Helgoland: Making Sense of the Quantum Revolution

Had I reviewed this closer to when I read the bulk of it, this review would have been more insightful. But a pity it is that this was not as easy to read as his last book (The Order of Time), and so I read this intermittently over the course of nearly a year.

The challenge I faced with this book is that in some sections (particularly Chapters 4 and 6) his train of thought becomes hard to follow. Some concepts and relations are repeated, I think that was intended for this new grammar of reality offered by quantum theory to be eventually absorbed, but not so effectively. Something could be lost in translation too.

There are some very important notions he wants delivered in this book though, so it does deserve a careful reading and comprehension in supplement to his earlier work (I would recommend reading The Order of Time before this, as that sets the foundation for the key ideas he elaborates here).

Politics, literature, history and philosophy are discussed in much of this book. There is an acknowledgment of the relevance of Eastern philosophy too, although he strongly rebukes the appropriation of quantum physics by contemporary schools of metaphysics.

I was captivated and engrossed in the first 3 chapters and in the last one he ends once again in a poetic outburst on his journey of learning and relaying the knowledge and comprehension he's had thus far in this field.

That said I will want to give this a second reading when I have time.

The overly flower prose masks some promising ideas and the superficiality in areas that the author should have left aside. The ornate presentation also conceals the extent to which his relativistic interpretation does not deliver. Rovelli has obviously read widely but the book would have been better if he had shared less.

Although opaque in places, Rovelli's technical papers make a better case. The largely rhetorical presentation in this book does not require much background in quantum physics but fails to make anything resembling a persuasive case for the relational interpretation (in the form given by Rovelli) of quantum physics.

A very accessible ode to Schrödinger's cat

In the other books I read, I always expect explanations about quantum mechanics, but most of the time, I only got the history of the discovery. This one, however, is the other way around, I expect more history than physics, but it turns out more about quantum mechanics interpretation (at least, only until part 3)

What is impressive, I didn't expect I got another (quite recent) description of quantum interpretation: Relational Interpretation. I was drowning in my mind thinking about this new interpretation.

I am not really interested in the last chapter, it is more philosophy than physics itself. I will return to read that last bit when I am interested.

A fascinating exploration of quantum physics with a heavy dose of philosophy, Helgoland will re-inspire your inner scientist and leave you pondering the nature of everything... but in a good way.