Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness
by Bruce Rosenblum, Fred Kuttner
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bruce Rosenblum, Fred KuttnerEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-06-16
ISBN: 019534250X
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Book Reviews of Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness
Book Review: A Fascinating Voyage Through an Important Mystery
Summary: 5 Stars
An exploration into perhaps the greatest unsolved scientific problem of our time: how to reconcile quantum mechanics and general relativity? Or, more generally, how to make sense of quantum mechanics?
As you would expect, an analysis into a deep unanswerable mystery such as this does not end in the answer. Instead, it does an excellent job of sparking the reader's imagination with the challenges inherent in the investigation. Some ideas are presented which might lead to an answer, but they are necessarily just avenues of exploration. Note that the idea of consciousness causing decoherence is not the only interpretation offered by the authors. I believe almost all readers will find some fresh avenues of thought here. For me, it was the idea that position is special. Maybe we're just not equipped to experience something that is obvious and fundamental. And, our rather late appreciation of quantum mechanics is not because it is a difficult concept, but rather because we are severely handicapped in our ability apprehend the universe.
I found it surprising that the authors use Berkeley, when the drawing on the ideas of Schopenauer surely would have have been more fruitful? The idea of the phenomenal and noumenal, where we can apprehend one and the other we cannot, would provide a much richer analogy for the observable and unobservable duality of the EPR problem. In addition, Schopenauer's idea of a oneness to the noumenal seems like a direct correlation to entanglement, especially when taken to the logical conclusion described by the authors where that entanglement extends to a universal connectedness. Berkeley's ideas of the unknowable aspects of things we do not experience doesn't seem to resonate as strongly. I was waiting for a payoff where the enigma was connected to Schopenauer which never came.
For a reader already familiar with the quantum mechanics and EPR, the fact that 2/3 of the book is used to lay the groundwork for the book's subject may be disappointing, but for other readers, that part of the book is very well written. The final sections which deal with possible interpretations and possible connections to the notion of consciousness devolve into an anthology format, with concepts arrayed as small titled sections would have benefitted from a more rigorous approach where they are logically organized. As it is, they seem like an unstructured list of ideas.
In the end, this is an important work. History may view it as a seminal introduction to one of the most important quests undertaken by mankind. In the meantime, we can enjoy it as a tour through some of the most fascinating territory of modern science.
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