A new book documents the overlooked contributions of a loose-knit, unconventional bunch of 1970s physicists called the Fundamental Fysiks Group
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Editor's Note: The rights to our excerpt from HOW THE HIPPIES SAVED PHYSICS: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival, by David Kaiser, have expired. The book is available from numerous online booksellers.
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16 Comments
Add CommentThat seemed like a really round-about, rambling way to say that sometimes "out of the box" thinking produces ground-breaking changes.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Brevity is the soul of wit." -From Shakespeare's Hamlet, 1602
@tharriss: You remind us that saying nothing is sometimes even better than brevity.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI hate to nit-pick, but this article is titled "How the Hippies Saved Physics", and if you read the whole article, what it ends up saying is that, the hippies didn't save physics at all. So I feel sort of cheated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI like the idea that all points of view are welcome and that in those times other interpretations and ideas about physics was welcome. That does not seem to be the case anymore.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAs an alternative to Quantum Theory there is a new theory that describes and explains the mysteries of physical reality. While not disrespecting the value of Quantum Mechanics as a tool to explain the role of quanta in our universe. This theory states that there is also a classical explanation for the paradoxes such as EPR and the Wave-Particle Duality. The Theory is called the Theory of Super Relativity. This theory is a philosophical attempt to reconnect the physical universe to realism and deterministic concepts. It explains the mysterious. Google search super relativity to see the website for further explanation.
This article is fatuous rubbish! Physics was not
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thissaved since it did not need saving. Most of the
article has nothing to do with physics, and makes
unsupported claims, with no examples, of important
results in quantum information theory, interpretation
of quantum mechanics, etc.
It spends some time on Karl Popper without mentioning
one of his principle concepts, that of falsifiability.
Obviously some of the commentators above have not read Kaiser' book, or if they did, have not understood the text.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisExperimental physics does not need saving, but theoretical physics does.
See Lee Smolin's "The Trouble With Physics" and Peter Woit's "Not Even Wrong." The "Shut up and calculate" attitude has damaged American theoretical physics and has not been good for Britain either.
In fact, we did save physics and are still saving it.
For more details on how we saved physics see my blog at
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://stardrive.org
especially the current discussion with Henry Stapp on David Kaiser's Fig 9.1
Excert from Sarfatti's Wiki page:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"one of his soaring theories is that things which have not happened yet can cause events in the present. ... With just a little more, one more grant, one venturesome patron, one young woman with a trust fund, he can build the machine to prove his theories. Already in his possession are the theorems, formula, algebra, and the poetry for it. He covers sheets of paper. He can prove everything—here's a sheet of paper with guaranteed algebra, physics, and citations from Faust"
Got a design for this "machine" of yours? Why the suspense? Just publish your design -- I will get it built.
Yes, it's Fig 9.1 in Kaiser's book. Also John Cramer's variation on the Dopfur experiment. We are not sure if either will work until actual experiments test the idea. Details are in debate right now on my blog at http://stardrive.org
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWe don't need you to do it, but do it if you can. DARPA will do it if it looks plausible after some more debate with Stapp, Herbert and others.
There was never any suspense you simply did not check the public facts before posting.
On retrocausation as I say we just had an AAAS meeting on it at USD with several dozen scientists. Again check your facts before talking.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisJust Google e.g.,
Elitzur's talk at Retrocausality Workshop USD/AAAS 61211
stardrive.org/index.php?option...retrocausality...usd-aaas... - CachedElitzur's talk at Retrocausality Workshop USD/AAAS 61211. Posted by: Jack Sarfatti on Jun 13, 2011. Tagged in: Untagged ...
►
Andrew Jordan's talk at Retrocausality Workshop USD/AAAS 61211
stardrive.org/index.php?option...retrocausality...usd-aaas... - CachedAndrew Jordan's talk at Retrocausality Workshop USD/AAAS 61211. Posted by ...
Spooky Back From The Future Voodoo at AAAS USD Retrocausality Workshop
stardrive.org/index.php?option...aaas-usd-retrocausality... - CachedSpooky Back From The Future Voodoo at AAAS USD Retrocausality Workshop ...
Show more results from stardrive.org
AAAS USD Workshop on "Paranormal" Retro-Causation
sci4um.com › Science and Technology › Math - Cached
2 posts - 2 authors - Last post: Jun 22, 2006
science and technology Forum: AAAS USD Workshop on. ... On Jun 21, 2006, at 5:06 PM, Jack Sarfatti wrote: ...
"....military planners began to revoke draft deferments for students—first for undergraduates in 1967, then, two years later, for graduate students as well...."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNo, that's not true. The author may be thinking that the draft lottery ended deferments. It didn't. I had a 2-S student deferment until 1971. I'm pretty sure student deferments continued until we got out of Vietnam.
>>>> We don't need you to do it, but do it if you can.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYour wiki asks for "one woman with a trust fund" - don't be snippy if one responds.
>>>> Again check your facts before talking.
The world is deluged with "facts". Edit your wiki if you want folks to get "facts" and not hyprebolae.
Anyway, I went to you stardrive.org and still can't find your design. Why not post a link to the design rather than have folks sift through all sorts of "facts" on that blog?
Sarfatti? He called me an idiot when I informed him about the technology used by the Flying Saucer. Look at One Terminal Capacitor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAll I can say is that I did not get linear algebra until I did a hit of acid in the mid 70's. All of the sudden I could slice and dice a piece of art with no trouble at all. But on another note I found the trips very spiritual and can see how Shamans used the psycodellics to have religious experiences.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI also saw a pretty normal person go schizophrenic from a bad trip so I would not suggest this as a learning tool for everybody. If you had any baggage going into the trip it was magnified by the experience and it is not always easy to tell yourself that this is only the chemical and will wear off in a few hours.
What ended the draft was when 18 year olds got the vote and could fire the old farts sending us off to senseless wars. The problem is with the all volunteer service and the raping of the economy by Regan, Nixon and both Bushs' we have more openings in the service and better benefits (of course they are being renigged on now that we have survivors of wounds that the victim would be better off dead (massive head injuries, loss of limbs etc...)) because of the better triage and medical lessons learned in Korea and Nam. But the armed forces are aligned to the administration and without the draft the effects of war are focuses on a few not the masses or the wealthy. I was glad to see the end of the draft but the price we are paying for it may be higher than we anticipated.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI hate to say it but re-introducing the draft may do more for peace than the vote. We are going to end up spending over 4 trillion dollars for Iraq and Afghanistan and only Afghanistan was somewhat legitimate. Now that Bin Laden is dead or in rendition lets bring our troops home. We cannot fix a tribal society with democracy. It barely works for us and has failed every time we tried to introduce it to other countries by force especially the ones based on tribes and klans.
My wife puts it very well when she says take care of your own back yard. Yet we have a tizz when Iran tries to exert its influence in the middle east. What was our reaction to missels in Cuba?
@JohnH: all science is performed by humans and is rife with sociological and psychological causes and effects; sooner or later they need the desaturation of apparently radical ideas in order to move ahead -- witness the early 1900s.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Sarfatti: the deadliest handicap of hubris is assuming one knows how the universe and its parts undergo change; collectively we don't yet. Among the worst cases currently evident are extrapolations to the mesoscale of misinterpretations of phenomena suggested by experiments on the smallest length scales.