Something Deeply Hidden

Quantum Worlds and the Emergence of Spacetime

By: Sean Carroll

Narrated by: Sean Carroll

Length: 10 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Instant New York Times best seller

As you listen to these words, copies of you are being created. Sean Carroll, theoretical physicist and one of this world’s most celebrated writers on science, rewrites the history of 20th-century physics. Already hailed as a masterpiece, Something Deeply Hidden shows for the first time that facing up to the essential puzzle of quantum mechanics utterly transforms how we think about space and time. His reconciling of quantum mechanics with Einstein’s theory of relativity changes, well, everything. Most physicists haven’t even recognized the uncomfortable truth: Physics has been in crisis since 1927.

Quantum mechanics has always had obvious gaps—which have come to be simply ignored. Science popularizers keep telling us how weird it is, how impossible it is to understand. Academics discourage students from working on the "dead end" of quantum foundations. Putting his professional reputation on the line with this audacious yet entirely reasonable audiobook, Carroll says that the crisis can now come to an end. We just have to accept that there is more than one of us in the universe. There are many, many Sean Carrolls. Many of every one of us.

Copies of you are generated thousands of times per second. The Many Worlds Theory of quantum behavior says that every time there is a quantum event, a world splits off with everything in it the same, except in that other world, the quantum event didn't happen. Step-by-step in Carroll's uniquely lucid way, he tackles the major objections to this otherworldly revelation until his case is inescapably established.

Rarely does a book so fully reorganize how we think about our place in the universe. We are on the threshold of a new understanding—of where we are in the cosmos, and what we are made of.

©2019 Sean Carroll (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

"What makes Carroll's new project so worthwhile, though, is that while he is most certainly choosing sides in the debate, he offers us a cogent, clear and compelling guide to the subject while letting his passion for the scientific questions shine through every page." (NPR)

“The book presents one fascinating concept after another, and I think it is an essential read. I’ve spent a lot of time thinking about the implications of the Many Worlds and entanglement, and the fact that our reality is always an infinite set of connected possibilities. It’s really blown my mind. The deeper you dive into quantum mechanics, the more it challenges you to keep an open mind about everything.”—Dan Schulman, CEO of PayPal in Fast Company

"Something Deeply Hidden is Carroll’s ambitious and engaging foray into what quantum mechanics really means and what it tells us about physical reality." (Science Magazine)

An honest and humble look at fundamental physics

Couldn't stop listening when I started. The most honest description of physics I've heard In a while. Also really nice to atlast get a physics book on something new and not just rehashing the same old stories

Awesome

Enthralling, entertaining and mindboggling in an impressively nihilistic yet optimistic journey through "the meaning of life the universe and everything"

smart with interesting ideas

Wow. One of the top, no doubt. Reasonable background to bring one up to speed but a little borderline on a salesman sprinkled throughout.

im an everettian

loved the writing style, very well explained, and he makes a strong case for everettian interpretation of quantum field theory

Phenomenal, Understandable, Disheartening

I am not convinced the many-worlds theory is correct, but this is a phenomenal, understandable description of Quantum Mechanics. Unfortunately, I was disheartened to find that one of the smartest people in the world thinks the Nazi’s were “right wing”.

great book

great book
narration great.
read in two go.
thanks to everyone who bring that service.

Insightful and well written

I learned a lot reading this book for the first time and I'm immediately starting over to read it again now that I finished the first time. There is so much knowledge to be gained from this book. The author discusses several theories and the pros and cons of them, and even describes why some things work and some things don't work with the theories described. I found it to be insightful and well written, I would recommend it to anyone interested in learning about quantum mechanics.

Explain very well ..

Easy to understand and comprehend .. Great analogy and so on.. ending was way too soon ..

Thought Provoking

I thoroughly enjoyed the easy writing style of the author.

It's definitely worth a read.

Great simplification of a very complex topic

I am not a physicist, but this book has enhanced by respect for those you are. I certainly did not become an expert, and I am sure I will never be one. What I did learn was that an open mind is not enough to grasp many of these concepts. It was still interspersed to be exposed to it.