Picking a book to kick off this series of recommended reads in Quantum Computing wasn’t too difficult. Next week’s book review is a slightly unusual, and perhaps even an antagonistic suggestion, but the science writer that immediately comes to mind for me in this field is always the same. The Italian theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli. I have been a fan of Rovelli’s work since a somewhat unusual encounter, namely his appearance on Krista Tippett’s iconic On Being podcast. It became my favourite episode, perhaps after the Northern Irish poet Michael Longley. Somehow Rovelli managed to speak so poetically on the science of quantum and astrophysics on a podcast that aims to explore difficult topics of thoughtful human existence. And without feeding the quantum woo woo charlatans that hijack anything vaguely scientific to sell their particular brand of “good vibes”.

But this is a topic that can sound a bit esoteric at the best of times. And even moreso when it also sounds poetic. Rovelli’s wonderful articulation that “all of reality is a series of happenings” might come across as an update on (maybe) Einstein’s quip about relativity. Although flowery it also contains a key element of not just quantum mechanics, but our human experience as we try to understand how we interpret it. Subtle and clear and succinct all at the same time. This is why Rovelli is so good at all of these science books he does.

Werner Heisenberg. Photograph: Bettman Archive

The murky worlds of quantum writing

Quantum books are typically either a general overview, an enthusiastic history lesson, or an intense (if enjoyable) slog through challenging material. Science journalists like Brian Clegg and Amit Katwala do a great job in the accessible introductory books, but the risk is that a reader gets fatigued with the same stories about cats and slits, and then intimidated by the chasm between these topics and the subsequent mountains of equations, gates, and programming thereafter. The danger being that they then retreat from further exploration, or worse, they dive into the questionable futurism that promises utopia while getting the absolute basics wrong. Rovelli however excels at both structuring and simplifying the subject. Helgoland is arranged in three parts that give enough information but also keeps things moving alone with a certain level of excitement.

Part One — a curious and compelling history

Part One is an engaging immersion in the time and place of a young Werner Heisenberg as he isolates himself on the island of Helgoland (hence the title) and tackles a mathematical challenge that reveals a startling new potential for not just physics, but reality itself. We then get a gentle but meaningful montage of characters that anyone taking an interest in quantum physics (or just the utility of quantum computing) will encoutner at length elsewhere.

There’s something both emotionally engaging and quite clever about this light touch, which gives a sense of humanity to people who are otherwise just names ticked off a list in other texts. Actually getting a sense of the emotions and relationships of the likes of Max born, Paul Dirac, Max Planck and Ernst Mach creates a solid foundation for future embellishment elsewhere. The way Rovelli gives equal space to thee formative thinkers, and not just dwell immediately on Niels Bohr and Albert Einstein, let’s that epic story arc reveal itself in later texts (spoiler alert: we’re going to do just that in this series).

Helgoland (or Heligoland) where the story begins

Part Two — a tour through the concepts at hand

Part Two moves into some more of the generalist concepts and ideas involved in quantum mechanics that we will want to be familiar with in even the highest touch of quantum computing. Rovelli keeps his a times personal tones (without being overly gonzo) and works throiugh the usual suspects of superposition, entanglement, and so on, but in a way that feels important to the story, rather than a bullet list of concepts. It’s particular impressive how we works through the use of matrices, the understanding of quanta, and the various ways we’ve either directly or adjacently come to these conslusions in other areas, be they ideas of observables and probability, or the intuitive methods to measure heat or light. It’s not heavy going because Rovelli begins to share his own perspective, in that everything in quantum mechanics, just like in life, is only important in how it relates to something else. We can be certain of nothing in and of itself. Only how it matters in the overall. This is a profound lesson that gives structure both to the understanding of some of the squishier parts of quantum mechanics, but also to the way that life (and certainly the emerging quantum computing industry) is both observed and interacted with. When even the theorists are suggesting that progress is only made through observation of interaction, and even morso that it only matters when interaction occurs, we should pay attention. Another notable asset of this section is the way that Rovelli sets up topics such as wave functions and probability with “just” a real-world emphasis on how the math works to achieve the ways we can measure things. I appreciate Rovelli’s emphasis that we in the industry find phenomena like wave function collapse so fascinating, but no more so than a toddler might find a light switch interesting. Making it seem mystical benefits nobody at all. Even if we don’t fully understand something when we use it, doesn’t mean we should avoid the apparent utility of it, and indeed, progress is only made when we do. Hence the nascent quantum computing industry and hence people like myself bringing not just physcists but engineers, designers, and product leaders into it. And you, dear reader, whoever you may be. We need you too.

Heisenberg in his later years.

Part Three — a world view through a personal lens

Part Three is where Rovelli takes the opportunity to get a little, for want of a better word, philosophical. One might not to expect to read about Vladimir Lenin in a book like this, but here we are, and Rovelli’s storytelling and own musings of everything from the stars to our brains, gives a sense of the thinking of a professional in the field. This reminds me of a technique of a friend, former Olympian Inga Stasiulionytė, has of enquiring about “the expert’s horizon”. Any opportunity we have to learn from an expert should also be mindful to ask what they themselves are puzzling with over their own third hotizon. To stand on the shoulders of giants even for a minute is a privilgege, and Rovelli does well to distinguish his perspectives and bias in this area, enough to give a newcomer a sense of the continuation of the story being told. Rovelli does well to describe a world of complex but meaningful relationships that mean that even the happenings on an island in the North Sea a century ago, to wherever you, yes you, are reading this now, is a throughline of importance and a certain rational kind of magic. I personally appreciate his ability to speak confidently to the idea that we are all part of an evolving understanding of the nature of the universe (even if some of us just want to use some new forms of compute power) and we all have our roles to play.

Where to find Helogland

Helgoland by Carlo Rovelli is published by Penguin Books and is available on Amazon or, if you like to do what I like to do, in the science section of your favourite community bookshop. If you want to pursue a career in quantum computing, this makes a great first stop, and does with with humanity and passion. I hope you enjoy it and are inspired to join us in our quest for usable and purposeful quantum technologies. This post is a part of the Quantum Book Club series by David Ryan, the founder of the Quantum Open Source Group, which is running the first industry-wide survey of open source software in the quantum industries. Sign up to the Product In Deep newsletter for weekly insights into the strategies and experiences of Deep Tech product leaders across AI, Quantum Computing, Robotics and frontier technologies.