Totally Random: Why Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics (A Serious Comic on Entanglement) by Tanya Bub (PDF)

Description

An eccentric comic about the central mystery of quantum mechanicsTotally Random is a comic for the serious reader who wants to really understand the central mystery of quantum mechanics–entanglement: what it is, what it means, and what you can do with it.Measure two entangled particles separately, and the outcomes are totally random. But compare the outcomes, and the particles seem as if they are instantaneously influencing each other at a distance―even if they are light-years apart. This, in a nutshell, is entanglement, and if it seems weird, then this book is for you. Totally Random is a graphic experiential narrative that unpacks the deep and insidious significance of the curious correlation between entangled particles to deliver a gut-feel glimpse of a world that is not what it seems. See for yourself how entanglement has led some of the greatest thinkers of our time to talk about crazy-sounding stuff like faster-than-light signaling, many worlds, and cats that are both dead and alive. Find out why it remains one of science’s most paradigm-shaking discoveries. Join Niels Bohr’s therapy session with the likes of Einstein, Schrödinger, and other luminaries and let go of your commonsense notion of how the world works. Use your new understanding of entanglement to do the seemingly impossible, like beat the odds in the quantum casino, or quantum encrypt a message to evade the Sphinx’s all-seeing eye. But look out, or you might just get teleported back to the beginning of the book!A fresh and subversive look at our quantum world with some seriously funny stuff, Totally Random delivers a real understanding of entanglement that will completely change the way you think about the nature of physical reality.

User’s Reviews

Editorial Reviews: Review “The structure of Totally Random is a radical departure from the usual. . . . The ‘quoin’-flipping examples are really outstanding for illustrating the key experiments involved in modern quantum physics, particularly when it gets to the later examples of applications to cryptography and teleportation.”—Chad Orzel, Forbes”If you ever wondered about quantum entanglement and why it’s so weird, this book is perhaps the best, simplest explainer of how it actually works.”—Ethan Siegel, Forbes”A beautiful book, conceptually, artistically, and in the way that the concepts and art are combined to engage with the reader in a meaningful way.”—Michael E. Cuffaro and Emerson P. Doyle, Foundations of Physics”[Totally Random] is an interesting experiment. Quantum mechanics is not easy to grasp. What [this book] makes clear is what entanglement really means.”—Adhemar Bultheel, European Mathematical Society”Totally Random delivers a real understanding of some seriously funny stuff. Solid references and notes augment the presentation. Totally Random, a ‘serious comic,’ provides an excellent introduction to quantum mechanics, better perhaps than a massive textbook, certainly more interesting.”—John F. Barber, Leonardo Reviews”It’s more fun than you ever thought you could have learning about quantum mechanics.” ― BBC Science Focus”A beautiful book, conceptually, artistically, and in the way that the concepts and art are combined to engage with the reader in a meaningful way.”—Michael Cuffaro and Emerson Doyle, Foundations of Physics Review “What a delight! Totally Random explores some of the strangest features of quantum theory―and introduces some of the most important new devices that exploit quantum weirdness―in a way that is accessible, smart, and funny. An entanglement page-turner!”―David Kaiser, author of How the Hippies Saved Physics”Lovely. Totally Random provides a better introduction to quantum mechanics than any textbook I’ve seen.”―Simon DeDeo, Carnegie Mellon University and the Santa Fe Institute”As the author of a massive textbook on quantum field theory, I am unusually qualified to say that I do not understand that which nobody understands, as per Feynman. Yet Totally Random, with its clever presentation tinged with sly humor, has enabled me to see more clearly the cloud of my incomprehension.”―A. Zee, author of On Gravity: A Brief Tour of a Weighty Subject”A highly original approach to a very serious and difficult subject.”―Nicolas Gisin, University of Geneva”This book actually explains rather than just reports the key feature of quantum mechanics to a general audience. There is really nothing that compares to Totally Random.”―Michel Janssen, University of Minnesota From the Back Cover “What a delight! Totally Random explores some of the strangest features of quantum theory–and introduces some of the most important new devices that exploit quantum weirdness–in a way that is accessible, smart, and funny. An entanglement page-turner!”–David Kaiser, author of How the Hippies Saved Physics”Lovely. Totally Random provides a better introduction to quantum mechanics than any textbook I’ve seen.”–Simon DeDeo, Carnegie Mellon University and the Santa Fe Institute”As the author of a massive textbook on quantum field theory, I am unusually qualified to say that I do not understand that which nobody understands, as per Feynman. Yet Totally Random, with its clever presentation tinged with sly humor, has enabled me to see more clearly the cloud of my incomprehension.”–A. Zee, author of On Gravity: A Brief Tour of a Weighty Subject “A highly original approach to a very serious and difficult subject.”–Nicolas Gisin, University of Geneva “This book actually explains rather than just reports the key feature of quantum mechanics to a general audience. There is really nothing that compares to Totally Random.”–Michel Janssen, University of Minnesota About the Author Tanya Bub is founder of 48th Ave Productions, a web development company. She lives in Victoria, British Columbia. Jeffrey Bub is Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Philosophy and the Institute for Physical Science and Technology at the University of Maryland, where he is also a fellow of the Joint Center for Quantum Information and Computer Science. His books include Bananaworld: Quantum Mechanics for Primates. He lives in Washington, DC. Read more

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐The graphics of this 2018 book are entertaining, and the descriptions of Quantum Mechanics (and particularly the topic of Quantum Entanglement) are generally quite good.But it must be pointed out that this is a ‘Serious COMIC’ presentation; that is, the serious discussion is interspersed with cartoons, photographs, and comic dialogue. For those who enjoy series such as Larry Gonick’s ‘Cartoon History of the Universe,’ or the ‘For Beginners’ Documentary Comic Books by Pantheon, this will be right up their alley.Personally, I found the rather large proportion of the text that was taken up by the ‘comic’ dialogue to be rather ‘off-putting’ and a distraction. I was more interested in the actual quotations from quantum physicists that were included (and the ‘Notes’ section at the end of the book gives the sources of the quotations).Some will love the book as a user-friendly intro to Quantum Mechanics and Entanglement; others will seek a more “conventional” introduction.

⭐Armed with less than an academic understanding of Quantum Theory the comic world”Totally Random” inspired this reader.The coin “toaster” gets you started with an entangled set and flips them to match a Quantum correlation, all in accord with observations in quantum mechanics. Trying to rig the flips takes the reader right through Bell’s inequality and the ultimate need to travel faster than light or maybe split into multiple universes that pop into existence to provide purchase for the missing states, lest all events be predetermined (yet another scary thought). Equal parts ingenious and trippy, the illustrations and text go right to the issues of spooky action, multiple universes, and teleporting. And maybe why it is that nobody totally understands, one of the things this book is about.”Totally Random” is a good read (and look) and the quotes from Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and others are part explanation and part frustration ofthe unknowns, like they are agreeing with what it was the reader “got” from the book.This book is for anyone with a curious mind. A chance for enlightenment worth taking.I like this book.B. Harvey

⭐Outstanding. I have read many books on quantum mechanics – some technical, others more popular – and this is an excellent addition to both. Continuing in the tradition of his earlier “Bananaworld – Quantum Mechanics for Primates (Oxford, 2015)”, Jeff Bub is able to explain what quantum mechanics *means* in new and illuminating ways. Totally Random succeeds in laying out the central conundrums that confound us clearly and starkly through his novel thought experiment of a “Super Quantum Entangler for Quoins.” The secret sauce is Tanya Bub leading the way with her spectacular illustrations and skeptical questioning of Jeff Bub’s assertions – with the argument/discussion between them generating much clarity in understanding and grappling with the main issues. They then proceed to illustrate (literally and figuratively) how various scientists from Einstein to Bohr to Bohm to Everett to Schrodinger to von Neumann to Heisenberg and Pauli have all tried to make sense of things before ending with speculation and thought experiments about a few possible extensions of the theory – and potential applications. Highly recommended.

⭐At the heart of nature there exists a phenomenon that is so counter-intuitive that is impossible to understand – even for those who can express it in its original mathematical language. (That does not include me.)Somehow this ingenious comic manages to bring you face to face with this strange fact. (Not giving away plot.)I was thinking about comics I read as a kid. The ones you really like you read over and over. I’ve read Totally Random many times since I bought and I expect to wear it out.It’s terrific and I don’t know of anything like it. (That’s kind of a pun. Read the book.)

⭐If you’re interested in ideas and puzzles, this is a book for you. If you’d like to understand a fundamental (and probably the weirdest) idea in physics, here it is explained in a way that anyone can grasp. It entertains and teaches. The proof of Bell’s Theorem is itself worth 100 times the price of the book. The authors explain things in a way that make you feel like a genius, like you could have worked this out if only you’d thought about it. I plan to buy copies of this book as gifts for all the precocious kids (and adults) I know.

⭐As someone who has been teaching quantum mechanics to a variety of undergraduates from different disciplines for over twenty years, I am very grateful to have “Totally Random.” The book is quite a hat trick, it manages to be approachable, engaging, thoughtful, deep and fun all at once; properties that are usually non-commutative–if you don’t know what that means then this book is for you. The book, with its narrative presentation and amazing art work manages to capture the magic of quantum mechanics beautifully. Highly recommended.

⭐This book is the most constructive, lucid antidote to lectures on this topic I’ve seen to date. For those who are visual, respect dialogue as a learning tool, and benefit from humor to stay present in a challenging topic, this book is the new paradigm for learning.

⭐This author tries to write in a comic book style to present an intriguing and complex subject. The author tries to be funny more than he explains the subject. When he does get to the topic he can be clear. But, this is not the book to learn the subject unless you want to learn it from a comic book.It is hard to follow, and I even read half the book twice to see if it was me or the book. I just found his attempts to be a comedian overwhelmed the subject matter. The author knows the topic and does try to “dumb it down” but the presentation just does not work for me.

⭐I’ve very much enjoyed the “seriousness” of the comic. When I LOL on a book on quantum entanglement at least twice per page, then, IMO, is a very good take on how to enlighten the masses and make science popular. Anyway as a programmer, my mind felt thankful for the “algorithmical” explanations and just loved the small eastereggs. I mean 1337? seriously? 🙂 yea I’d totally recommend this book to anyone interested!

⭐This book is written as a cartoon, but its subject is far from light: The interpretation of quantum mechanics. (Still a very disputed topic nearly one hundred years after quantum mechanics’ emergence, and despite its success atmathematically describing physical observations at the atomic level and below.) The various interpretations (Copenhagen, hidden variables, multi-world, etc.) are discussed, and the main characters (Bohr, Einstein, Heisenberg, Schrodinger, Everett, Bohm, Bell) are depicted, explaining their positions. It is a good review of the issue, but the topic is not easy to illustrate and explain (due to the subject’s unfamiliar nature, rather than the authors), and upon closing the book, one is left with a feeling that there are no good answers at this point.

⭐Dieses Buch kann ich jedem Interessierten nur empfehlen. Ich habe bisher noch keine auch nur annähernd so unterhaltsame Einführung in das Thema Quantenmechanik und Verschränkung gefunden, die dennoch fachlich fundiert bleibt.

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⭐Die Comic-Darstellung soll nicht täuschen – eine sehr gut durchdachte Darstellungdes schwer zu verstehenden Themas. Sollte einer der Scherze schwer verständlich sein -es gibt eine Website mit Materialien dazu.

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