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Quantum Mechanics and the Crisis of Scientific Realism

David Albert

Every chapter in the course, with links to the moment it begins in the video and in the transcript. For topics across all courses, see the Topic Index.

Intro The Crisis In Physics

Welcome to Foundations of Quantum Mechanics
▶︎ 0:00 transcript ↗︎
A Unique Episode in the History of Science
▶︎ 0:36 transcript ↗︎
When Science Seemed to Undermine Itself
▶︎ 1:36 transcript ↗︎
The Call Is Coming from Inside the House
▶︎ 3:27 transcript ↗︎
Experiments That Defied Realistic Explanation
▶︎ 5:44 transcript ↗︎
Making Radical Conclusions Understandable
▶︎ 7:06 transcript ↗︎
Early Pushback and the Measurement Problem
▶︎ 9:38 transcript ↗︎
Bell's Theorem, EPR, and Nonlocality
▶︎ 10:45 transcript ↗︎
Three Approaches to the Measurement Problem
▶︎ 13:16 transcript ↗︎
Recommended Books and Resources
▶︎ 14:50 transcript ↗︎
Summary of the Lecture Series Roadmap
▶︎ 15:52 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 1 The Experiment That Broke Reality

Welcome to Quantum Foundations
▶︎ 0:00 transcript ↗︎
Surprising Stories About Electrons
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Color and Hardness: Two Electron Properties
▶︎ 1:59 transcript ↗︎
Building Boxes That Measure Electrons
▶︎ 4:10 transcript ↗︎
Repeatable Measurements and No Correlations
▶︎ 5:43 transcript ↗︎
Three Boxes in a Row: A First Surprise
▶︎ 9:07 transcript ↗︎
Can We Build a Better Color Box?
▶︎ 12:14 transcript ↗︎
Irreducible Chance in Nature
▶︎ 19:47 transcript ↗︎
What Do We Mean by Chance?
▶︎ 24:58 transcript ↗︎
Why a Super Box Is Impossible
▶︎ 27:25 transcript ↗︎
The Uncertainty Principle Explained
▶︎ 33:09 transcript ↗︎
Building an Interferometer with Mirrors
▶︎ 35:27 transcript ↗︎
White Electrons Remember Their Color
▶︎ 39:11 transcript ↗︎
One Electron at a Time and Path Detection
▶︎ 42:10 transcript ↗︎
The Aharonov-Bohm Effect: Doing Nothing Changes Everything
▶︎ 46:17 transcript ↗︎
Which Route Did the Electron Take?
▶︎ 50:47 transcript ↗︎
The Collapse of Scientific Realism
▶︎ 54:06 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 2 When Physics Stops Making Sense

The Algorithm That Replaced Understanding
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Why Telling Stories Between Measurements Fails
▶︎ 1:41 transcript ↗︎
Modernism, Novels, and the Crisis of Representation
▶︎ 2:37 transcript ↗︎
Could Quantum Mechanics Rewrite Logic Itself?
▶︎ 5:31 transcript ↗︎
Category Mistakes and the Marital Status of Five
▶︎ 6:21 transcript ↗︎
What Superposition Actually Means
▶︎ 10:48 transcript ↗︎
Building the Mathematical Machine of the 1920s
▶︎ 14:04 transcript ↗︎
Uncertainty Is Metaphysical, Not Just Ignorance
▶︎ 15:38 transcript ↗︎
Instrumentalism vs. the Dream of Realism
▶︎ 18:18 transcript ↗︎
A Universal Theory That Explains Everything
▶︎ 20:30 transcript ↗︎
The Wave Function: Tool or Reality?
▶︎ 22:58 transcript ↗︎
Chemistry Becomes a Homework Problem
▶︎ 25:45 transcript ↗︎
When Looking Changes Everything
▶︎ 26:55 transcript ↗︎
Two Rules That Contradict Each Other
▶︎ 33:12 transcript ↗︎
Why 'Measurement' Can't Be Fundamental
▶︎ 39:00 transcript ↗︎
Preview: The Shock of Nonlocality
▶︎ 43:33 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 3 Two Laws That Can't Both Be True

The Quantum Prediction Algorithm
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Bohr's Instrumentalist Attitude Toward Science
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Superposition and the Category Mistake Analogy
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The Wave Function: Instrument or Reality?
▶︎ 6:11 transcript ↗︎
Two-Paths Experiment With and Without Detectors
▶︎ 7:29 transcript ↗︎
Two Laws: Schrödinger Equation vs. Collapse
▶︎ 9:36 transcript ↗︎
Why Collapse Can't Come From Law One Alone
▶︎ 11:35 transcript ↗︎
The Measurement Problem: Why Two Laws Is Insane
▶︎ 15:42 transcript ↗︎
Instrumentalism vs. Realism in Quantum Theory
▶︎ 17:43 transcript ↗︎
Bohr's Complementarity Principle Explained
▶︎ 18:48 transcript ↗︎
Wave-Particle Duality and the Double-Slit
▶︎ 21:27 transcript ↗︎
Where Does Law One Stop and Law Two Begin?
▶︎ 25:44 transcript ↗︎
Wigner's Consciousness-Based Collapse Proposal
▶︎ 28:46 transcript ↗︎
Does Physics Need Consciousness to Work?
▶︎ 31:31 transcript ↗︎
Critique of Wigner: Dogs, Mice, and Dualism
▶︎ 36:19 transcript ↗︎
How Studying Rocks Led to a Deep Crisis
▶︎ 41:46 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 4 Bell's Impossible Proof

What Is the Principle of Locality?
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How Remote Effects Work: The Domino Analogy
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Four Signatures of a Local World
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Locality as Ancient Intuition, Magic as Violation
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Newton's Gravity: Action at a Distance
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Why Newton Knew His Theory Was Incomplete
▶︎ 16:43 transcript ↗︎
300 Years of Non-Locality in Physics
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Coulomb's Law and the Invention of Fields
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Faraday and the Reality of Fields
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Fields Are Real: Energy and Momentum
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Fields Are Real: Light Is Electromagnetic Waves
▶︎ 39:54 transcript ↗︎
Fields Are Real: Determinism Requires Them
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Maxwell Restores Locality for Electromagnetism
▶︎ 49:56 transcript ↗︎
Einstein Restores Locality for Gravity
▶︎ 54:28 transcript ↗︎
Quantum Mechanics Breaks Locality Again
▶︎ 1:00:00 transcript ↗︎
Bell's Theorem: The Setup
▶︎ 1:05:24 transcript ↗︎
EPR Argument: Particles Must Have Hidden Values
▶︎ 1:09:10 transcript ↗︎
Bell's Inequality: The Contradiction
▶︎ 1:17:09 transcript ↗︎
The World Is Non-Local: Experiments Confirm It
▶︎ 1:22:48 transcript ↗︎

Lecture 5 Three Ways to Save Reality

The Measurement Problem and Von Neumann's Two Rules
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Fifty Years of Failed Boundary-Drawing Attempts
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The GRW Spontaneous Collapse Theory
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How GRW Handles Macroscopic Objects
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Entanglement and Measurement in GRW
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The Localization Assumption and Its Worries
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The TV Screen Problem and GRW's Response
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Superposition as a Genuine Physical State
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Assessing GRW as a Scientific Theory
▶︎ 30:46 transcript ↗︎
The Many-Worlds Interpretation
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World-Splitting and the Branching Universe
▶︎ 40:46 transcript ↗︎
The Probability Problem in Many-Worlds
▶︎ 46:37 transcript ↗︎
Probability Puzzles and Quantum Immortality
▶︎ 51:38 transcript ↗︎
Bohmian Mechanics: The Hidden Variable Approach
▶︎ 1:04:59 transcript ↗︎
Challenges for Bohmian Mechanics
▶︎ 1:10:18 transcript ↗︎
Why Many-Worlds Appeals to Physicists
▶︎ 1:14:11 transcript ↗︎
Is the Realist Scientific Project Still Alive?
▶︎ 1:20:24 transcript ↗︎