Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness Review of Bruce Rosenblum’s and Fred Kuttner’s

In contrast to other books popularizing quantum mechanics, the importance and significance of this book is that it both explicitly discusses the connections between quantum mechanics and consciousness, and is used as course material for liberal arts students at the authors’ university (UC Santa Cruz) and perhaps elsewhere. Teaching with humor and sometimes in parables, the authors skillfully expose some of the enigmas of quantum mechanics with emphasis on their connections to consciousness. Chiefly, these enigmas are: (1) the measurement problem which involves observer created reality and the randomness of nature, and (2) quantum entanglement, experimentally verified through violations of Bell’s inequality, which suggests inseparability or non-locality at the microscopic levels. Rosenblum and Kuttner also succinctly summarize nine interpretations of quantum physics and point out in no uncertain terms that every interpretation encounters consciousness (pp. 158–69).