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Essay Review of Tanya and Jeffrey Bub's Totally Random: Why Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics: A Serious Comic on Entanglement

Michael E. Cuffaro, Doyle, Emerson P.

Published Jan 1, 2020• 2 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

This is an extended essay review of Tanya and Jeffrey Bub's Totally Random: Why Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics: A serious comic on entanglement. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press (2018), ISBN: 9780691176956, 272 pp., 7x10 in., 254 b/w illus., £18.99 / $22.95 (paperback). We review the philosophical aspects of the book, provide suggestions for instructors on how to use the book in a class setting, and evaluate the authors' artistic choices in the context of comics theory.

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Modern quantum mechanics, developed in the 1920s, is the most successful and accurate theory we have. And yet fundamental questions about the interpretation of quantum mechanics persist. To address this, Jeffrey Bub, a physicist and philosopher, and his artist daughter Tanya Bub have created Totally Random , a non-fiction graphic novel that is subtitled "a serious comic on entanglement".

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Written at a level appropriate for an educated lay audience, this paper attempts to give a primarily conceptual overview of a framework recently introduced in reference [3] by this author, which attempts to clarify what quantum mechanics tells us about reality. Physicists may find this pa-per useful because it focuses on the central ideas of the framework at a conceptual level, thereby lessening their unfamiliarity, an unavoidable fea-ture of truly novel ideas. The author hopes that this article will motivate physicists to seriously evaluate the mathematical details of the framework given in the original reference...I think I can safely say that nobody understands Quantum Mechanics.”[1]

•Oct 3, 2011•0 citations
This is an extended essay review of Tanya and Jeffrey Bub's Totally Random: Why Nobody Understands Quantum Mechanics: A serious comic on entanglement. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press (2018), ISBN: 9780691176956, 272 pp., 7x10 in., 254 b/w illus., £18.99 / $22.95 (paperback). We review the philosophical aspects of the book, provide suggestions for instructors on how to use the book in a class setting, and evaluate the authors' artistic choices in the context of comics theory.
An eccentric comic about the central mystery of quantum mechanics\nTotally Random is a comic for the serious reader who wants to really understand the central mystery of quantum mechanics--entanglement: what it is, what it means, and what you can do with it.\nMeasure two entangled particles separately, and the outcomes are totally random. But compare the outcomes, and the particles seem as if they are instantaneously influencing each other at a distance―even if they are light-years apart. This, in a nutshell, is entanglement, and if it seems weird, then this book is for you. Totally Random is a graphic experiential narrative that unpacks the deep and insidious significance of the curious correlation between entangled particles to deliver a gut-feel glimpse of a world that is not what it seems. See for yourself how entanglement has led some of the greatest thinkers of our time to talk about crazy-sounding stuff like faster-than-light signaling, many worlds, and cats that are both dead and alive. Find out why it remains one of science's most paradigm-shaking discoveries. Join Niels Bohr's therapy session with the likes of Einstein, Schrödinger, and other luminaries and let go of your commonsense notion of how the world works. Use your new understanding of entanglement to do the seemingly impossible, like beat the odds in the quantum casino, or quantum encrypt a message to evade the Sphinx's all-seeing eye. But look out, or you might just get teleported back to the beginning of the book!\nA fresh and subversive look at our quantum world with some seriously funny stuff, Totally Random delivers a real understanding of entanglement that will completely change the way you think about the nature of physical reality.
Written at a level appropriate for an educated lay audience, this paper attempts to give a primarily conceptual overview of a framework recently introduced in reference [3] by this author, which attempts to clarify what quantum mechanics tells us about reality. Physicists may find this pa-per useful because it focuses on the central ideas of the framework at a conceptual level, thereby lessening their unfamiliarity, an unavoidable fea-ture of truly novel ideas. The author hopes that this article will motivate physicists to seriously evaluate the mathematical details of the framework given in the original reference...I think I can safely say that nobody understands Quantum Mechanics.”[1]