Book Review: "Prologue to Super Quantum Mechanics" by Victor Vaguine

Wow.

What a frickin' entertaining, elucidating and illuminating rant about Quantum Mechanics and the Copenhagen Interpretation.

I frickin' loved this. This book is a 'prologue' to two more books "Conceptual and Philosophical Foundations of Super Quantum Mechanics" and "Ontology of ConsReality." Hmm. Must see if I can find out more about those. Not out yet. If this book is anything to go by, they'll be a good read.

Basically he's re-stating Aristotle and William of Occam. A is A and use the fewest assumptions to provide the simplest explanation. He covers non local realism specifically and is quite... er... "forthright" in his views about Quantum Positivism and Local Realism.

So... If I could paraphrase him in my words...

"If all you have is a hammer then everything looks like a nail. Every mathematical edifice built on the Copenhagen interpretation is tainted. It leads to giant theories that describes things, but doesn't explain them. So you have exceedingly clever people wasting years on rubbish. And to say anything against Copenhagen is heresy.

Multiverse? Crap. Bohr? Arrogant, opinionated, brainwashing obsessive who has retarded physics for 80 years. String theory? Interesting use of Mathematics with little bearing on reality and zero predictive power. A is A. They're not zero-size structure-less points. They're obviously very real little bl**dy things. Just use a Scanning Tunnel Electron Microscope. They're frickin' there. And they have spin. And magnetic moment. And they have those properties regardless of whether you're looking at them."

In any case, the author seems to be able to capture the essence of the insanity of Quantum Mechanics and the way it has been inculcated into every nook and cranny of modern physics. He also is obviously in awe of Einstein for which I have no complaint.

I did some digging on this guy and encountered some weird yet fascinating stuff about his life. Like this one:

BUSINESS TECHNOLOGY; A Soviet Defector's Mission

LEAD: Helped by a fistfight between K.G.B. and C.I.A. agents, Victor A. Vaguine, a Soviet nuclear physicist, defected with his wife and two children to the United States 16 years ago in Switzerland.

December 2, 1987

Strangely enough a wikipedia search showed nothing. Nada. Nil. Odd. He appears to live in Dallas, TX. Three companies, "Vitel", "JMV" and "consreality" which seem to fit into the books details. The ConsReality company is at "9914 Hickory Xing" in Dallas btw. There's a press release here: http://consreality.com/press/news-release.html and is apparently a publishing company. Seems legit.

Supposedly he escaped the Soviet Union in 1966, has a PhD (written in French) and has 22 US patents. Think I found them. Here's the list to prove he may not be making stuff up:

1.  Vaguine Victor A: Method and apparatus for controlling and optimizing the heating pattern for a hyperthermia system. Clini-Therm Aug, 9 1983: US 4397314 (92 citation)
2.  Vaguine Victor A: Multiple microwave applicator system and method for microwave hyperthermia treatment. Clini-Therm Aug, 9 1983: US 4397313 (34 citation)
3.  Vaguine Victor A: Microwave applicator with discoupled input coupling and frequency tuning functions. Clini-Therm May, 8 1984: US 4446874 (29 citation)
4.  Vaguine Victor A: Microwave hyperthermia applicator with variable radiation pattern. Varian Associates May, 20 1986: US 4589424 (19 citation)
5.  Tanabe Eiji, Vaguine Victor A: Variable energy standing wave linear accelerator structure. Varian Associates Aug, 25 1981: US 4286192 (13 citation)
6.  Vaguine Victor A: Standing-wave linear accelerator. Varian Associates May, 17 1977: US 4024426 (12 citation)
7.  Meddaugh Gard, Tanabe Eiji, Vaguine Victor: Variable field coupled cavity resonator circuit. Varian Associates May, 3 1983: US 4382208 (10 citation)
8.  Vaguine Victor A, Giebeler Jr Robert H, McEuen Albert H: Hyperthermia applicator for treatment with microwave energy and ultrasonic wave energy. Varian Associates Dec, 3 1985: US 4556070 (8 citation)
9.  Turner Paul F, Vaguine Victor A: Applicator array and positioning system for hyperthermia. BSD Medical Dec, 4 1990: US 4974587 (8 citation)
10.  Vaguine Victor A, Nichols Dennis R: Bonding of ferrite to metal for high-power microwave applications. Varian Associates Mar, 25 1975: US 3873944 (8 citation)
11.  McEuen Albert H, Vaguine Victor A: Standing wave linear accelerator and slotted waveguide hybrid junction input coupler. Varian Associates Mar, 27 1979: US 4146817 (7 citation)
12.  Vaguine Victor Aleksey: Variable energy highly efficient linear accelerator. Varian Associates Oct, 3 1978: US 4118653 (4 citation)
13.  Vaguine Victor A: Linear accelerator having a side cavity coupled to two different diameter cavities. Varian Associates Oct, 3 1978: US 4118652 (4 citation)
14.  Vaguine Victor A, Nichols Dennis R: Metallized gyromagnetic ferrite. Varian Associates Jul, 13 1976: US 3969086 (4 citation)
15.  Vaguine Victor A, Nichols Dennis R: Bonding of ferrite to metal for high-power microwave applications. Varian Associates Feb, 24 1976: US 3940051 (4 citation)
16.  Vaguine Victor A: Standing wave linear accelerator and input coupling. Varian Associates Oct, 24 1978: US 4122373 (3 citation)
17.  Tanabe Eiji, Vaguine Victor Aleksey: Accelerateur lineaire a onde stationnaire et a energie variable. Varian Associates Apr, 17 1981: FR2467526 (1 citation)
18.  Vaguine Victor A, Nichols Dennis R: Ferrite to metal bond for high-power microwave applications. Varian Associates Jun, 1 1976: US 3960512 (1 citation)
19.  Meddaugh Gard Edson, Tanabe Eiji, Vaguine Victor Aleksey: Variable field coupled cavity resonator circuit for a linear accelerator. Varian Associates Jan, 29 1982: FR2487627
20.  Tanabe Eiji, Vaguine Victor A: Variable energy standing wave linear acceleration structure. / Structure d'acceleration lineaire a ondes stationnaires et a energie variable. Varian Medical Systems Jun, 21 1983: CA 1148657
21.  Mceuen Albert H, Vaguine Victor A: Standing wave linear accelerator and slotted input coupler. / Accelerateur lineaire a ondes stationnaires et coupleur d'entree a fente. Varian Associates Oct, 7 1980: CA 1087310
22.  Vaguine Victor A: Standing-wave linear accelerator. / Accelerateur lineaire a ondes stationnaires. Varian Associates Nov, 14 1978: CA 1042552

A thoroughly good read. If you are interested in the subject or a student go out and buy this book and hold the ideas in your heart. They might not turn out to be right, but you have to know that there is dissent.