I just finished reading Philip Ball's *Beyond Weird, Why Everything You Thought You Knew About Quantum Physics is Different*, and while he doesn't really deliver on the book's subtitle, he does a very good job of laying out the Copenhagen Interpretation of quantum mechanics, and its discontents, and the later attempts to reformulate the question.
As one who learned quantum mechanics as a chemist, I have to say that the lack of reality that bothers the physicists never really bothers me. I don't really care how an electron spreads itself in space to create a wave function. I get electron densities from the wave function magnitudes, which serve to glue together nuclei of different elements into molecules, and changes of electron densities, which allow reactions to happen. -- rec -- On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 11:02 AM Ron Newman <[email protected]> wrote: > Frank, > And what's your view of "What is Real?", by Adam Becker? I'm thinking of > having a look at it. > > Ron > Ron Newman, M.S., M.M.E. > Partner, Caditz-Newman <http://newman.caditz.us>, Smart Infrastructure > for Autonomous Vehicles > Founder, IdeaTreeLive.com <http://www.Ideatreelive.com> Knowledge Modeling > Piano <https://www.ronnewmanpiano.com> > Blog <https://blog.ideatreelive.com> > > > > > > > On Wed, Dec 5, 2018 at 6:40 AM Frank Wimberly <[email protected]> wrote: > >> We decided that The Road to Reality was unreadable because it's neither >> here nor there. It was very Advanced without being mathematical enough. >> Kind of like a long badly written Scientific American article. >> >> To make a long story short, we finally read Gauge Fields, Knots and >> Gravity by John Baez more or less successfully. The first part of the book >> covers manifolds, differential forms and, in general, the math you need for >> general relativity and quantum field theory. If you want another opinion >> ask Jon Zingale or Barry Mackichan. >> >> Frank >> >> Or travel back in time and ask Hywel. >> ----------------------------------- >> Frank Wimberly >> >> My memoir: >> https://www.amazon.com/author/frankwimberly >> >> My scientific publications: >> https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Frank_Wimberly2 >> >> Phone (505) 670-9918 >> >> On Tue, Dec 4, 2018, 11:21 PM Nick Thompson <[email protected] >> wrote: >> >>> Hi, Dave, >>> >>> Missed this note the first time. Frank and Hywel had a go at this a >>> couple >>> of years ago, and I bought the book and tried to join them. Whew! It >>> was >>> at that point I gave up on the notion that I could read anything if I >>> tried >>> hard enough. Hywel has since died, but I think there was at least one >>> other >>> person involved, who, with Frank, might be able to give you some >>> guidance. >>> >>> Nick >>> >>> Nicholas S. Thompson >>> Emeritus Professor of Psychology and Biology >>> Clark University >>> http://home.earthlink.net/~nickthompson/naturaldesigns/ >>> >>> >>> -----Original Message----- >>> From: Friam [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Prof David >>> West >>> Sent: Wednesday, November 28, 2018 10:26 AM >>> To: [email protected] >>> Subject: [FRIAM] two books >>> >>> I just finished reading What is Real? by Adam Becker. A straightforward >>> discussion of Quantum Physics and the "Copenhagen Interpretation," and >>> the >>> arguments surrounding it. it offers an indirect but scathing study of how >>> science is really done and how far the practice of science is from the >>> ideal >>> of a "scientific method." Also an interesting discussion of the >>> relationship >>> between 'science' and 'phi8losophy'. Might be of interest to several >>> FRIAMers. >>> >>> Starting to read Roger Penrose's, The Road to Reality: a complete guide >>> tot >>> he laws of the universe. I would really like some advice / comments from >>> the >>> mathematicians in the community as to the value of the book and the >>> likely >>> hood that I might gain sufficient understanding of manifolds, symmetry >>> groups, etc. etc. to understand some of the conversations on the list >>> and at >>> the mother church. >>> >>> dave west >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe >>> http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >>> >>> >>> ============================================================ >>> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >>> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >>> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >>> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >>> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >>> >> ============================================================ >> FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv >> Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College >> to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com >> archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ >> FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >> > ============================================================ > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College > to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove >
============================================================ FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Meets Fridays 9a-11:30 at cafe at St. John's College to unsubscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com archives back to 2003: http://friam.471366.n2.nabble.com/ FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ by Dr. Strangelove
