I’ve been putting this off for far too long, but from now on, no retreat, no surrender: I am starting a self-study course on theoretical minimum to quantum mechanics. Yes, I am vain this way. I want to be able to give ‘a look’ next time someone asks me: “Are you a rocket scientist, or something?” And I want to write good fiction. Not just a sequence of events set in some futuristic world, but challenging, intelligent, and interesting fiction that inspires and expands horizons.
For several years I’ve been fascinated with this fringe science and have read many mainstream popular books that summarize the field, but avoid the nitty-gritty details of how these conclusions were achieved. I want to know more. So I put together a course for myself that is based on this PDF – “Quantum Mechanics and Theoretical Minimum. Remarks, Questions and Exercises”. The 50-page pdf is based on the seminal works of Dirac, Feynman and Susskind. I purchased these texts on kindle and printed out the pdf. So excited. Today is the first day of the rest of my life where I know quantum mechanics!
P.S. Free Feynman lectures, all 3 volumes can be found here.
Wow, let me know when you’ve got it. It sounds like a sci-fi writers ideas pool!
Well it will be a while 🙂 But that’s ok. Want to have fun with this.
Have lots of fun with it then. But you fiction is more about thouts and ideas than facts. I admire what you’re doing, taking a big step like this.
It’s an interesting debate, how much science you can squeeze in fiction. Normally, it results in terrible info dumps. I wish I could find my way around it. In the novel that I have a draft and several revisions, I have a character who is an astro-physicist. He made some big science discoveries and presented his discovery at the conference. As the result, the government is recruiting him in a top-secret project,where his expertise is important. I have an idea for the science premise, and building the events in the story around that science idea. The problem is, that several revisions down the road, I still can’t find the balance between how much science to reveal. Particularly at that conference in the beginning of the story. I think this where sci fi becomes more of an art… Anyway, fun stuff.
Oh I see… I’m no expert. But if you want help, then I’m more than happy to. 🙂
Thanks Smon, I may put that piece in the Blogbattle someday. I always appreciate feedback.