Synchronicity

The Epic Quest to Understand the Quantum Nature of Cause and Effect

By: Paul Halpern

Narrated by: Jeff Hoyt

Length: 10 hrs and 34 mins

Publisher's summary

From Aristotle's Physics to quantum teleportation, learn about the scientific pursuit of instantaneous connections in this insightful examination of our world.

For millennia, scientists have puzzled over a simple question: Does the universe have a speed limit? If not, some effects could happen at the same instant as the actions that caused them - and some effects, ludicrously, might even happen before their causes. By 100 years ago, it seemed clear that the speed of light was the fastest possible speed. Causality was safe. And then quantum mechanics happened, introducing spooky connections that seemed to circumvent the law of cause and effect.

Inspired by the new physics, psychologist Carl Jung and physicist Wolfgang Pauli explored a concept called synchronicity, a weird phenomenon they thought could link events without causes. Synchronicity tells that sprawling tale of insight and creativity, and asks where these ideas - some plain crazy, and others crazy powerful - are taking the human story next.

PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying PDF will be available in your Audible Library along with the audio.

©2020 Paul Halpern (P)2020 Basic Books

Critic reviews

"Paul Halpern has zeroed in on one of the biggest mysteries in physics: objects with no mechanical linkage somehow act in harmony. He gives it a human face by digging into the Pauli-Jung collaboration-there is nothing else quite like it in the history of science." —George Musser, author of Spooky Action at a Distance

"Synchronicity is a sweeping account of humanity's understanding of the nature of causality. With great virtuosity, Paul Halpern weaves together all of the threads of this important story from the ancient Greeks to modern physics while entertaining the reader with insightful character studies and colorful anecdotes. A delightful book that anyone interested in the history of ideas will enjoy." —John Kounios, coauthor of The Eureka Factor

"Synchronicity is a very informative and thought-provoking account of humankind's efforts from antiquity to the present to understand the causal structure of the everyday world and, during the past century, to unite that understanding with the apparently acausal nature of the quantum world of atoms and particles. Paul Halpern writes with remarkable clarity and insight in a very accessible and engaging style." —David C. Cassidy, author of Beyond Uncertainty

A book titled Synchronicity that’s not about Synchronicity.

Interesting rant on atomic physics and its history but hardly a word about synchronicity until the end. Feels more like an attempt to argue using science that synchronicities are all meaningless by a person that has clearly never experienced a profound one.

Not about synchronicity

Good information, but the examples of coincidences the autbor used to trash the concept are idiotic. Hes one of these guys who thinks it can either be proven or it and of not it's not real. Except for quantum mechanics, which kind of admits that we don't know enough.

An unexpected justification for synchronicity

Halperin takes a thoroughly scientific perspective on the curious concept of synchronicity. One might expect that such perspective calls for its complete dismissal, but in a surprising twist the author salvages it as a principle that os manifested objectively through fundamental symmetries of quantum physics. The only peeve I have is a bit excessive dive into antiquity..

Good enough for lay audience, but lacks depth

Halpern is a great writer for the lay person who has no more than a high school science education. But just when it seems he's going to go to the next level of awesome and explain clearly some profound and deep concept that everyone else is afraid to even touch, he drops you on your head and moves on to the next subject.

I liked his other book about Feynman and Wheeler, "The Quantum Labyrinth", more than this one. It offers more insights into the physics, and more interesting character development. He still drops you on your head, but at least you have a smile of intrigue while you land.

The narrator for this audible has a great voice, with good intonation, but dammit why do the publishers allow people who have no clue about the history of physics to read a book on the history of physics??? As soon as these guys pronounce gymnasium as if it's where students go to play basketball, you've lost your credibility as a legit narrator with the type of audience that listens to these physics audibles.

Not what I thought. More of a history

I thought this book would help explain entanglement and such concepts. Instead, it was a review of the history of physics over several millennia with an eye toward this concept. In the last few chapters he got more into this. It was enjoyable as I like reading about the history of physics and there were good insights there into these physicists.

Delightful!

This was a lovely book. I didn't expect as much history as it gave, but was glad of it because I learned so much more. I also gained a deeper understanding of quantum entanglement, spooky may it be. I am glad I read this book!

Too much detail in the wrong places

This book is basically a history of physics from sun worship to quantum mechanics, and that's a lot of ground to cover. It does a great job of filling in some interesting gaps relating to the relationships between physicists and the historical context surrounding their discoveries, but really focused much less on explaining their theories. My education is in biology, not physics, but I have an interest in the topic and was hoping this could help cement some of the classical and quantum theories together for me. Unfortunately it seems to be written more for people who already have a solid understanding of the topic but may be interested in the background context. And while the title is "Synchronicity," this particular theory is definitely not the main topic of the book (though it is discussed towards the end).

Too much Devine wisdom, A waste of time and money.

There was no science. intact tere was more astrology and alchemy than reality. incredibly Boring and Empty tribe.

Book title is not what book is about

This is a generally well written book giving an elementary history of science and a general history of quantum mechanics. Except for giving a summary of Carl Jung's work with Wolfgang Pauli the book does not discuss at all what it's title suggests, except for briefly in the conclusion. If one is generally familiar with the history of physics it is not worth reading.

mumble jumble

contains no information of value, if you have a basic science education, this is a waste of time