The Second Quantum Revolution

This book tells the story of the second quantum revolution which will shape the 21st century as much as the first quantum revolution shaped the 20th century. It provides unique orientation in today’s discussion and the latest progress on the interpretation of quantum physics and its further technological potential.

As you read this book the first prototypes of this revolution are being built in laboratories worldwide. Super-technologies such as nanotechnology, quantum computers, quantum information processing, and others will soon shape our daily lives, even if physicists themselves continue to disagree on how to interpret the central theory of modern physics. The book will thus also touch on the profound philosophical questions at the heart of quantum mechanics.

Table of Contents

Part I Quantum 2.0-The Second Technological Revolution Arising from the Quantum World

1 Mighty Power: How a Theory of the Microcosm Changed Our World

2 There’s Plenty of Room at the Bottom: A New Generation of Quantum Technologies

3 Technology on the Smallest Scales: The Possibilities of Nanotechnology

4 Incredibly Fast: From the Digital to the Quantum Computer

Part II Quantum Worlds- The Bizarre in the Very Small

5 Contradictory Atoms: Philosophical Problems with the Smallest Building Blocks of Nature

6 Natura tacit saltus: On Quantum Jumps and Particles Being Created Out of Nothing

7 Tertium Datur: Wave and Particle at the Same Time

8 As Well as and Neither/Nor: Superposition- How Things Can Be Here and There at the Same Time

9 Loss of Identity: The New Reality Concept of Quantum Physics and Its Consequences

Part Ill From Quantum Field Theories to a “Theory of Everything” – All Material Dissolves

10 Negative Energies and the Electron Spin: Combining the Theory of Relativity to Produce a New Quantum Theory

11 Quantum Field Theories: All Matter Dissolves

12 Infinity Minus Infinity Gives Something Finite: How Physicists Learnt to Deal with Infinitely Large Values in the Infinitely Small

13 More and More Particles: From the Particle Zoo to the Standard Model of Elementary Particle Physics

14 Einstein Does Not Fit: The Fundamental Problem in Physics Today

Part IV Cutting Across Philosophical, Aesthetic, and Spiritual Frames of Thought

15 The Path Towards Substancelessness: Breaking with 2,600 Years of Philosophical Thought

16 A New Understanding of Truth: How Quantum Physics Made Absolute Reality Disappear, and with It Absolute Truth

17 The Eternal Interplay: Surprising Overlaps Between Quantum Physics and Buddhism

18 Symmetries: Beauty in the House of Physics

19 Quantum Consciousness and the Tao of Physics: On Quantum Holism, Quantum Healing, and Other Quantum Nonsense

20 Quantum Physics and Faith: Explaining the Inexplicable

Part V Entanglement- Getting to the Crux of the Matter

21 Cat Destinies: The Quantum Physical Measurement Problem

22 Wigner’s Friend: Quantum Physics and Consciousness

23 EPR and Hidden Variables: The Debate About Spooky Action at a Distance

24 The Experimental Resolution of the Bohr- Einstein Debate: How Entangled Particles Made Their Way from Theory into Practice

25 The Age of Entanglement: From Spooks to a New Quantum Revolution

26 Schrodinger’s Cat Is Alive: The Path Back to Classical Physics

Part VI The Future-Where Are We Going?

27 Quantum Revolution 2.0: When Nanobots and Quantum Computers Become Part of Our Everyday Lives

About the Author

Dr. Lars Jaeger, 48, studied physics, mathematics, philosophy, and history and spent several years in theoretical physics research in the area of quantum field theory and chaos theory. He is author of numerous books on popular science, writes his own blogs, and appears frequently in the media on questions of science and technology. As an impetuous lateral thinker he founded two companies that use mathematical methods to model global capital markets.