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

4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars | 1,123 ratings

Price: 15.02

Last update: 02-01-2025


About this item

The untold story of the heretical thinkers who dared to question the nature of our quantum universe

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 favored 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.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Pricilla L. Martinez
    5.0 out of 5 stars The Dissidents prevail.
    Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2018
    This book is very timely. With many Physicists opening the door to Quantum Foundational issues and wanting to know the true underlying reality, not content with merely shutting up and calculating, this book will be a supplement in any library concerning the history of Quantum Physics and the so called dissidents of the Copenhagen Interpretation mainly in David Bohm's Pilot-Wave Theory and Everett's Many-Worlds Interpretation but also though smaller GRW, in addition too as well John S. Bell.

    Part I: This was a good start concerning the Copenhagen Interpretation and its founders. Also early dissidents like Einstein and Schrödinger. I think this book is very lay friendly and easy to follow along concerning the theory and early issues with it. You also find that there really was no singular Copenhagen Interpretation despite Heisenberg giving them a singular label. Also you start to see how politics and social issues really helped launch Copenhagen. I learned how charismatic Bohr was yet how his very own students said he had issues with comprehension but also how vague he was and how people like Heisenberg despite not being a Nazi supported Nazi Germany (indeed Pascual himself was a Nazi), you see how bad Heisenberg was with experimental physics despite his somewhat confidence in German physics above others. Einstein by contrast to these men took on no students as Bohr, as he wasn't as charismatic and though spoke well, sometimes he was misunderstood such as in the case with Bohr or the when others wrote on his behalf but not in as clear a way as he would have, he also wrote longer statements than say Bell and he helped the U.S. in the Nuclear Race.

    Part II: This is where the major dissidents who made rival theories to Copenhagen appear but also others like Bell who advanced the conversation and gave scathing critics. These include mainly David Bohm and Hugh Everett. You find just how exiled Bohm was mainly for his communist affiliation but also for going against the status quo in the Copenhagen Interpretation. Also how Everett was with his prankster style yet sort of nonchalant attitude (interestingly you learn that Wheeler would try to help him get it out there and that Everett never cared to be an Academic but was content as a Cold War technocrat). Bohm would later abandon Communism but also his own Interpretation due to these many factors.

    Part III: Here is where the story continues and the next generations picked up where the former one's left off. You get to see how Bohm picked up his own Theory and revived it again thanks to Basil Hiley and some students. And others who advanced the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Everett as well. Moreover many others who advanced Bell's inequalities via experiment. This chapter was very helpful as many of these figures are hardly as known to a more lay audience such as Dieter Zeh and John Clauser and others. Very informative. Also GRW Theory makes an appearance along with David Albert.

    You see throughout this book how changes due to Social and Political issues affected many of these men, some not even having a job despite their importance in these Foundational Issues and how many did not give them a chance but in the end they made an impact unto today.

    I also found Adam Becker's comments on Philosophy to be extremely needed and he rightly went against the notion that Philosophy is dead or of lesser importance but it is precisely these historical and social issues that pushed this wrong idea of Philosophy it seems into Academia to the chagrin of people like Einstein who held it in high esteem. This was a pleasant suprise to me. The issues concerning the "Shut up and Calculate!" approach he also addresses as problematic which I was very pleased with as well.

    The last part an Appendix was concerning how these different Theories (including GRW) solve the Delayed-Choice experiment which is a very much discussed topic at least to a more lay audience and was very glad to see it included.

    The only 2 minor problems I had with the book is that a lot of the stuff on Nazi Germany seemed to not be important concerning the history of these realist dissident interpreations. However it was still very fascinating and had very import things in it still, like how this War affected the Physics community and to learn more concerning the personal lives of these men who are often adored. The last issue was the footnotes. Since the book itself doesn't give you an inserted number reference in the text as you are reading it makes it hard to know if you need to check for one. I practically even forgot about them throughout the book however he does give a ton of references to practically everything in there which is extremely helpful.

    Despite these small gripes, this is a book certainly needed. If you don't have it, make sure to add it to your collection, it is a must have.
  • Robert W. Sawyer
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars with Some Caveats
    Reviewed in the United States on September 21, 2018
    I agree with most other reviewers: this is a magisterially well-informed, brilliantly insightful and thoroughly enjoyable look at the wild and woolly progress of attempts to date to provide some kind of coherent account of the foundations of QM.

    Adam Becker's account of the personal and professional mechanisms behind the rise of the Copenhagen Interpretation(CI) to almost unchallenged dominance in its field is especially important. I also heartily endorse his call for more informed collaboration and mutual respect among philosophers and scientists.

    I do have some caveats.

    First, I think Professor Becker underestimates the degree to which subjective and institutional factors are also shaping current non-CI interpretations, though his riveting biographical accounts of the thinkers involved certainly can be taken as notes towards such an sequel.

    Second, I believe there is more preliminary work to be done in unsnarling the conceptual entanglements that led thinkers like Bohr and Heisenberg to see the need for something like CI in the first place. For example, the earliest thinkers about quantum "indeterminacy" utterly failed to distinguish between radically different ontological and epistemological meanings of "determine" (ont determining = bringing things about in the world; epist determining = ascertaining a value or result). This helps explain some of the bizarre paths early QM pioneers chose to follow. They simply failed to realize that our lacking information due to instrumental limits remains a story about us, not about the underlying and preexisting physical situations we're attempting to model (lack of evidence remains no evidence of lack, even in QM).

    Finally, I think Professor Becker's attempt to defend interpretations based on the universality of Schrodinger's Equation are a bit overenthusiastic. Surely we first need a clear idea of what relationships exist among quantitative models that can be successfully used as a basis for prediction and manipulation, the conceptual readings we can give those models, and the physical world of natural and cosmic history they attempt to abstractly represent before we take leaps of faith like the various Many World/Multiverse interpretations seriously. (To his credit, Professor Becker does, rightly, urge keeping multiple interpretations in mind and holding them loosely rather than rushing to judgement.)

    Enough back-benching. None of these reservations should deter anyone from reading, and being delighted by, this really terrific book from a scholar who knows his stuff and can actually write.
  • Chiradeep
    4.0 out of 5 stars Astonishingly well written
    Reviewed in the United States on April 22, 2019
    For those with more than a passing interest in fundamental questions in physics, this is a must read. It's a mesmerizing account of the conflicts in physics, philosophy and politics throughout the twentieth century. While not explicitly mentioned, the account also highlights the crucial role that war plays in the formation of collective psyche and technological advancements. Above all, this book also shows how science works - and is meant to work, through relentless critique, questioning, double checking, triple checking and revising. Finally, it also highlights that a scientist should not believe anyone's word - not Einstein's, not Bohr's - and must rely solely on the scientific process to draw conclusions about a theory or the world at large.

    • Best Sellers in

     
     

    The Brain That Changes Itself: Stories of Personal Triumph from the Frontiers of Brain Science

    4.7 4.7 out of 5 stars 5,119
    17.72
     
     

    Reality+: Virtual Worlds and the Problems of Philosophy

    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 423
    21.88
     
     

    The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything

    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 4,000
    13.78
     
     

    El poder de las palabras [The Power of Words]: Cómo cambiar tu cerebro (y tu vida) conversando [How to Change Your Brain (and

    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 916
    18.1
     
     

    Walden: Life in the Woods

    4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars 6,645
    21.83
     
     

    Deadliest Sea: The Untold Story Behind the Greatest Rescue in Coast Guard History

    4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars 825
    17.46
     
     

    Existential Physics: A Scientist's Guide to Life's Biggest Questions

    4.5 4.5 out of 5 stars 1,217
    15.75
     
     

    The Demon in the Machine: How Hidden Webs of Information Are Solving the Mystery of Life

    4.3 4.3 out of 5 stars 447
    15.04