This book is brilliant. The book details the actors, the stage is Europe and America, The play is called ; "What is reality ?" The actors are mostly upper class, but not all, mostly men with the exception of Marie Curie a woman who remarkably won the Nobel prize twice. Many of the key players are Jewish. the average age of these quantum detectives is just, 24.
I found the Timeline at kindle location 6318, to be very helpful. The timeline is an important guide to the rest of the book. The story starts at the birth of Max Planck. on April 23 1858. Referring back and forth to the timeline. The timeline gives us a brief summary of the people, the events and the discoveries. After reading the timeline I then read in detail the rest of the book. I enjoyed reading about how Max Planck was involved in both the science and the politics of Hitler's Germany.
One gem, Max Planck at the age of 75, on May 16th 1933 attempted to convince Hitler that some Jewish people or scientists would be very useful to the Germany economy, however Hitler rejected the plea.
Before the two World Wars, Europe's top physicists were friends and colleagues. Then war split them into three groups one working for Germany, or working for the Allies and those who remained neutral. The book details how discovery after discovery snow balled the knowledge so much so that this is describe as the Golden age of physics. The discovery of the atom's nucleus and it's empty space by Rutherford and co at Manchester University, UK, with their gold foil experiment is my favourite. The American fission bomb came about as a result of Einstein lobbying the American president.
The letter Einstein sent to president Roosevelt about the new bomb had unintended consequences for Japan and the post war world. The dangerous knowledge about E=Mc2 and the huge amounts of energy that is locked up inside atoms, still hangs over mankind to this day. But if Einstein hadn't sent the letter, Hitler may have obtained nuclear weapons first. This is a fantastic story about the rapidly emerging dangers of scientific progress and unintended consequences, The book reminds us that scientist are often the slaves of tyrants and not saints. The book documents and pulls together information from a verity of sources into one place then debates it. The message, war and science are linked and that reality often forces us to choose between the lesser of two evils.
Hitler stopped the export of Uranium from mines in areas under his control, well before the start of the second world war. This indicated that Hitler knew about the new bomb. The book highlights that Hitler and Max Planck had some worrying links. Hitler was told about the destructive power of nuclear weapons before the second world war. I wonder who explained the fission bomb to Hitler? and I wonder if he
really understood what he was told?
Einstein was odd, with that hair and the trousers that were too short, yet he was one of the most remarkable men to have ever lived. This book is full of little details about his life. Einstein could have been accepted into the army, (he failed the medical) If he had been accepted, that would have changed world history. Franz Ferdinand's driver got lost in the back streets of Sarajevo, one wrong turn by his driver led to Ferdinand's death and that triggered World War one. You keep asking yourself as you read more and more, what is reality ? Quantum reality can at times be surreal like Schrödinger's cat, being both alive and dead, smeared over two states in a superposition of reality . Or like Salvador Dali's persistent reoccurring memory. (The painting with the melting clock).
Manjit writes in a clear and easy to understand way. I am interested in quantum entanglement, where two particles no matter how far they are apart from each other, are able to communicate information from A to B, faster than light speed. The fact that everything we see around us was at one point in time all inside one particle. And very entangled, then bang, all this that we know and see 13.5 billion years later was once inside that one small entangled super particle.
This book must be read in conjunction with other books. My other interest is in quantum computers. I love the book because it shows how the universe is hiding something from us ? We follow the bread crumbs and build machines like CERN then we find that there is more hidden, then even more.
My view after reading the book :
The greatest discovery will be the invention of a quantum computer, and quantum entanglement will be the way the QC computer will input and output data. It's the only way to side step the measurement problem.
A Quantum computer will be able to emulate a human mind. This will lead to "mind uploading". That means digital immortality. We are obviously living inside a giant quantum 3D computer construct now. To quote Dr David Deutsch "The universe is a giant information processing system". And we live inside it and it is inside another universe, Everett's many worlds theory, like those Russian dolls one stacked inside the other. I believe CERN, will decide (one day) that there is a Planck particle at the centre of all hadrons.
I believe that there is a tiny 5D black hole, A Planck particle at the centre of every hadron, it's obvious. It is the gravity particle. It grabs energy in proton to proton collisions, this has been observed at CERN and at Fermi Lab. Some energy disappears in all P to P collisions. Where does it go ? It transfers into another dimension or a new time and a new space, via the 5D, and it's singularity.
The proof that we live in a programmed world or inside a quantum computer universe is self-evident, in my view, look at anti matter and matter. The outer shell of the anti proton "knows" when it encounters a matter proton. It's surface is smart. Look at the energy needed to rip protons apart, atoms can be compressed with billions of tons per square mm and can withstand temperatures of hundreds of millions of degrees C and still remain integral. Yet the soft and gentle encounter with the anti particle and it rips the quarks apart. Why ? What is so powerful that it can un-zip the force that holds the quarks together ? What is the possible mechanism ? How do particles know what they are ? How do protons "know" that they have been observed ? It's a computer programme obviously. That's why Gold and Mercury being chemically only one proton different, have vastly different chemical properties, it's a programme. My opinion from reading this and other books.
Quantum physics makes no sense, if a man leaps over a 50 footwall in Grand theft auto we say it's a video game, it's impossible in the real world. What is the real world ? when an atom can be in two or more places at the same time ? The idea that if a particle act as we would expect, in a logical way, then it's reality is a fallacy. If reality has nothing to do with human logic. then the book's message is clear our logic is flawed. CERN is not looking with reality in it's eye. There is no graviton and no higgs particle.
What we see in the book is not logical, like Schrödinger's cat, (TE) we are programmed to look for false logic. This mental prejudice, that an atom must be in only one place, is common sense. Science discovered that this common sense works well for hunter gathers. Reality, must logically be independent of observation, energy could not have evolved into all that we see today if it were otherwise. The first ever event had no observer. An ultimate truth otherwise you would have a quantum chicken and egg problem ? Everything must have evolved from a first event.
In summary, consider when you place a powerful Trans cranial magnet behind your head your consciousness will fade away, move the magnet away from your head and your consciousness will return. what does that tell you ? Show me in the DNA code where, consciousness is coded? The soul is an electromagnetic ghost. It resides in a quantum computer made of atoms, called the brain, it's the most complex thing in the universe that we know of. Put the atoms in the brain in a blender after death, they can't support the soul or thought in their raw state, why not ? When the data ghost has gone, the soul has gone you cant just call it back. The universe is still hiding a lot from us.
I love the men and woman in this book who keep asking why? I ask myself : The body after death is no lighter, it weighs the same. Is death just a data event ? Flat bed F-MRI machines will be soon be able to scan the soul, the electromagnet ghost that is us, and upload it into a quantum computer for full emulation. If the universe is a quantum computer one of Everett's many worlds, and Dr David Deutch is right, souls will be recorded in TIME, in the universes reproductive software and that means souls can be resurrected. Can we find where the universe hides her data ? My bet, it is hidden in "other dimensions" or other parallel universes, or "Server farming in Everett's multiverse". A great title for Manjit's next book.
"What is reality"?
This was a review of the kindle edition, the book is highly recommended and would be a great gift for a young person thinking of a career in quantum computers. Anyone out there with a few million to invest in quantum computers ? I am free on weekends.
Paul Kendall (Leeds, UK)
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About the author
A biography of quantum theory guaranteed to tele-transport you back to early twentieth century.
An excellent book on the history and development of quantum theory. Very well written, it has a very lively vibe to it. You often feel like you are taken back to the early twentieth century and you sit next to the quantum legends, listening to their stories and sympathizing with their struggles to reach the Ultimate Truth.
Top reviews from other countries
- Daniel PutmanReviewed in the United States on 8 March 2022
Can the way we understand our world be applied to the quantum level?
-
François PReviewed in France on 4 November 2019
Très bon livre de vulgarisation scientifique
- Cliente de AmazonReviewed in Mexico on 23 March 2017
One of the best books about the history of Quantum Mechanics!
- d k sarmaReviewed in India on 10 November 2016
engaged the most intelligent and creative minds in the 1920's
