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The Quantum Conspiracy: What Popularizers of QM Don't Want You to Know

Google TechTalks · 1.8M views · 2011-01-12 · 1:03:43

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Overview

Ron Garret's Google Tech Talk argues that quantum mechanics is no harder to understand than relativity and that popular accounts wrongly rely on the Copenhagen interpretation. He presents measurement as entanglement and explains phenomena like the quantum eraser.

On Hacker News

HN commenters repeatedly recommend it as the talk that finally made quantum mechanics click, especially for programmers.

Recommended by 11 HN people across 15 months · HN mentions 2012–2025

Topics

Quantum physicsScientific method & science communication
Search by tags
quantum mechanicsentanglementmeasurementcopenhagen interpretationquantum eraser

What people said

raphlinus · 2022-03 · Strong recommendation

This is the video that finally made it click for me[1]. Despite the somewhat click-baity title ("What Popularizers of QM Don't Want You to Know") it actually goes into quite a bit of detail of what is and isn't a measurement, in the sense of interactions in a quantum mechanical system that strongly resemble classical behavior (it can be said that the quantum mechanical world is a simulator that can run classical mechanics). [1]: [VIDEO]

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oceanghost · 2019-11 · Strong recommendation

If I may recommend a lecture given at Google Tech Talks-- "The Quantum Conspiracy: What Popularizers of QM Don't Want You to Know", It really clarified some things for me. [VIDEO]

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cromwellian · 2014-04 · Strong recommendation

This Google Talk [VIDEO] uses entanglement and quantum information theory in a clear and understandable way to explain 'spooky' quantum phenomena, like the quantum eraser, de-coherence, the aspect experiment, and the measurement problem. Even if you don't know any QM, just basic algebra and calculus, it's really approachable. I used to be a fan of the Many Worlds interpretation, but after seeing this, I'm now a big fan of the Quantum Information Theory explanation. Starting about 43 minutes in, he goes into the QM Information Theory explanation, but I'd recommend watching the entire prezo. Link to my original post on the subject: [LINK]

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Sources

Video by Google TechTalks, played through YouTube.

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