Principles of Quantum Mechanics
Paul Dirac
In present-day high-energy physics the creation and annihilation of charged particles is a frequent occurrence. A quantum electro-dynamics which demands conservation of the number of charged particles is therefore out of touch with physical reality. So I have replaced it by a quantum electrodynamics which includes creation and annihilation of electron-positron pairs. This involves abandoning any close analogy with classical electron theory, but provides a closer description of nature. It seems that the classical concept of an electron is no longer a useful model in physics, except possibly for elementary theories that are restricted to low-energy phenomena.
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Cellular Automata and Complexity: Collected Papers
Stephen Wolfram
Are mathematical equations the best way to model nature? For many years it had been assumed that they were. But in the early 1980s, Stephen Wolfram made the radical proposal that one should instead build models that are based directly on simple computer programs. Wolfram made a detailed study of a class of such models known as cellular automata...
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Atomic Theory and the Description of Nature
Niels Bohr
This title presents four republished essays on quantum theory and the atom. It features an introductory survey of quantum mechanics and discusses fundamental concepts, including quantum states, the correspondence principle, and the uncertainty principle.
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The Physical Principles of the Quantum Theory
Werner Heisenberg
The contributions of few contemporary scientists have been as far reaching in their effects as those of Nobel Laureate Werner Heisenberg. His matrix theory is one of the bases of modern quantum mechanics, while his “uncertainty principle” has altered our whole philosophy of science.
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The Large, the Small and the Human Mind
Roger Penrose, Abner Shimony, Nancy Cartwright, and Stephen Hawking
Will quantum physics let us reduce consciousness to computation? Roger Penrose says "no" with great force and eloquence in The Large, the Small, and the Human Mind.
Prepared as a series of three lectures in Cambridge's Tanner Series on Human Values, the material is both meticulously thought out and informally presented, ...
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