EDITORIAL INFORMATION

Welcome to the planet Meart, where society is divided into the Reds and Blues. The Blues on the Internet, the Reds are not. The Blues act like Quantum particles, the Reds like human beings. Halbert Zweistein and Devon Baum (Einstein and Bohm) suggest the blues are human too, but connected by computer. Stan Exciting (Neils Bohr) assures us that they are not quite understandable in human terms.

(Extracted from the back cover).

GENERAL TABLE OF CONTENTS

-Preface.

-Introduction.

-1. The Mysterious Blues.

-2. The Wizard of Odds.

-3. To Connect or not to Connect.

-4. Virtual Reality.

-5. Dangerous Downloads.

-6. Locality Versus World Wide Web.

-7. The New World Order.

-8. Online Forums.

-9. My Favorite Links.

-Epilogue.

-Index.

OUR REVIEW

Dr. Petersen is a physics professor at the Utah State University that has taught astronomy and physics for seven years. His main interests are cosmology, writing and music. He has written some books aimed at beginners in the physic sciences and astronomy, yet in this occasion he presents us an interesting text that goes far beyond.

Petersen appears specially fascinated by the interpretation of quantum theory and in this sense he has worked hard to propose his own ideas in this respect. In The Quantum Particle Internet the author has built a fantastic story where he satirizes the utilization of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the history of quantum theory itself.

In the book a hypothetical civilization is re-created on a supposed planet Mearth where society is divided into two totally differentiated groups: The Blues, who live in Internet, and the Reds, who are outside the net. The author utilizes characters taken from real life (for instance, three scientists, Einstein, Bohm and Bohr), whom he has changed the name, so as to let them analyze the situation, in their own role as sociologists. The Blues act as quantum particles, and the Reds as normal humans that analyze the others, in the process elaborating a Quantum Theory of Blue Behavior. The three scientists discuss among themselves whether the Reds are also somewhat human, although united by computers, or whether in fact they cannot be understood in human terms.

The development of the book is an allegory of the very history of Quantum Theory, with the confrontation of both extremes, the vision of the Reds as human (Blues) against the impression that they cannot be understood unless in terms of quantum wave functions.

Petersen has found that internet is a good scenario for his allegory, since when we connect the net we become a part of a whole, in information terms, whereas a quantum particle, when united to others, appears as being inseparable with respect to them when we try to measure them, as if it possessed a certain information on the status and behavior of the others.

A really interesting work given its originality, that will attract both the physics students and the occasional readers who like new viewpoints.