a result, questioning the status quo long meant professional ruin. And yet, from the 1920s to today, physicists like 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.