Beyond Weird: Why Everything You Thought You Knew about Quantum Physics Is Different

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takes us to new and more enlightened understanding
by Robert A. Robillard (5 out of 5 stars)
August 27, 2018

As a lay person who has been a student of all things Quantum for over 20 years and 30 books, this is a highly recommended read. Mr. Ball has masterfully put into verbal terms concepts that are even nebulous in formal math terms. He has taken a fresh approach at quantum mysteries with illuminating and descriptive prose. He also introduces terms and correlations that I have seen no where else. This is a 21st century description filled with 21st century enlightenment for the 21st century curious. May require some degree of prior basic understanding.
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Well written, but with an unfortunate bias
by Eric Stromquist (4 out of 5 stars)
April 12, 2019

Among all intellectual matters, the interpretation of quantum mechanics is for me the most interesting subject there is. This was true when I studied physics, which I left for a different career in part because I care very much about what QM means (kind of the point of learning physics) but discovered that "�shut up and calculate' was the standard interpretation when I went in school in the "�70s. Yet the subject remains so compelling that I've spent a lot of time during the last 25 years keeping up. Now that the foundations of quantum theory are a reputable subject, there is a lot of literature to study in addition to popularizations like Beyond Weird.

One interesting thing about quantum interpretation is the psychological or sociological fact that there are quite a few incompatible views, each held by many highly intelligent, thoughtful people who sort into a number of incompatible camps. There are older anti-realist views like Copenhagen, their descendants the "�Psi-epistemic' views that focus on information, and at least three "�Psi-realistic' camps - Bohm, objective collapse and Everett - where the last two come in multiple flavors.

Beyond Weird surveys this landscape, which one would hope of any such book, but Ball has a definite preference. As he says: "�I believe that most if not all of the thinking I have discussed in this book has converged, in one way or another, on this question: what is and is not permitted about information?' He is clearly in the epistemic, information-focused camp.

What makes it difficult to write a review of Beyond Weird, but also motivates me to write one, is that I am a confident, committed, died-in-the-wool Everettian, where that is the realist interpretation that Ball expends the greatest amount of effort arguing against. My challenge here is to resist launching into a long panegyric in favor of the Everett interpretation and a polemic refuting all of Ball's arguments against it.

In favor of Ball, he clearly understands the physics and is an excellent writer. Would I recommend his book? Yes, for those who are spending some effort on quantum interpretations and have read, or are going to read, other authors to develop a broad view of the subject. I cannot recommend it to people for whom this will be their only read on the subject, simply because I believe the book's conclusions are wrong! Because of this I can give it no more than four stars.

Another recent book that has sometimes been reviewed together with Ball's is Adam Becker's "�What is Real?' Becker takes a more historical, sociological (kind of Kuhnian) approach toward the development of quantum interpretation since its inception. In contrast to Ball he is partial to realism, although he remains agnostic between the three realist camps mentioned earlier. I enjoyed his book. Also, Sean Carroll (Caltech physicist) is coming out with a popularization this September entitled "�Something Deeply Hidden: Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime.' I'm going to love it - I hear it's mainly an argument for the Everett interpretation.

For what it's worth, I will offer a reading list for those who really want to take a serious crack at quantum foundations. First, if you're not familiar with quantum mechanics try "�Quantum Mechanics: The Theoretical Minimum' by Leonard Susskind. Then go to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (online) and read all their articles listed under Quantum Mechanics and then under Quantum Theory. These have long bibliographies, mainly of philosophy journal articles. Great reading lists across the philosophy of physics can be found by Googling "�David Wallace USC' and going to his website. Wallace is in my opinion the best professional philosopher of physics hands down, while Sean Carroll is the best philosophy writer among practicing physicists, where Max Tegmark comes in second. Wallace's reading lists of books and articles are very thorough and evenhanded, covering the spectrum of interpretations, although in fairness he is the most vocal exponent of the Everett interpretation among philosophers. In general, free versions of most journal articles can be found on the authors' websites, through Google Scholar, or on the University of Pittsburgh PhilSci preprint archive. All this reading will provide an even-handed rundown of the state of play in the field. It should keep you busy for a couple years. Happy reading!
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An exploration of quantum mechanics foundations
by Marc Vermeir (5 out of 5 stars)
November 1, 2018

This book discusses quantum physics phenomena in a down to earth fashion, a welcome relief from more popular books on the subject, that focus on mystery, 'spooky action' etc. It also provides an overview of recent research on the foundations of the theory, the status of practical or soon to be practical applications such as quantum computing and quantum cryptography, which I haven't found so far in other books on the subject. For a layman, it is not an easy read, but definitely worth the effort.
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Read it for it self or as a companion to other works on Quantum Physics
by Lockley (5 out of 5 stars)
July 9, 2018

An excellent companion to Sabine Hossenfelder's Lost in Math. It fills in, for the non-physics professional, some the background information and perspective alluded to In Dr Hossenenfelder's work. It stands on its own and makes clear the difficulties in the understanding of quantum physics for the reader with a life long practice in classical mechanics.
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Some of the best explanations
by Greg (5 out of 5 stars)
December 19, 2018

I've been reading a lot about the question of quantum reality lately, and this book had some of the best explanations of issues at the root of the problem of all the books that I've read. While there are other books that go into more detail (What is Real?" is a good example), Beyond Weird had for me the most lucid descriptions of the key thought experiments. It is neither partisan or dismissive of the various opinions on the question. From the standpoint of someone who received a M.S. in physics forty some years ago, I can recommend this book for anyone interested in the subject of quantum mechanics.
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Quantum Weirdness is all in our Heads
by John E. Mack (5 out of 5 stars)
January 16, 2019

This is the best lay review of quantum physics I have read. It takes the position that there is nothing "weird" about quantum physics itself. What appears to be weird is that the predictions of the theory are very counterintuitive, but this is a problem with our conceptualization of quantum physics, not reality itself. His explanation of entanglement is especially helpful. If he is right, there really is no measurement problem, because entanglement "infects" everything subatomic quanta touch from the very beginning. Even classical objects are superimposed, he seems to say. It is just that the quantum effects are "blurred out." He makes a wonderful physics joke, which I repeat with a bit of a twist:

Erwin Schroedinger is driving down the highway when an officer pulls him over. "Do you have anything in the trunk," the cop asks. Schroedinger says that there is a cat in a box in the trunk. The officer opens the trunk and opens the box. "There's a dead cat in here," he says. "Has it been dead a long time?" Schroedinger replies, "It has been now."
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More up to date (in 2019) than most books
by David Matuszek (5 out of 5 stars)
January 18, 2019

There are two kinds of books on quantum physics: Those for physicists, full of equations, and those for the rest of us. This is one of the latter kind.

If you know anything at all about quantum physics, you know two things: (1) the equations describe the world correctly, every time, and (2) they don't (seem to) make any sense. Therefore, books for "the rest of us" all describe some of the weird things quantum physics says about the world, and try to make some kind of sense of it.

I've read quite a few such books. This one is quite good, and talks about the most recent attempts to understand what it all "means." Personally, I favor the idea that the basic "stuff" of the universe is information, but hey, I'm a computer scientist, not a physicist. YMMV.
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Challenging but remarkably accessible for even those without much math and physics.
by Trail hiker (5 out of 5 stars)
December 7, 2018

This is by far the best account of Quantum physics for the layperson that I have read. He never oversimplifies--the theories are "beyond weird"-but you begin to understand why they are so difficult and yet so fascinating. As a retired philosophy professor, I found that he raised all the right fundamental questions. I would note that The Economist magazine listed it as one of the best books of 2018.
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A deep dive into a difficulty subject
by science writer (5 out of 5 stars)
February 1, 2019

I read many books on quantum mechanics and cosmology, and I've reviewed many of them on Amazon. I've even written one (The Mysterious Universe). Most physicists or science writers seem reluctant to confront the philosophical questions raised by QM, except on a superficial level. Those who do attempt to wrestle with the problems often have a specific interpretation they're selling-whether it's string theory, loop quantum gravity, many worlds, or pilot wave theory.

But in this book, Philip Ball gets into the weeds and confronts the difficulties head on. It's a brave and balanced account, told in clear, concise prose. He gives an articulate and illuminating description of the subtleties of QM in a manner that can be followed by any intelligent reader willing to make the effort. Jargon is kept to a minimum and he resists the temptation to recapitulate the entire history of physics except as needed. Highly recommended for anyone who wants to understand what it all means--if you're willing to settle for a few hints and guesses.
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Best I've read on the subject
by Bill (5 out of 5 stars)
December 22, 2018

Granted, the subject isn't easy, but the author of Beyond Weird has a sense of what others can understand and never gets so close to the subject that he loses the lay reader. I liked it better than "What's Real?", which I found to be more of a history and biography of the major figures in the subject. I was looking for a sense that the foundations of quantum mechanics had progressed in understanding, and this book gave me that perspective.

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