Something Deeply Hidden

Review

I assume explaining quantum mechanics well to non-physicists is rather tricky. It’s hard to give any definite answer as to if he succeeded, but I feel my understanding broadened. I shuld first state that this book is highly opinionated. Sean makes strong arguments for the many worlds interpretation, and although I was decisively Everettian before reading, it’s not a book aiming to represent quantum mechanics fairly. I found parts of the early discussions somewhat lacking. He drops ideas about re-cohering already decohered parts of the wavefunction but refuses to elaborate enough to make it either mathematically or conceptually clear. He also seems to claim that many worlds solves the measurement problem, something I happen to agree with, but does not go in-depth on explaining this any further. I think this shuld be one of the strongest arguments for many worlds.

I find the book the strongest in the later half, where he steps outside of established physics and starts to philosophize about how spacetime might be derived from quantum mechanics itself. All in all a great book, and would recommend everyone interested in the fundamentals of physics to give it a go. It seems Sean masters both theoretical physics and philosophy with impressive command.