Already hailed as a masterpiece, Something Deeply Hidden shows for the first time that facing up to the essential puzzle of quantum mechanics utterly transforms how we think about space and time. Toward the end of the episode, I discuss three episodes of Sean’s excellent podcast, which Sean himself recommends to fans of this podcast.INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERA Science News favorite science book of 2019As you read these words, copies of you are being created.Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and one of this world's most celebrated writers on science, rewrites the history of twentieth-century physics. Most importantly, he makes the broader domain of quantum mechanics more accessible than you’re likely to find it anywhere, outside of an in-depth college-level course. He touches on the other leading schools of thought as well. In this episode, he lays out his preferred explanation – which is commonly called the “many worlds” interpretation of quantum mechanics. Sean certainly ranks amongst the proud few who do have strong opinions about the reality behind quantum weirdness. Most of the people who engage with the quantum realm for a living don’t even have strong opinions about what’s behind all of that! And yet, we have these incredibly precise quantum equations and predictions – ones which the world essentially runs on. Virtually everything that happens down there violates all of our intuitions about reality and how it works. This refers to the awkward lack of consensus about what drives the bizarre rules governing the quantum mechanical domain of photons, subatomic particles, and other tiny things. And yet, one of science’s most famous quotations is of the revered physicist Richard Feynman saying, “I can safely say that nobody understands quantum mechanics.” computing, mobile phones, or anything else involving transistors), would be possible without the wildly successful equations and predictions derived from quantum mechanics. Virtually nothing we equate with modern life (e.g. Sean’s upcoming book concerns the subject of today's conversation – which is the bizarre world of quantum mechanics.

Sean carroll many worlds book