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A Brief History of Quantum Mechanics - with Sean Carroll

17 videos recommended on HN
YouTube
5 HN users recommended this lecture4 months2020–2022 score 5
Years with an HN recommendation, 2007–2026

Recommended as an approachable entry point to quantum interpretations, and cited on many worlds questions.

Sean Carroll gives a Royal Institution talk tracing the history of quantum mechanics from Einstein and Bohr to today. He covers the Copenhagen interpretation and the many worlds interpretation.

“Sean Carroll is a master of making quantum mechanics approachable to non-physicists.” (HN, 2022)

3 strong recommendations · 2 recommendations · 2 citations · Lectures

7 Hacker News comments

From the HN archive; up to 20 kept per video, favoring different commenters. Recommendations first.

@josevalerio Mar 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread A wave function does not collapse upon detection?
The confusion with the Copenhagen interpretation comes from two main sources in my opinion: 1. What can count as a measurement? 2. Quantum ‘thing’ interacting with a classical world One of my favorite talks on this subject is by Sean Carroll and offers the ‘many worlds ‘ interpretation as an alternative, mainly for its simplicity. Recommend watching the whole thing but if you want just the “debunking”: 25:11 [this video]
Carroll on Copenhagen interpretation and many worlds
@joncp May 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Where do space, time and gravity come from?
Sean Carroll is a master of making quantum mechanics approachable to non-physicists. Here are a few of his talks: - Fermilab 2013: [link] - The Royal Institution 2014: [link] - The Royal Institution 2020: [this video]
Carroll makes quantum mechanics approachable
@raymond_goo May 2022 Strongly recommends
on HN thread Where do space, time and gravity come from?
I highly agree and also recommend: [this video] And I will add: The Big Picture: From the Big Bang to the Meaning of Life - with Sean Carroll [link] Mysteries of Modern Physics by Sean Carroll [link]
Recommended Sean Carroll lecture
@BrandoElFollito Jul 2020 Recommends
on HN thread Townscaper – A building game inspired by the design of Scandinavian cities
As someone who did a PhD in particle physics, this is very hard to understand (and not just apply math) This is actually just one of the interpretations, there are more and some are gaining traction (see for instance [this video] , S Caroll is a great speaker but you need to stay concentrated :)
Sean Carroll on interpretations of quantum mechanics
@slowmovintarget Dec 2020 Recommends
on HN thread Scientific Writing and “Science Writing” (2015)
Read more
Funny to see this now. One of the things my wife and I have been doing to engage our brains during the pandemic is to brush up on our knowledge of hard science. Of particular fascination for both of us has been cosmology and the frontiers of physics. We knocked into Sean Carroll's video series on YouTube by first encountering one of his lectures at the Royal Institution [1],[2]. We've been working our way through his "Biggest Ideas in the Universe!" series where he talks through history of physics and cosmology through to modern practice. I've also been reading through one of his books (and have read Stephen Hawking, Kip Thorne, Roger Penrose, Brian Greene, Lee Smolin, and others) and all of this has gotten me to a point where I could listen to an actual presentation to physics students and faculty on quantum mechanics and understand what was being discussed, despite not being up to doing the math myself. Yet this expedition over the last few months has made me wonder how someone who only encounters science through the media's presentation of it as "truth" could even know where to rest their hands to grapple with these ideas. Perhaps I'm being fooled into thinking I have some grasp of the matters discussed. Though I certainly feel as though I have a much better idea of the limits of my understanding, maybe that's wrong. Yet, I wonder how much of what the author opines of here is the usual emergence of Sturgeon's Law. Maybe 90% of "science writing" is crap. Is there evidence o
Entry point to Sean Carroll's lectures

Citations, criticism and jokes

@zogomoox Feb 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Universe Splitter
Sean Carrol addressed this in his royal institution lecture (a brief history of quantum mechanics, 37m30s). As far as I understood those universes aren't created, you're just selecting a slice of phase space of the (very big) number of possible universes. ( link: [this video] )
Carroll explains universes are not created but selected
@mcguire Feb 2022 Cites it
on HN thread Universe Splitter
Sean Carroll's Royal Institution lecture discussing the many worlds interpretation and using a similar app: [this video] [link]
Carroll lecture on many worlds using a similar app

Video list and Hacker News comment labels from HackerTube (prompted by @karpathy), released under ODC-By 1.0, built on the open-index/hacker-news archive. Hacker News data is provided by Y Combinator; comments remain the work of their authors. Video titles, channel names and thumbnails belong to their creators and are shown via YouTube. HackerTube Watch is an unofficial edition. Data export of 2026-10-31.

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