Speakable and Unspeakable in Quantum Mechanics : Collected Papers on Quantum Philosophy

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Summary: The Second Quantum Revolution: from Philosophy to Technology
Review: This is probably the first review of the revised (2004) edition of this classic of quantum philosophy.

J. S. Bell, the great Irish physicist, started the second quantum revolution with a short paper (the second paper in this collection). The paper, titled "On the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox", was published in 1964. In it, Bell turned the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen (EPR) thought-experiment into a real experiment, by showing that the nonlocality that Einstein thought was an absurd feature of Quantum Mechanics could be subject to experimental tests. The experimental results showed that Einstein was wrong and proved the reality of quantum nonlocal effects.

In the introduction to this new edition, Alain Aspect, the French physicist that did more than anybody else to prove Bell right (and Einstein wrong), discusses both the philosophical implications of the "second quantum revolution" and its technological applications.

At least one practical application of quantum entanglement has already been demonstrated: quantum cryptography [A reference is N. Gisin, G. Ribordy, W. Tittel and H. Zbinden, "Quantum cryptography", Rev. Mod. Phys., 74, 145 (2002)]. The other application, quantum computing is still in the future, but many groups, around the world, are working toward it.

The papers included in this collection are all of a conceptual or philosophical nature. The mention of the technological applications in the introduction, however, shows that these are not idle speculations: the quantum effects described are so real that mastering their technological applications will be a matter of life and death in the next century.

Some of the papers collected in this book are aimed at the general reader and hardly have any equations at all. Other papers require a knowledge of the formalism of Quantum Mechanics at the level of, for instance, Isham's "Lectures on Quantum Theory: Mathematical and Structural Foundations" (ISBN: 1860940013).

Graduate students in physics (and even advanced undergraduates), mathematicians and philosophers with an interest in the conceptual foundation of Quantum Mechanics (and in the nature of reality) should all read this book.