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The Lost World of Genesis One: Ancient Cosmology and the Origins Debate. Consciousness and the Universe: Consciousness, the universe, quantum physics, evolution, brain and mind. How Consciousness Became the Universe:: Quantum Physics, Cosmology, Relativity, Evo The quantum physics of consciousness, cosmology, the universe, brain, mind. Related Video Shorts 0 Upload your video. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Share your thoughts with other customers.
Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention quantum mechanics fundamental fysiks david kaiser bell theorem fysiks group quantum physics hippies saved saved physics bay area uri geller nick herbert eastern mysticism modern physics jack sarfatti cold war foundational questions ira einhorn werner erhard quantum encryption history of science.
There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Its subject is not just the history This is a terrific book! Its subject is not just the history of quantum physics in the second half of the 20th Century, but also how scientists work together in the real world. David Kaiser illuminates the role of fringe physicists who may or may not be correct in their theories in sparking further scientific developments.
Every historic detail is researched and documented with footnotes. The book also relays a lay understanding of some of the basic principles of quantum physics, particularly Bell's theorem and the No Cloning Principle. I didn't find these explanations entirely understandable despite my considerable prior study in the area. However, this weakness is more than compensated for by the readability of the book and its elucidation of physics history.
This book sets the record straight as to the essential role played by out-and-out iconoclasts in what has to be, in hindsight, mankind's towering intellectual achievement to date: Above and beyond telling an enthralling tale in its own right, it also reinforces and further elaborates on the themes of Kuhn's 'Structure of Scientific Revolutions' - providing a timely reminder that society's indispensable, progress-begetting edge is lost whenever too much heed is paid to establishmentarians, unimaginative thinkers aka self-styled hard-nosed realists, and bean counters.
A 'perfect storm' of unplanned but confluent events - budgetary constraints, the Vietnam War, and a few other non-linear events - led to the crucible that then enabled the coming together of an exceptional group of people in time and place. We can only ardently wish that such conditions were enabled by design rather than by happenstance.
However, society's pressures most often tend to work the other way - towards a stifling of free-thinking iconoclasm unmoored from immediate utilitarian concerns. The author has put together a masterful work of scholarship to track down this history of quantum physics and how it has gone through the politics and leading stories of our times to evolve to where it is today.
Even though it is a lot of research and facts, it still reads like a good fiction novel. Since I lived through these times, and I know the Bay Area, I found it put into a clear sequence the events of those times; he knits it all together into a fascinating narrative. By the end of the book, one feels quite intimately connected to all the characters from Berkeley, Livermore, San Francisco, Esalen and such. Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. I knew some but very little of this oh-sos and mostly California story. When I took acid, it fried my intellect for years. How did these brainiacs escape the pist-acid Doofus Sundrome.
But tgey did some of them , snd math and physics will never be the same. I highly recommend it. I just finished readig this book. It accurately protrays the barriers to pursuing the topics got me into Physics in , the barriers to pursuing those topics, the subculture I was part of, how it led some of today's leading edge developments, etc. I cannot recommend it highly enough. This is a very detailed account of an important and recent piece of physics history.
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There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Its subject is not just the history This is a terrific book! Its subject is not just the history of quantum physics in the second half of the 20th Century, but also how scientists work together in the real world. David Kaiser illuminates the role of fringe physicists who may or may not be correct in their theories in sparking further scientific developments. Every historic detail is researched and documented with footnotes.
The book also relays a lay understanding of some of the basic principles of quantum physics, particularly Bell's theorem and the No Cloning Principle. I didn't find these explanations entirely understandable despite my considerable prior study in the area.
However, this weakness is more than compensated for by the readability of the book and its elucidation of physics history. This book sets the record straight as to the essential role played by out-and-out iconoclasts in what has to be, in hindsight, mankind's towering intellectual achievement to date: Above and beyond telling an enthralling tale in its own right, it also reinforces and further elaborates on the themes of Kuhn's 'Structure of Scientific Revolutions' - providing a timely reminder that society's indispensable, progress-begetting edge is lost whenever too much heed is paid to establishmentarians, unimaginative thinkers aka self-styled hard-nosed realists, and bean counters.
A 'perfect storm' of unplanned but confluent events - budgetary constraints, the Vietnam War, and a few other non-linear events - led to the crucible that then enabled the coming together of an exceptional group of people in time and place. We can only ardently wish that such conditions were enabled by design rather than by happenstance.
However, society's pressures most often tend to work the other way - towards a stifling of free-thinking iconoclasm unmoored from immediate utilitarian concerns. The author has put together a masterful work of scholarship to track down this history of quantum physics and how it has gone through the politics and leading stories of our times to evolve to where it is today.
Even though it is a lot of research and facts, it still reads like a good fiction novel. Since I lived through these times, and I know the Bay Area, I found it put into a clear sequence the events of those times; he knits it all together into a fascinating narrative. By the end of the book, one feels quite intimately connected to all the characters from Berkeley, Livermore, San Francisco, Esalen and such.
Kindle Edition Verified Purchase. I knew some but very little of this oh-sos and mostly California story. When I took acid, it fried my intellect for years. How did these brainiacs escape the pist-acid Doofus Sundrome. But tgey did some of them , snd math and physics will never be the same. I highly recommend it. It upsets me to rate this book so low since I've had the pleasure of attending multiple lectures by Prof.
Kaiser, who is extremely engaging and entertaining in person. His writings on how the pedagogy of physics changed as the result of war was some of the most memorable and mind blowing concepts I had to read for class. However, this book was plain boring. The first few chapters introducing history was great, similar to his insightful lectures.
But as soon as he starts on the Fundamental Fysics It upsets me to rate this book so low since I've had the pleasure of attending multiple lectures by Prof. But as soon as he starts on the Fundamental Fysics Group, the book degrades into a dizzying cast of characters that made the story -- if there was one -- impossible to follow. The stories drifted from concept to concept, place to place, person to person, with "saving physics" easily forgotten as a theme.
For a book that spanned so many characters, so many physics concepts, and such a long time period, the chapters seriously needed some serious editing and focus see Poisoner's Handbook, which made this crazy task sane. Aug 30, Gina Briganti rated it really liked it.
One of the greatest values of this book is the richness of the bibliography. I will be reading from that list for years to come. The hippies in question were doing a lot of interesting experimentation, and expanding on ideas that cold war physics had left behind in favor of developing weapons.
They may not have "saved" physics, per se, but they did bring the romance back to it. The research being done th One of the greatest values of this book is the richness of the bibliography. The research being done there ties mind, body, spirit, and science together in approachable ways. Another of the physicists in the book went on to develop HeartMath technology, which is one of the best modern biofeedback systems around. Our current banking technology also came from people in this group.
I know a retired physicist, trained following WWII, who will not spend one conversation exploring the idea of quanta because in his case, as in so many others, he was taught to think inside the box.
How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival [David Kaiser] on donnsboatshop.com *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival [HOW THE HIPPIES SAVED PHYS 10D] [Compact Disc] on donnsboatshop.com .
I consider the lack of imagination they instilled in him to have robbed him of a world we are beginning to understand. You will see physics in this book, and a history of physics that you will most likely have seen before. In that way the book is a primer. I recommend this book for anyone with an interest in quantam mechanics because the history of that field is incomplete without it.
Nov 21, Mark rated it it was ok Shelves: Once again, an opportunity to explain how psychedelics actually influenced decision-making and experimental creativity dashed on the rocks of the feel-good aesthetics of Esalen Institute and est. Interesting in many respects, since it deals a small bit with the eminence grise of all this, Ira Einhorn aka, "The Unicorn' , the self-styled and self-promoting feel-good Philadelphia "hippie guru-leader" who murdered his girlfriend, but other than that, reading about some of these people just begs Once again, an opportunity to explain how psychedelics actually influenced decision-making and experimental creativity dashed on the rocks of the feel-good aesthetics of Esalen Institute and est.
Interesting in many respects, since it deals a small bit with the eminence grise of all this, Ira Einhorn aka, "The Unicorn' , the self-styled and self-promoting feel-good Philadelphia "hippie guru-leader" who murdered his girlfriend, but other than that, reading about some of these people just begs the question: We need more accurate and precise reporting than we do another telling of history from a generalized perception. Even if this is a "specialty topic"- freaks who dug physics and how they changed the modern world to think on Their Terms.
For every three-paragraph summation of someone's "mystical experience" I have the feeling that each one could perhaps make up their own book, all on its own. Disappointing overall, but informative, should you wish to go there. Mar 18, Robert Wilson rated it it was amazing. A superb explanation of how a prejudice against "foundational" thinking about quantum physics in the 40's and 50's led to a wildly freethinking philosophical and scientific countermovement involving, at some points, ESP, faster-than-light communication, and Uri Geller -- and which, after all the dross and lunacy was cleared away, gave us the first serious investigation of Bell's Theorem and, ultimately, the science of quantum encryption.
As a bonus, Kaiser's explanations of the scientific questi A superb explanation of how a prejudice against "foundational" thinking about quantum physics in the 40's and 50's led to a wildly freethinking philosophical and scientific countermovement involving, at some points, ESP, faster-than-light communication, and Uri Geller -- and which, after all the dross and lunacy was cleared away, gave us the first serious investigation of Bell's Theorem and, ultimately, the science of quantum encryption.
As a bonus, Kaiser's explanations of the scientific questions are lucid and wonderfully readable.
Sep 16, Jim rated it really liked it Shelves: In looking for something that was an overdrive audiobook that was available to be listened to on my phone while doing tasks, I came across this. It is clear I need to look at the finer definitions of entanglement , spooky action at a distance , bell's theorem , nonlocality, hidden variables.
This is more a fun history of science book that a physics book. I thought it was interesting and balanced story about the 70s and 80s world of physics. Sep 17, Nancy rated it it was ok Shelves: I gave up and returned this book to the library without finishing it. I did skip through and could see no evidence that this group "saved" physics. The author spent way too much ink on est and Uri Geller. Maybe the book is better if you plow through it without skipping around, but I doubt it.
Jul 31, John Lee rated it it was ok. Some group members "Although Jack Sarfatti would occasionally fulminate against the physicists of his teachers' generation--the ''scientific laborers' who made the first atomic bombs'--for having 'sold out to the Defense Department,' he, too, sought funds from the Central Intelligence Agency and the Pentagon for his latest ideas about how to harness Bell's theorem and entanglement for long-distance communication with the submarine fleet or to disable nuclear-tipped ballistic missiles in flight. Some group members remained convinced that George Koopman, the former or 'former'?
Aur Force or Defense Intelligence Agency funds--and they were glad nonetheless to have Koopman's cash in hand. Their critique of the Cold War routine and of the military's influence on science remained distinct from the more familiar us-versus-them, NewLeft-against-the-Establishment pattern at that time. Mar 08, Cathy Yum rated it really liked it.
This is probably the first physics book I've read outside of college. Really fascinating - as it unravels all the history and job prospects basically none for really intelligent physicists when they talk about topics "not approved" by academia. Mostly anything to do with spirituality; "supernatural" abilities; ESP - that sort of thing. The day before I read this book, I met someone who studied at Esalen and I had no idea what he was talking about - this book explained another special clique of people in the Bay Area; this one intellectualizes while hot tubbing naked out in Big Sur!
The author also sprinkles technical, yet digestible, summaries of the major physics ideas as history unfolds. May 16, Bob Gustafson rated it liked it. This is a strange book. It's about the Fundamental Fysics Group, a collection of mostly unemployed Bay Area physicists with an interest in quantum mechanics, who met periodically to talk about physics and other things during the 's. Then he tells the story of the Fundamental Fysics Group, k This is a strange book. Then he tells the story of the Fundamental Fysics Group, kind of like a sports writer telling about the Big Red Machine and rarely mentioning a ball game or a play or what a player had accomplished.
So I finished reading the book and thought "OK, what will I read next? Dec 07, Camille rated it it was amazing. This is a really informative yet entertaining look at the revival of Quantum Theory and everything that it implies, in the 's. It starts slow in the very beginning, yet picks up the pace and was an incredible read.
Mar 13, Elizabeth rated it really liked it Shelves: In my physics classes we don't talk a lot about the history of modern physics or the people involved. Jan 31, Rick L Newman rated it really liked it. Fun and educational book on the strange possibilitys of Quantum Connectedness. Jul 31, Michael rated it it was ok.
In a word, ug. Honestly, I was disappointed with the lack of physics. This is not a book about physics, but a book about how the nature of philosophical questions about physics was preserved by the Fundamental Fysics Group FFG , a group of disaffected from the mainstream physicists who tried their damne In a word, ug. All of this would be fine, though, if there was nothing destructive about groups like the FFG, but there is an opportunity cost when time, energy, and money are spent on non-serious science.
The same resources spent on better elaborated approaches might actually yield a better understanding of consciousness and physics. It is axiomatic that there is a link between the two, but real science has to come into play, and while all data is crucial psychedelics certainly does show that matter can affect mind , there was more going on in the mainstream than the author attests. I think that was the part of the book that was most erroneous, the idea that we needed the FFG to save physics.
It is above both, because important questions about the nature of the world and how it applies to the mind are eternal. Ok, one more thing that absolutely bugged me was the assumption that inviting a group of people together implies that they all form some type of community. This is a constant them of the book: Einstein and Bohr argued with each other and had a long correspondence - that was real.
People can associate with each other and just be polite. Does that mean I agree? These were as long as many book reviews on Goodreads. It really seemed when I read it like typical Western arrogance. Also there is no physics sorry, I said that. I really feel like I understand their goals which were not physics but proving parapsychology to be true using physics.
Mar 19, Ben rated it really liked it. A fun read, but so many different people to keep track of it made understanding exactly who did what kind of confusing. Jul 21, Nicholas rated it really liked it.
How the Hippies Saved Physics is a fantastically kooky and zany history of the fringes of physics research in the s and s. The premise is certainly intriguing. Kaiser argues that the Second World War and the Cold War had relegated physics in America to number crunching and practical applications of theory mainly in the defense industry and that all previous notions of fundamental questions all but dried up.
The timing couldn't have been less fortunate, as the war followed close on the How the Hippies Saved Physics is a fantastically kooky and zany history of the fringes of physics research in the s and s. The timing couldn't have been less fortunate, as the war followed close on the heels of the heady days of the major physical discoveries that led to the formulation of quantum mechanics as a whole by luminaries such as Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and Schrodinger in the s and s. This was a time when great philosophical questions concerning the nature of reality should have been asked, but the academic institutions of American were mainly concerned with churning out PhDs to compete with the Soviets.
In short, if you weren't doing something practical in physics like producing better nuclear weapons or radar invisible materials, you weren't doing real physics. According to Kaiser, a select group of Hippy physicists centered in Berkeley called the Fundamental Fysiks Group provided a venue for physicists interested in fundamental questions to keep the burning questions at the heart of physics alive for a future, post-Cold War era. Mainly, these physicists in their study of things like ESP and other elements of parapsychology and the connections between quantum mechanics particularly the issue of nonlocality were wrong more often than they were right.
Their importance lay in the fact that they kept the torch burning for the pursuit of fundamental questions, and, Kaiser notes, their highly public mistakes and deviations paved the way for more mainstream thinkers to make advances in the field of physics - particularly in subfields like laser technology and quantum encryption and computing. All in all, Kaiser has done his homework on the historical and scientific sides. More importantly, he can write!
The story unfolds interestingly enough and he brings a touch of elliptical structure to the narrative that gives just enough ambiguity in the beginning for you to wonder, "How the heck are these flower-power-mystically-oriented 'physicists' going to actually contribute to cutting age science and technology coming into maturity today? It's an intriguing and unlikely story presented from an innovative angle. Mainstream physics was surely undergoing huge changes, particularly in particle physics and in the development of esoteric theories of everything like String Theory quite independent of the New Left movement.
Brilliant minds like John Wheeler, Richard Feynman, Freeman Dyson, Ed Witten and Leonard Susskind were revolutionizing the field in America while maintaining quite a bit of distance from the core group of Hippies and their benefactors identified by Kaiser. Nor were the crew of the Fundamental Fysiks Group the only ones asking foundational questions about how to interpret quantum mechanics.
While the Copenhagen Interpretation had its foundation in the s and 30s, other interpretations and QM formalisms were still being developed - and in America nonetheless Hugh Everett's Many Worlds Interpretation developed in the late 50s and popularized by Bryce DeWitt in the 60s and 70s being one of the most popular. This reinterpretation most certainly did not come out of the Hippy movement and does show that there were people out there interested in the big philosophical questions surrounding the New Physics.
Nevertheless, it's a fun story and the bulk of Kaiser's argument is almost certainly correct. Plus, I don't think there's a work quite like it out there and if you're a child of the era or a fan of popular science in general, you'll be highly pleased with this book. Oct 24, Erin rated it really liked it Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Don't read this book unless you like the genres of history and biography in addition to Physics. Also, don't be fooled by the catchy title because in the end, I don't think Kaiser proved that the Hippies actually saved physics.
However, if you love history this book gives a great account of the personalities in modern Physics from Einstein to Bell to Hawking and everyone in between - with particular attention given to the some of the quirkier personalities who dabbled in or bankrolled physics. The writing style of this author is voluminous and detailed.
Many people thought that book was too long and they just couldn't get through it. When I read Mullis' book and he recounted visiting astral planes and almost overdosing on nitrous oxide I was fascinated about what would drive him to do that. This book explains in detail the juices that many of the great minds of our time were marinating in The little trivia bits were great. He details how Werner Earnhardt the creator of the self-help classes got caught in the middle of a pissing match between physicists and came out with a sullied reputation just because he funded symposiums. He recounts how on the historic day in when Columbia University was shut down due to riots the guy in the physics lab was inspired with an idea that became the kernel of for quantum encryption.
Most whacky though was the guy in Philly who called himself "The Unicorn" who both created the first List Serve in conjunction with Bell the telephone one, not the physicist while also hiding the body of his dead girlfriend in a trunk in his home. Throughout the book he discusses the developments of quantum theory and the lives of the physicists. I guess the reason why I gave this book 4 stars is because I am fascinated how physics evolved during the 20th Century.
Wars happen - and during those times the physicists are absorbed into the military-industrial complex and are told to "shut up and compute". They work in secret and are carefully monitored by the military brass, CIA, etc. Peacetime comes, budgets are cut and these same geniuses sometimes go on welfare or have to pander themselves just to eat.