Synchronicity
The Epic Quest to Understand the Quantum Nature of Cause and Effect
Published on 18. August 2020
304 pages
978-1-5416-7364-9 (ISBN)
Description
From Aristotle's Physics to quantum teleportation, learn about the scientific pursuit of instantaneous connections in this insightful examination of our world.
For millennia, scientists have puzzled over a simple question: Does the universe have a speed limit? If not, some effects could happen at the same instant as the actions that caused them -- and some effects, ludicrously, might even happen before their causes. By one hundred years ago, it seemed clear that the speed of light was the fastest possible speed. Causality was safe. And then quantum mechanics happened, introducing spooky connections that seemed to circumvent the law of cause and effect. Inspired by the new physics, psychologist Carl Jung and physicist Wolfgang Pauli explored a concept called synchronicity, a weird phenomenon they thought could link events without causes. Synchronicity tells that sprawling tale of insight and creativity, and asks where these ideas -- some plain crazy, and others crazy powerful -- are taking the human story next.
For millennia, scientists have puzzled over a simple question: Does the universe have a speed limit? If not, some effects could happen at the same instant as the actions that caused them -- and some effects, ludicrously, might even happen before their causes. By one hundred years ago, it seemed clear that the speed of light was the fastest possible speed. Causality was safe. And then quantum mechanics happened, introducing spooky connections that seemed to circumvent the law of cause and effect. Inspired by the new physics, psychologist Carl Jung and physicist Wolfgang Pauli explored a concept called synchronicity, a weird phenomenon they thought could link events without causes. Synchronicity tells that sprawling tale of insight and creativity, and asks where these ideas -- some plain crazy, and others crazy powerful -- are taking the human story next.
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Book
09/2020
Basic Books
€28.50
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Person
Paul Halpern is a professor of physics at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia and the author of sixteen popular science books, including The Quantum Labyrinth and Einstein's Dice and Schrödinger's Cat. He is the recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship and is a fellow of the American Physical Society. He lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Content
- Intro
- TITLE PAGE
- COPYRIGHT
- TABLE OF CONTENTS
- DEDICATION
- INTRODUCTION: MAPPING NATURE'S CONNECTIONS
- 1 TOUCHING THE HEAVENS: Ancient Views of the Celestial Realm
- 2 BY JUPITER, LIGHT LAGS!
- 3 ILLUMINATIONS: The Complementary Visions of Newton and Maxwell
- 4 BARRIERS AND SHORTCUTS: The Mad Landscapes of Relativity and Quantum Mechanics
- 5 THE VEIL OF UNCERTAINTY: Turning Away from Realism
- 6 THE POWER OF SYMMETRY: Connections Beyond Causality
- 7 THE ROAD TO SYNCHRONICITY: The Jung-Pauli Dialogue
- 8 FALSE REFLECTIONS: Navigating Nature's Imperfect House of Mirrors
- 9 REALITY'S RODEO: Wrangling with Entanglement, Taming Quantum Jumps, and Harnessing Wormholes
- CONCLUSION: Unraveling the Universe's Tangled Web
- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
- DISCOVER MORE
- FURTHER READING
- REFERENCES
- ABOUT THE AUTHOR
- PRAISE FOR "SYNCHRONICITY
