Beyond Weird

By: Philip Ball

Narrated by: Jonathan Cowley

"Anyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it."

Since Niels Bohr said this many years ago, quantum mechanics has only been getting more shocking. We now realize that it's not really telling us that "weird" things happen out of sight, on the tiniest level, in the atomic world: Rather, everything is quantum. But if quantum mechanics is correct, what seems obvious and right in our everyday world is built on foundations that don't seem obvious or right at all - or even possible.

An exhilarating tour of the contemporary quantum landscape, Beyond Weird is a book about what quantum physics really means - and what it doesn't. Science writer Philip Ball offers an up-to-date, accessible account of the quest to come to grips with the most fundamental theory of physical reality, and to explain how its counterintuitive principles underpin the world we experience.

©2018 Philip Ball (P)2018 Tantor

interesting explanations.

intetresting topic. not too complicated for an audio book. narrator is much better than genrated voice. recommended if you have some understanding of quantum mechanics. I wish more about string theory were included.

Good talk of the quantum problems

Great to hear a current day assessment of the quantum questions. No new suggested solutions like many worlds, thank goodness, but probably the best explanation I’ve heard of the questions that might lead to more insight, and mainly an excellent book that tries to avoid blowing off things as “weirdness”, with questions not to be asked as Bohr insisted until his death. I’m on my third listen.

Excellent

Terrific book and fascinating topic. Quantum mechanics is endlessly interesting, with seemingly no end of things to think about, even after reading a fair amount about it. Ball does a great job explaining Niehl Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation in a way that takes it seriously and not simply as "shut up and calculate." He himself focuses on an information based interpretation. He also addresses a number of misconceptions of well known principles that I found helpful to my own thinking.

better questions for quantum mechanics

fascinating perspectives from which to view quantum mechanics - from more understandable and logically consistent viewpoints - than I have ever come across

Does not practice what is preached

The author starts by explaining the title is not to imply quantum physics is more than weird, but instead we should see beyond the apparent weirdness to an underlying simplicity. Great! He also points out quantum theory demands that we do not apply it to trajectories or paths and even discussing particles except in relation to a measurement should be avoided. Great again! Unfortunately, the author then proceeds to discuss paths and particle pointing out again and again the weirdness this discussion leads to. He even seems to equate the word “quantum” with “weirdness”. The author continues this until the last few pages, when he returns to the point of the title, that we really do need to see and speak beyond weirdness. It seems the author does not practice what he preaches.

Ball also makes other common blunders that muddy the water. For example, he talks of the chunking of energy instead of action. Energy, in general, is not quantized, but action always is. He claims interference only occurs with waves (continuous) – while interference also happens with many discrete repeating patters like window-screens, spider-webs, or nylon stocking. Artificial limitations like this do not help us see beyond the weirdness.

I had hoped this would be a text that talked beyond the weirdness but that is not the case. Other than the prolog and epilog it is just yet another discussion of quantum weirdness without clear direction.

See instead Einstein’s Unfinished Revolution (especially the last chapters).

The narration was understandable, but tone seemed stilted at times, and other times passages seemed rushed without inflection.