The Quantum Secret Einstein Tried to Warn Us About - Adam Becker - #508

Into the Impossible With Brian Keating

Brian Keating

Physics, Natural Sciences, Science

4.7 • 1.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2025

⏱️ 32 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Please join my mailing list here 👉 https://briankeating.com/list to win a meteorite 💥 What if the most successful theory in science… doesn't actually explain anything? In this episode of Into the Impossible, I talk with physicist and author Adam Becker, who wrote What Is Real?, a stunning exploration of quantum mechanics, its messy philosophical roots, and the long-ignored questions about what the theory really says about reality. We dig deep into a paradox at the heart of modern physics: quantum mechanics works better than any theory we’ve ever invented, yet no one agrees on what it means. Becker walks us through the forgotten history of physicists like Einstein and David Bohm, who dared to question the mainstream “shut up and calculate” mindset, and explains why that mindset might be holding science back. We explore the eerie predictions of the Many Worlds Interpretation, the mind-bending implications of Bell’s Theorem, and how modern experiments—some Nobel Prize-winning—are forcing physicists to confront uncomfortable truths about locality, realism, and the nature of observation. If you’ve ever wondered whether quantum physics is just math, or if it really describes the world we live in, this conversation will challenge everything you thought you knew. — Key Takeaways: 00:00 Intro 02:01 Interpretations of quantum mechanics 05:04 Einstein’s discontent with quantum mechanics 08:01 EPR paradox 10:16 Many-worlds interpretation and Everettian mechanics 17:37 John Bell and Bell’s theorem 23:43 Experimental tests of quantum mechanics 27:21 Quantum computing and its promises 29:17 What is real? 31:56 Outro — Additional resources: ➡️ Learn more about Adam: 💻 Website: https://freelanceastrophysicist.com/ 📚 What Is Real? By Adam Becker: https://a.co/d/5xxMYTj — ➡️ Follow me on your fav platforms: ✖️ Twitter:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://twitter.com/DrBrianKeating⁠⁠⁠ 🔔 YouTube:⁠⁠⁠ https://www.youtube.com/DrBrianKeating?sub_confirmation=1⁠⁠⁠ 📝 Join my mailing list:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/list⁠⁠⁠ ✍️ Check out my blog:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/cosmic-musings/⁠⁠⁠ 🎙️ Follow my podcast:⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠https://briankeating.com/podcast⁠⁠⁠ — Into the Impossible with Brian Keating is a podcast dedicated to all those who want to explore the universe within and beyond the known. Make sure to follow/subscribe so you never miss an episode! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Einstein was very unhappy with quantum mechanics,
0:04.0	but there have been some myths about what he was unhappy about.
0:08.4	The common myth is that Einstein was really unhappy
0:11.6	that quantum mechanics had randomness,
0:14.1	fundamental stochastic element.
0:16.5	Bell came up with this idea of a way to mathematically constrain what long-distance correlations were possible in a local theory.
0:31.2	And then he showed that quantum mechanics violates those conditions.
0:36.6	Everything you think you know about Einstein and his objections to quantum mechanics is backwards.
0:43.0	We've been told for decades that the great physicist was stubborn, that he couldn't accept
0:47.2	the randomness of quantum theory that he didn't believe God played dice.
0:52.2	But Einstein wasn't wrong about quantum mechanics. It turns out he was
0:56.4	terrifyingly right. Einstein identified something that should keep you awake at night. Quantum
1:01.8	mechanics forces us to abandon one of the three fundamental beliefs about reality. Either
1:06.9	quantum mechanics is incomplete or particles can instantaneously affect each other across the
1:12.4	universe, or physical objects don't exist when we're not looking at them. There is no fourth option.
1:19.5	Decades later, physicist John Bell proved Einstein correct with mathematical precision. Bell's
1:24.7	theorem show that quantum mechanics definitively violates locality, meaning
1:29.4	reality either breaks the speed of light limit or splits into parallel universes every time a
1:35.4	quantum measurement occurs. Today's guest, science writer Adam Becker, reveals how our most
1:40.2	accurate scientific theory, tested to unprecedented precision, simultaneously remains our least
1:46.7	understood model of the universe. We can calculate quantum mechanical quantities perfectly, but we have
1:52.0	no idea what's actually happening in the universe when we're not watching it. Adam helps break down
	...

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