How sure are you that the world is real? It feels solid, but peer closely enough and discrete atoms dissolve into a haze of wave-particles. Squint even closer, and these clouds of probability unravel further into abstract fields with properties that seem impossible. Does a universe-wide quantum substrate set every atom in existence into motion? Why do we need imaginary numbers to describe real things? And how do entangled photons whisper secrets to each other at thousands of times the speed of light?
In this chapter, we inspect the ethereal foundations of reality – you’ll be amazed the universe hasn’t fallen down already.