Why I Read Quantum Theory

I tweeted last night that I wondered what it said about me that I was voluntarily reading quantum theory or mechanics on a Saturday night.  A friend graciously and kindly responded it was because I sought enlightenment.  And I hope that to be the case.  It's paragraphs like the following that cause me to read and learn about new things, new ideas, seeking new knowledge...

In the far reaches of an infinite cosmos, there's a galaxy that looks just like the Milky Way, with a solar system that's a spitting image of ours, with a planet that's a dead ringer for earth, with a house that's indistinguishable from yours, inhabited by someone who looks just like you, who is right now reading this very book and imagining you, in a distant galaxy, just reaching the end of this sentence.  And there's not just one copy. In an infinite universe, there are infinitely many.  In some, your doppelganger is now reading this sentence, along with you.  In others, he or she has skipped ahead, or feels in need of a snack and has put the book down.  In others still, he or she has, well, a less than felicitous disposition and is someone you'd rather not meet in a dark alley. - Brian Green, The Hidden Reality, p.11.

I just cannot read that sentence without my brain being tantalized about those possibilities, those realities, that reality.   Quantum mechanics, quantum theory, whatever one wants to call it, is simply fascinating to learn (that is, to learn what I can understand).  The vision and reality that results from understanding its theory is truly mind blowing, and is both incredibly awe-inspiring and humbling.  To understand the simultaneous existence of both incredible complexity in the cosmos and in our own biology, to knowingly perceive both our uniqueness and our commonality, for me, is about as spiritual as it can get.

Thus, this is why I work my way through books like these from time to time.  It's good to challenge one self. It's good to have one's intellect and knowledge both challenged, humbled, piqued, and advanced.  It's good to continue to advance and improve one's understanding of perception and reality.