Quantum Reality: The Quest for the Real Meaning of Quantum Mechanics - a Game of Theories

Quantum mechanics is an extraordinarily successful scientific theory. It is also completely mad. Although the theory quite obviously works, it leaves us chasing ghosts and phantoms; particles that are waves and waves that are particles; cats that are at once both alive and dead; and lots of seemingly spooky goings-on. But if we're prepared to be a little more specific about what we mean when we talk about 'reality' and a little more circumspect in the way we think a scientific theory might represent such a reality, then all the mystery goes away. This shows that the choice we face is actually a philosophical one. Here, Jim Baggott provides a quick but comprehensive introduction to quantum mechanics for the general reader, and explains what makes this theory so very different from the rest. He also explores the processes involved in developing scientific theories and explains how these lead to different philosophical positions, essential if we are to understand the nature of the great debate between Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein. Moving forwards, Baggott then provides a comprehensive guide to attempts to determine what the theory actually means, from the Copenhagen interpretation to many worlds and the multiverse. Richard Feynman once declared that 'nobody understands quantum mechanics'. This book will tell you why.

Table of Contents:
Preamble Prologue: Why Didn't Somebody Tell Me About All This Before? 1: The Complete Guide to Quantum Mechanics (Abridged) 2: Just What is This Thing Called 'Reality', Anyway? 3: Sailing on the Sea of Representation 4: When Einstein Came Down to Breakfast 5: ...So Just Shut Up and Calculate 6: ...But We Need to Reinterpret What it Says 7: ...So We Need to Add Some Things 8: ...So We Need to Add Some Other Thing 9: ...Because We Need to Include My Mind (Or Should that be Your Mind?) 10: ...Because...Okay, I Give Up Epilogue: I've Got a Very Bad Feeling About This Acknowledgements Endnotes Bibliography

About the Author :
Jim Baggott is an award-winning science writer. He trained as a scientist at the University of Oxford before embarking on post-doctoral research studies at Oxford and at Stanford University in California. He gave up a tenured lectureship at the University of Reading after five years in order to gain experience in the commercial world. He worked for Shell International Petroleum for 11 years before leaving to establish his own business consultancy and training practice. Jim's many books include Quantum Space (OUP, 2018), Mass (OUP, 2017), for which he won the 2020 Premio Cosmos prize, Origins (OUP, 2015), Higgs (OUP, 2012), The Quantum Story (OUP, 2011), and A Beginner's Guide to Reality (Penguin, 2005).

Review :
If you come to this book feeling that you do not really understand quantum mechanics, at least after reading this book you will know why. It makes a superb companion to 'Through Two Doors at Once: the elegant experiment that captures the enigma of our quantum reality'. "Quantum Reality quickly justifies its existence... Baggotts unique, smart- alecky- professor voice keeps you turning the pages, and you regret that the book wasnt around when you were a precocious teenager grappling with the mysteries of physics. Engagingly written and although not requiring a background knowledge in physics, it will help if you have at least some familiarity with both the basic experimental results that exposed the inadequacy of classical physics Baggott is a master of taking complex concepts and making them surprisingly accessible. For much of what's difficult and confusing about quantum physics interpretations he succeeds in doing this admirably. [Baggott] carefully examines many quantum conundrums by leading readers through an exhaustive, but entertaining, review of the current thinking on them. The bibliography alone is worth the price of the book. Especially enlightening is Baggott's admission that metaphysics lies at the core of science: something that all physicists know in their hearts but are reluctant to admit ... Highly recommended. Why is quantum mechanics different from the rest of physics? What is reality? How could a theory of science explain a natural world created by God? All these strange questions are answered in a very profound and logical manner in Jim Baggott's Quantum Reality. Here, former experimental physicist Jim Baggott says quantum mechanics is "completely mad", but wrestles expertly with its history and current state, integrating physics with metaphysics. Quantum Reality is... an attempt to bring order to a confounding subject. He succeeds only partly. But even that is a remarkable achievement because, for almost a century, physicists have fought over just which of over a dozen different interpretations of quantum mechanics is correct, or what it even means to call one of them "correct." ... Engagingly written, and requiring no background knowledge in physics, it is likely to teach you something new. Even I learned some new bits... ... I highly recommend it... Baggott provides a refreshingly sane and sensible survey of the subject... In Quantum Reality, Baggott provides a well-informed, reliable and enlightening tour of the increasingly complex and contentious terrain of arguments over what our best fundamental theory is telling us about what is physically "real". This is a superb book. Indeed it is the book I wish I had read when I was an undergraduate student in philosophy of science, keen to understand the philosophical implications of various interpretations of quantum mechanics. Jim Baggott has set for himself a very ambitious task: namely, to unpack the realist commitments at stake in the century-long debate on the completeness (or incompleteness) of quantum mechanics that began with Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein in the 1920s-1930s. It is rare to find this level of philosophical engagement with thorny foundational issues among physicists writing popular science books... This book is sheer joy to read. Jim Baggott proves once again to be a master popularizer, this time investigating with wit, depth, very wide angle, and remarkable equilibrium, what is perhaps the most obscure and fascinating mystery of modern science: what does quantum theory tell us about the world? Jim Baggott has written a highly readable, fair-minded and well-researched account of the ongoing debate about the nature of quantum reality. Amongst popular accounts of the subject, it is the most accessible and enlightening one I have come across. An engaging tour of the mysteries of quantum mechanics and the controversies of its interpretation, with the rare bonus of some substantial and well-grounded philosophy of science, synthesised from Baggott's wealth of knowledge and experience.