Quantum mechanics is the most precise way known to mankind to describe the world at the fundamental depth that determines its structure but is inaccessible to direct observation. Only thanks to quantum nature can atoms, people, stars, and almost everything else exist. Quantum effects, which are already involved in technology, come as close as possible to our ideas of miracles. But by its very nature, quantum mechanics leaves unsaid things about the behavior of quantum objects and the properties of reality.

At the dawn of the second quantum century, Alexey Semikhatov, author of the bestseller Everything That Moves, offers a consistent presentation of the current state of quantum mechanics. What are the fundamental features of the quantum world and at what cost can they be reconciled with intuition? By what rules do quantum systems develop in time and how do probabilities intervene in this development? How do different interpretations of quantum mechanics push us to deeply philosophical conclusions about the possible structure of reality - from parallel universes to gaps in perception? And how does the reality we are accustomed to emerge from the alien quantum reality? What does a quantum computer do, what and how is involved in quantum entanglement, and why do quantum objects have to exist without some properties? It turns out that quantum mechanics can be seriously discussed in a clear language, and discussing its complexities only makes this conversation more interesting.

According to quantum laws and only thanks to quantum laws, atoms exist, of which we ourselves and almost everything on planet Earth consist; thanks to quantum laws, the Sun burns; quantum processes determine the interaction of light and matter; our entire world is assembled from quantum objects. But the fundamental quantum nature in the depths of the world remains largely unnoticed due to the flickering of a huge number of tiny participants. Individually, they behave quantumly and interact with each other also according to quantum rules, but together they form the world we are familiar with, which is observable and almost not quantum in any way…. Paradoxically, the familiar properties of the surrounding world are based on quantum phenomena alien to it.

Features

26 illustrations drawn especially for the book. Illustrator Nyusya Krasovitskaya offered a philosophical and metaphorical vision of the subject, the defining feature of which is the lack of clarity.