I actually learnt quantum physics from that sequence, and I’m now a mathematician working in Quantum Computing. So it can’t be too bad!
The explanation of quantum physics is the best I’ve seen anywhere. But this might be because it explained it in a style that was particularly suited to me. I really like the way it explains the underlying reality first and only afterwards explains how this corresponds with what we perceive. A lot of other introductions follow the historical discovery of the subject, looking at each of the famous experiments in turn, and only building up the theory in a piecemeal way. Personally I hate that approach, but I’ve seen other people say that those kind of introductions were the only ones that made sense to them.
The sequence is especially good if you don’t want a math-heavy explantation, since it manages to explain exactly what’s going on in a technically correct way, while still not using any equations more complicated than addition and multiplication (as far as I can remember).
The second half of the sequence talks about interpretations of quantum mechanics, and advocates for the “many-worlds” interpretation over “collapse” interpretations. Personally I found it sufficient to convince me that collapse interpretations were bullshit, but it didn’t quite convince me that the many-worlds interpretation is obviously true. I find it plausible that the true interpretation is some third alternative. Either way, the discussion is very interesting and worth reading.
As far as “holding up” goes, I once read through the sequence looking for technical errors and only found one. Eliezer says that the wavefunction can’t become more concentrated because of Liouville’s theorem. This is completely wrong (QM is time-reversible, so if the wavefunction can become more spread out it must also be able to become more concentrated). But I’m inclined to be forgiving to Eliezer on this point because he’s making exactly the mistake that he repeatedly warns us about! He’s confusing the distribution described by the wavefunction (the uncertainty that we would have if we performed a measurment) with the uncertainty we do have about the wavefunction (which is what Liouville’s theorem actually applies to).
I actually learnt quantum physics from that sequence, and I’m now a mathematician working in Quantum Computing. So it can’t be too bad!
The explanation of quantum physics is the best I’ve seen anywhere. But this might be because it explained it in a style that was particularly suited to me. I really like the way it explains the underlying reality first and only afterwards explains how this corresponds with what we perceive. A lot of other introductions follow the historical discovery of the subject, looking at each of the famous experiments in turn, and only building up the theory in a piecemeal way. Personally I hate that approach, but I’ve seen other people say that those kind of introductions were the only ones that made sense to them.
The sequence is especially good if you don’t want a math-heavy explantation, since it manages to explain exactly what’s going on in a technically correct way, while still not using any equations more complicated than addition and multiplication (as far as I can remember).
The second half of the sequence talks about interpretations of quantum mechanics, and advocates for the “many-worlds” interpretation over “collapse” interpretations. Personally I found it sufficient to convince me that collapse interpretations were bullshit, but it didn’t quite convince me that the many-worlds interpretation is obviously true. I find it plausible that the true interpretation is some third alternative. Either way, the discussion is very interesting and worth reading.
As far as “holding up” goes, I once read through the sequence looking for technical errors and only found one. Eliezer says that the wavefunction can’t become more concentrated because of Liouville’s theorem. This is completely wrong (QM is time-reversible, so if the wavefunction can become more spread out it must also be able to become more concentrated). But I’m inclined to be forgiving to Eliezer on this point because he’s making exactly the mistake that he repeatedly warns us about! He’s confusing the distribution described by the wavefunction (the uncertainty that we would have if we performed a measurment) with the uncertainty we do have about the wavefunction (which is what Liouville’s theorem actually applies to).