Quantum mechanics started out by saying access to fundamental reality was impossible. And from the outset, some imagined that quantum mechanics would eventually eliminate the importance of human measurement in determining reality. Yet a century on, the measurement problem still refuses to disappear, and the new generation of quantum technologies, from quantum computers to quantum sensors, only makes it harder to ignore. As theory becomes engineering, Paul Davies argues that every attempt to “save” traditional views of realism fail, and that physics can no longer avoid confronting the role of observation in the structure of reality itself.

Omari Edwards: Quantum mechanics is a century old this year, and you have been working in the field your whole career. Why did it feel like the right moment now to write a book explicitly about quantum mechanics and call it Quantum 2.0?

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Quantum mechanics does not uncover facts that were already there. Measurement brings reality into being.

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Quantum mechanics works astonishingly well for atoms, but we have no right to assume it applies unchanged to the entire universe.

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The fragility of quantum systems, once a problem for physicists, has become one of the most powerful resources in modern technology.

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