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The Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory
Bohm, one of the foremost scientific thinkers of our time, and Hiley present a completely original approach to quantum theory which will alter our understanding of the world and reveal that a century of modern physics needs to be reconsidered
397 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1993
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890 people want to read
About the author
David Bohm
68 books458 followersDavid Joseph Bohm (December 20, 1917 – October 27, 1992) was an American scientist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th century and who contributed innovative and unorthodox ideas to quantum theory, neuropsychology and the philosophy of mind.
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 3, 2012
I have been working up to being able to read this book from cover to cover, and at least have some idea of what the most technical sections are arguing, since I first started studying Bohm's ideas in the late 1980s.
If one can get through the complex physics context of his insights, I believe he expresses a revolutionary degree of sanity and simplicity.
Everything belongs and makes sense in Bohm's model. The classical worldview is a limiting condition already contained in the quantum model, not an external to be presupposed and grappled with for historical reasons. Quantum processes occur independent of observations. Time doesn't flow backwards as in Feynman Diagrams, or delayed choice experiments. Non-locality like the EPR experiments is the rule, not the exception. Mind and Matter are both expressions of the same implicit holistic flow, not opposed to each other or separated arbitrarily.
In short, this book makes a highly articulate case for an ontological holism that has the ability to make intuitive, graspable, (simple in its own way) sense of the physical world and Everything.
It is worth reading even for the physics novice. It is about a lot more than re-framing contemporary quantum mechanics with a more intuitive paradigm. It is intensely consistent and coherent in its approach to all of experience, and treats physical theory and mathematics as descriptive of an ever-evolving horizon of our total understanding.
If one can get through the complex physics context of his insights, I believe he expresses a revolutionary degree of sanity and simplicity.
Everything belongs and makes sense in Bohm's model. The classical worldview is a limiting condition already contained in the quantum model, not an external to be presupposed and grappled with for historical reasons. Quantum processes occur independent of observations. Time doesn't flow backwards as in Feynman Diagrams, or delayed choice experiments. Non-locality like the EPR experiments is the rule, not the exception. Mind and Matter are both expressions of the same implicit holistic flow, not opposed to each other or separated arbitrarily.
In short, this book makes a highly articulate case for an ontological holism that has the ability to make intuitive, graspable, (simple in its own way) sense of the physical world and Everything.
It is worth reading even for the physics novice. It is about a lot more than re-framing contemporary quantum mechanics with a more intuitive paradigm. It is intensely consistent and coherent in its approach to all of experience, and treats physical theory and mathematics as descriptive of an ever-evolving horizon of our total understanding.
November 6, 2018
Remarkable. I do not understand why Bohm's ideas are not more widely accepted and appreciated. Bohmian mechanics explains much at little cost.
August 9, 2020
Not the introductory text in quantum mechanics I thought it was - this is an advanced textbook! Bohm gives an ontological interpretation of QM, rather than the epistemological interpretation most physicists give, the latter limiting the possibilities of the theory. Bohm also repeats his theory of the implicate order, forst described in Wholeness and the Implicate Order. This book stays much closer to physics and mathematics, though, and is therefore harder to read. Bohm's theory is still tentative, carefully involving consciousness into QM, but is a much healthier alternative to the abuse many New Agers make of quantum theory.
September 11, 2023
BOHM’S FINAL BOOK, PUBLISHED POSTHUMOUSLY
Co-author Basil J. Hiley wrote in the Preface to this 1993 book, “Over the last twenty years or so David Bohm and I have spent many hours discussing the main theme of this book, namely, whether it is possible to provide an ontological interpretation of quantum mechanics… we found it necessary to make some radical new proposals concerning the nature of reality in order to provide a coherent ontology. The results of our deliberations form the contents of this book. Just as the final touches were being put to the manuscript, David died suddenly. The week before his death we had a series of meetings in which a few outstanding questions were resolved… in our last meeting David expressed general satisfaction with the final draft and was anxious to procced quickly with publication. I have… resisted the temptation to make any significant alterations while preparing the final manuscript.
“I hope this book will be a fitting testimony to this very radical and original thinker who rejected the view of conventional quantum mechanics, not for ideological reasons, but because it did not provide a coherent overall view of nature, a feature that David felt an essential ingredient of any physical theory… the most radical view to emerge from our deliberations was the concept of wholeness, a notion in which a system formed a totality whose overall behavior was richer than could be obtained from the sum or its parts. Iin the ontological theory that we present here, this wholeness is made manifest through the notion of nonlocality, a notion that is seemingly denied by relativity. Yet there is no observational disagreement with experiment. Nevertheless nonlocality does not fit comfortably within a space-time structure that is taken as an a priori given and described by a different manifold. Thus in the final chapter we present some radically news ideas which take us beyond the present paradigm.” (Pg. xi)
They explain in the first chapter, “Although our main objective this book is to show that we can give an ontological explanation of the same domain that is covered by the conventional interpretation, we do show in the last two chapters how it is possible in our approach to extend the theory in new ways implying new experimental consequences that go beyond the current quantum theory. Such new theories could be tested only is we could find some domain in which the quantum theory actually breaks down… we sketch some new theories of this kind and indicate some areas in which one may expect the quantum theory to break down in a way that will allow for a test.” (Pg. 3)
They go on, “we extend this interpretation to the many-body system and we find that this leads to further new concepts. The most important of these are NONLOCALITY and OBJECTIVE WHOLENESS. That is to say, particles may be strongly connected even when they are far apart, and this arises in a way which implies that the whole cannot be reduced to an analysis in terms of its constituent parts.” (Pg. 6)
They state, “The relationship between parts of a system described above implies a new quality of WHOLENESS of the entire system going beyond anything that can be specified solely in terms of the actual spatial relationship of all the particles. This is indeed the feature which makes the quantum theory go beyond mechanism of any kind. For it is the essence of mechanism to say that basic reality consists of the part of a system which are in a preassigned interaction. The concept of the whole, then, has only a secondary significance, in the sense that is it only a way of looking at certain overall aspects of what is in reality the behavior of the parts… the interaction of the parts is determined by something that cannot be described solely in terms of these parts and their preassigned interrelationships. Rather it depends on the many-body wave function… We emphasize that this it the most fundamentally new aspect of the quantum theory.” (Pg. 58-59)
They assert, “in classical physics there is no such objective significance to the whole… Quantum mechanics thus implies a new kind of process; i.e., the collection and dissolution of wholes. The language of ordinary quantum mechanics already tends to suggest this, in so far as it treats the quantum state as unanalyzable whole. However… in our interpretation this wholeness becomes more intuitively intelligible because this interpretation highlights the new features of the quantum theory that bring it about.” (Pg. 94)
They note, “nonlocality is a basically new feature of the quantum theory, at least in our interpretation… We… explain the fact that nonlocality is not commonly encountered at the large scale level by showing that it is generally difficult to maintain the wave functions that are needed for this except for certain systems … that have to be produced in a rather artificial way.” (Pg. 134) They continue, “We cannot see any well-founded reason for … objections to the notion of nonlocality. Rather they seem to be more or less of the nature of a prejudice…” (Pg. 157)
They suggest, “Because of nonlocality, quantum jiggling under quantum interference conditions and other quantum properties… we may say that the quantum world is ‘subtle.’ … The absence of mutual externality and separability of all the elements makes this world very elusive to the grasp of our instruments. It slips through the ordinary ‘nets’ that we have devised to hold it.” (Pg. 177) They go on, “In a certain sense we could say that the overall quantum world measures and observes itself… In no sense is the ‘observing instrument’ really separate from what is observed.” (Pg. 179)
They state, “We can … ask whether symmetry and beauty are always a sure sign that we have reached an ultimate truth that can never be altered through further inquiry… we argue that there is no reason to assume the ultimate truth of any particular feature of knowledge, however beautiful we may feel it to be.” (Pg. 316) Later, they add, “we do not expect to come to the end of this process of discovery… Rather our view is that nature in its total reality is unlimited, not merely quantitatively, but also qualitatively in its depth and subtlety of laws and processes… Our knowledge at any stage is an abstraction form this total reality and therefore cannot be expected to hole indefinitely when extended into new domains.” (Pg. 321)
They summarize, “The basic idea is to introduce a new concept of order, which we call the implicate order or the enfolded order… What we are proposing here is that this disparity between physical concepts (e.g., particle, wave, position, momentum) and the implications of the mathematical equations arises because the physical concepts are inseparably involved with the Cartesian notion of order, and this violates the essential content of quantum mechanics. What we need is a notion of order for all our concepts, both physical and mathematical, which coheres with this content.” (Pg. 350-351)
They ask, “Would it not be possible that the present contradiction between the basic concepts of relativity and quantum theory could similarly lead to a qualitatively new idea that would open the way to resolve all these difficulties? As a clue to what this new idea might be, we could begin by asking, not what are the key differences between these concepts, but rather what they have in common. What they have in common is actually a quality of UNBROKEN WHOLENESS… because the quantum potential represents active information, there is a nonlocal connection which can, in principle, make even distant objects into a single system which has an objective quality of unbroken wholeness.” (Pg. 352)
They continue, “The hologram seems… to have no significant order in it, and yet there must somehow be in it an order that determines the order of points that will appear in the image when it is illuminated. We may call this order implicit… [which] means ‘enfolded.’ … this notion of enfoldment … has to be taken fairly literally… the order in the hologram is IMPLICATE… The process … in which this order is conveyed from the object to the hologram will be called ‘enfoldment’ or ‘implication.’” (Pg. 354)
They state, “One may then ask what is the relationship between the physical and the mental processes? The answer that we propose here is that there are not two processes. Rather, it is being suggested that both are essentially the same. This means that that which we experience as mind…will, in a natural way ultimately move the body by reaching the level of the quantum potential and of the ‘dance’ of the particles. There is no unbridgeable gap or barrier between any of these levels. Rather, at each stage some kind of information is the bridge… The content of our own consciousness is then some part of this overall process. It is thus implied that in some sense a rudimentary mind-like quality is present even at the level of particle physics, and that as we go to subtler levels, this mind-like quality becomes stronger and more developed… Through enfoldment, each relatively autonomous level of mind partakes of the whole to one degree or another… For the human being, all of this implies a thoroughgoing wholeness, in which mental and physical sides participate very closely in each other.” (Pg. 385-386)
This book will interest some (including those with ‘New Age’ sympathies) studying creative ideas in science.
Co-author Basil J. Hiley wrote in the Preface to this 1993 book, “Over the last twenty years or so David Bohm and I have spent many hours discussing the main theme of this book, namely, whether it is possible to provide an ontological interpretation of quantum mechanics… we found it necessary to make some radical new proposals concerning the nature of reality in order to provide a coherent ontology. The results of our deliberations form the contents of this book. Just as the final touches were being put to the manuscript, David died suddenly. The week before his death we had a series of meetings in which a few outstanding questions were resolved… in our last meeting David expressed general satisfaction with the final draft and was anxious to procced quickly with publication. I have… resisted the temptation to make any significant alterations while preparing the final manuscript.
“I hope this book will be a fitting testimony to this very radical and original thinker who rejected the view of conventional quantum mechanics, not for ideological reasons, but because it did not provide a coherent overall view of nature, a feature that David felt an essential ingredient of any physical theory… the most radical view to emerge from our deliberations was the concept of wholeness, a notion in which a system formed a totality whose overall behavior was richer than could be obtained from the sum or its parts. Iin the ontological theory that we present here, this wholeness is made manifest through the notion of nonlocality, a notion that is seemingly denied by relativity. Yet there is no observational disagreement with experiment. Nevertheless nonlocality does not fit comfortably within a space-time structure that is taken as an a priori given and described by a different manifold. Thus in the final chapter we present some radically news ideas which take us beyond the present paradigm.” (Pg. xi)
They explain in the first chapter, “Although our main objective this book is to show that we can give an ontological explanation of the same domain that is covered by the conventional interpretation, we do show in the last two chapters how it is possible in our approach to extend the theory in new ways implying new experimental consequences that go beyond the current quantum theory. Such new theories could be tested only is we could find some domain in which the quantum theory actually breaks down… we sketch some new theories of this kind and indicate some areas in which one may expect the quantum theory to break down in a way that will allow for a test.” (Pg. 3)
They go on, “we extend this interpretation to the many-body system and we find that this leads to further new concepts. The most important of these are NONLOCALITY and OBJECTIVE WHOLENESS. That is to say, particles may be strongly connected even when they are far apart, and this arises in a way which implies that the whole cannot be reduced to an analysis in terms of its constituent parts.” (Pg. 6)
They state, “The relationship between parts of a system described above implies a new quality of WHOLENESS of the entire system going beyond anything that can be specified solely in terms of the actual spatial relationship of all the particles. This is indeed the feature which makes the quantum theory go beyond mechanism of any kind. For it is the essence of mechanism to say that basic reality consists of the part of a system which are in a preassigned interaction. The concept of the whole, then, has only a secondary significance, in the sense that is it only a way of looking at certain overall aspects of what is in reality the behavior of the parts… the interaction of the parts is determined by something that cannot be described solely in terms of these parts and their preassigned interrelationships. Rather it depends on the many-body wave function… We emphasize that this it the most fundamentally new aspect of the quantum theory.” (Pg. 58-59)
They assert, “in classical physics there is no such objective significance to the whole… Quantum mechanics thus implies a new kind of process; i.e., the collection and dissolution of wholes. The language of ordinary quantum mechanics already tends to suggest this, in so far as it treats the quantum state as unanalyzable whole. However… in our interpretation this wholeness becomes more intuitively intelligible because this interpretation highlights the new features of the quantum theory that bring it about.” (Pg. 94)
They note, “nonlocality is a basically new feature of the quantum theory, at least in our interpretation… We… explain the fact that nonlocality is not commonly encountered at the large scale level by showing that it is generally difficult to maintain the wave functions that are needed for this except for certain systems … that have to be produced in a rather artificial way.” (Pg. 134) They continue, “We cannot see any well-founded reason for … objections to the notion of nonlocality. Rather they seem to be more or less of the nature of a prejudice…” (Pg. 157)
They suggest, “Because of nonlocality, quantum jiggling under quantum interference conditions and other quantum properties… we may say that the quantum world is ‘subtle.’ … The absence of mutual externality and separability of all the elements makes this world very elusive to the grasp of our instruments. It slips through the ordinary ‘nets’ that we have devised to hold it.” (Pg. 177) They go on, “In a certain sense we could say that the overall quantum world measures and observes itself… In no sense is the ‘observing instrument’ really separate from what is observed.” (Pg. 179)
They state, “We can … ask whether symmetry and beauty are always a sure sign that we have reached an ultimate truth that can never be altered through further inquiry… we argue that there is no reason to assume the ultimate truth of any particular feature of knowledge, however beautiful we may feel it to be.” (Pg. 316) Later, they add, “we do not expect to come to the end of this process of discovery… Rather our view is that nature in its total reality is unlimited, not merely quantitatively, but also qualitatively in its depth and subtlety of laws and processes… Our knowledge at any stage is an abstraction form this total reality and therefore cannot be expected to hole indefinitely when extended into new domains.” (Pg. 321)
They summarize, “The basic idea is to introduce a new concept of order, which we call the implicate order or the enfolded order… What we are proposing here is that this disparity between physical concepts (e.g., particle, wave, position, momentum) and the implications of the mathematical equations arises because the physical concepts are inseparably involved with the Cartesian notion of order, and this violates the essential content of quantum mechanics. What we need is a notion of order for all our concepts, both physical and mathematical, which coheres with this content.” (Pg. 350-351)
They ask, “Would it not be possible that the present contradiction between the basic concepts of relativity and quantum theory could similarly lead to a qualitatively new idea that would open the way to resolve all these difficulties? As a clue to what this new idea might be, we could begin by asking, not what are the key differences between these concepts, but rather what they have in common. What they have in common is actually a quality of UNBROKEN WHOLENESS… because the quantum potential represents active information, there is a nonlocal connection which can, in principle, make even distant objects into a single system which has an objective quality of unbroken wholeness.” (Pg. 352)
They continue, “The hologram seems… to have no significant order in it, and yet there must somehow be in it an order that determines the order of points that will appear in the image when it is illuminated. We may call this order implicit… [which] means ‘enfolded.’ … this notion of enfoldment … has to be taken fairly literally… the order in the hologram is IMPLICATE… The process … in which this order is conveyed from the object to the hologram will be called ‘enfoldment’ or ‘implication.’” (Pg. 354)
They state, “One may then ask what is the relationship between the physical and the mental processes? The answer that we propose here is that there are not two processes. Rather, it is being suggested that both are essentially the same. This means that that which we experience as mind…will, in a natural way ultimately move the body by reaching the level of the quantum potential and of the ‘dance’ of the particles. There is no unbridgeable gap or barrier between any of these levels. Rather, at each stage some kind of information is the bridge… The content of our own consciousness is then some part of this overall process. It is thus implied that in some sense a rudimentary mind-like quality is present even at the level of particle physics, and that as we go to subtler levels, this mind-like quality becomes stronger and more developed… Through enfoldment, each relatively autonomous level of mind partakes of the whole to one degree or another… For the human being, all of this implies a thoroughgoing wholeness, in which mental and physical sides participate very closely in each other.” (Pg. 385-386)
This book will interest some (including those with ‘New Age’ sympathies) studying creative ideas in science.
December 10, 2017
Bohm and Hiley make an argument for a new interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the hypothetical models calculated to account for experimental observations correspond to actually-occurring processes, rather than simply mathematical abstractions used to facilitate accurate predictions. This interpretation leads them to suggest that the quantum field comprises a pool of non-locally communicating information which informs the behavior of classically observable fields and particles. They address the implications of their interpretation for quantum theory's a priori hypotheses as well as its experimental results, and show that they arrive at results identical to those of traditional interpretations. Their proofs do make heavy use of the algebraic equations particular to quantum theory, but as long as one already has some grasp of the concepts and notation of such representations it is possible to comprehend their conclusions, if not follow all of their arguments in line-by-line detail.
May 23, 2024
This book is for physicists. The essence of the Bohm pilot-wave interpretation of quantum mechanics is laid out on pages 28 and 29. The authors spend the rest of the book exploring the implications of this approach in great and attentive detail. For this part of the book I would give them a five-star rating. However, like the conventional Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics, they can't avoid the fundamental presence of nonlocality in their approach. In the latter third of the book they descend into what I consider mysticism as they propose natural physical processes to account for the nonlocality. I found that part of the book unrewarding and a waste of my reading time. They should have just accepted the nonlocality inherent in conventional quantum mechanics and proposed pathways leading to a better theory of quantum mechanical processes.
to-read-soon
February 17, 2020I have loved this book because the ideas it addresses are very interesting. More physicists today should consider these ideas seriously and think in ontological terms. Quantum mechanics becomes much more intuitive under Bohm's interpretation.
However, the material is very dense. I have only made it to page 232. I am putting the book down for a while, just because it is dense and I don't have as much time to read as I would like. I am putting it down only until I have some more free time again, and plan to finish it then. Again, this has nothing to do with the quality of the material.
However, the material is very dense. I have only made it to page 232. I am putting the book down for a while, just because it is dense and I don't have as much time to read as I would like. I am putting it down only until I have some more free time again, and plan to finish it then. Again, this has nothing to do with the quality of the material.
May 16, 2020
As a theoretical chemist whose dissertation was on applications and further development of the Quantum Theory of Atoms IN Molecules (the most rigorous partitioning of matter), Bohm’s UNdivided universe is literally the opposite paradigm from what I have been accustomed to. For that reason alone it drew me in, like a moth to a flame. What new secrets does it hold?
October 8, 2023
"The Undivided Universe" by David Bohm and Basil Hiley offers a profound ontological interpretation of quantum theory. This complex yet rewarding read delves into the nature of reality, challenging conventional quantum interpretations. It's a mind-bending exploration for those seeking a deeper understanding of the philosophical implications of quantum mechanics.
February 28, 2024
Full of equations and difficult to follow if youre not a physicist.
April 8, 2023
David Bohm was the quintessential scientist and his writings are a gift in their clarity as much as their rigour. It is often forgotten--or omitted for saleability--that quantum mechanics (QM) has something in the order of 12 different physical interpretations, which are all experimentally equivalent. Unfortunately, though predictably, the airtime enjoyed by any given physical theory of QM appears to be directly proportionate to its ontological extravagance.
In this offering, Bohm and Hiley masterfully bring the quantum world back down to reality in a refreshing and much needed text on a refined iteration of Bohmian Mechanics (Bohm's 1952 non-relativistic quantum theory building on the Pilot-Wave model proposed by de Broglie c. 1926).
Although this theory is not widely accepted, science should be judged on its merits and not by a show of hands; on the merits, Bohm is on good footing. Whether or not you hold to Bohm's common-sense, intuitive, physical interpretation, this book provides a erudite and comprehensive discussion on non-locality, quantum field theory, and more; I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with an undergraduate-level understanding of physics, who is interested in better understanding the quantum world.
In this offering, Bohm and Hiley masterfully bring the quantum world back down to reality in a refreshing and much needed text on a refined iteration of Bohmian Mechanics (Bohm's 1952 non-relativistic quantum theory building on the Pilot-Wave model proposed by de Broglie c. 1926).
Although this theory is not widely accepted, science should be judged on its merits and not by a show of hands; on the merits, Bohm is on good footing. Whether or not you hold to Bohm's common-sense, intuitive, physical interpretation, this book provides a erudite and comprehensive discussion on non-locality, quantum field theory, and more; I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone with an undergraduate-level understanding of physics, who is interested in better understanding the quantum world.
January 10, 2014
Bohm's ambitious book—his last, published after his death—attempts to prove his quantum theory mathematically and show that it is the most complete theory for the moment. He subsumes the common theory by providing a model for a holistic, quantum universe, not merely predicting experimental results, and shows that the classical physics world is a sub-world of a quantum one. The mathematics can be difficult for the non-technical reader, but overall some very intriguing stuff, particularly his digressions into consciousness and his explanations for classical dynamics as a function of quantum dynamics.
May 21, 2022
Lol 3 years after i have finished this book. It was because before i was weak and could not understand at all what this was giving me. Many formulas had to watch videos to understand physics, but now i have finished it and helped me align myself with the universe better. It showed me the dimension of where i am and how it is represented in the space and all the elements that cause interaction in it.
Also made me a better person to break some barriers that were not allowing my quantums to keep onmoving amd helped me understand how my particles can keep creating energy and communicate with the world.
Also made me a better person to break some barriers that were not allowing my quantums to keep onmoving amd helped me understand how my particles can keep creating energy and communicate with the world.
January 29, 2017
The quantum potential paradigm is neat; but like every other quantum mechanics book I've read, this one discusses a lot of meta-physics.
Also, it's obvious that Hiley rushed the book through the publisher after Bohm died to keep the Bohm name on the cover. It could have used some more editing.
Also, it's obvious that Hiley rushed the book through the publisher after Bohm died to keep the Bohm name on the cover. It could have used some more editing.
Want to read
July 23, 2009referenced in "Nontrivial quantum effects in biology" by Wiseman and Eisert
September 18, 2017
In which David Bohm provides mathematical proof of ancient nondual mysticism.
Currently reading
July 25, 2009getting beyond the quantum paradox...?
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews