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Comment by anonymousDan | Hacker News Reader

I read one of his books a few years ago (might not have been this one), and it was awesome. While not for the faint hearted, some of the ideas were truly mind bending. Edit: I just checked again and I think the one I read was the beginning of infinity. Would be really interested to hear other people's thoughts on it - I've never met anyone else who has read it! For those who don't know David Deutsch, he is one of the biggest names in the field of quantum computing. The beginning of infinity is not just about physics though, it also takes in topics in philosophy, literature etc, and tries to put them in a unified framework.

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If you accept the Many Worlds Interpretation of QM, then Deutsch's book will indeed seem "amazing". If you don't, though, then much of what Deutsch says is simply wrong, since it depends on that particular interpretation.

It's been a while since I read it, and I am not a physicist, so I can't remember the details of his arguments to be honest. But it would be interesting yo reread it with your comment in mind, thanks.

The key points I see that imply the Many Worlds interpretation are Deutsch's clear position that no "collapse of the wave function" takes place, and his use of terms like "parallel universes".

If you don't accept an idea doesn't mean it's wrong, e.g. Aristotle didn't accept heliocentrism, said it's not supported by observation, indeed observation suggests sun goes around earth, he wasn't even wrong.

The Beginning of Infinity is one of my favourite books of all time! Highly recommend for anyone interested in the philosophy of science.

I never got through the beginning of infinity, but I did read the first few sections of the book. The argument about removing ourselves from observation in order to achieve better observation was a pretty astounding revelation for me; I'd never thought about science in that way. He's a brilliant dude.

Maybe only because of when I read it (when it came out), this first book was a lot more interesting to me than his second. Has anyone here read them both in quick succession?

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