By J.P. McEvoy
and Oscar Zarate
Great idea, rotten execution. When I first saw a rack
of these books – small paperbacks that use a black-and-white comics
format to explain complicated modern ideas – I was so overwhelmed
by the excellent topics covered that I could hardly decide which to buy.
Kant, Sartre, Cosmology, Buddha, Feminism, and Chaos Theory were just
some of the wide range of subjects. I chose this one because I’m
interested in the topic and have read a few books about quantum theory,
but no general overview.
Unfortunately, while this book is better than the Keynesian Economics book
in the series I also read, it is not a book I would recommend. I was
able to follow most of it, but I suspect this is only because I was already
familiar with some quantum basics. The book makes good use of its illustrations
and charts, though the drawings are pretty poor. While the Keynesian
Economics book uses unnecessarily huge drawings to string together
sparse thoughts, this book jams way too much in a small space. And several
of the illustrations are still completely extraneous. I did enjoy learning
a little of the backgrounds of such important figures as Bohr, Einstein,
Heisenberg, and Schrodinger (and his cat), but this also caused the book
to feel like it was jumping around too much. Some simple concepts were
drawn out, while complex topics were glossed over too quickly.
Nevertheless, it’s always good to find out more about quantum
theory. If you’re interested but absolutely must avoid dense text,
and prefer the comics format, try this out. I’ll leave you with
this quote, regarding John Bell’s violation of his inequality principle:
“This means that in spite of the local appearance of phenomena,
our world is actually supported by an invisible reality which is unmediated
and allows communication faster than light, even instantaneously.”
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