How The Hippies Saved Physics, Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival by David Kaiser

How The Hippies Saved Physics, Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival by David Kaiser

David Kaiser is a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology.  This book is a history of science book.  It is also a popular science book. The book describes how quantum physics which many considered to be fringe science became accepted science.  It is a very strange, eccentric, and interesting story.


The book focuses on a group called the Fundamental Fysiks Group which held sessions at the University of California Berkeley.  Berkeley California is known for its eccentricity and counterculture.  The Fundamental Fysiks Group was instrumental in making quantum mechanics acceptable science.

The cast of characters in this book is very different; Jack Sarfatti, Paul Sirag, and Nick Herbert are the central people covered.  There is also quite a bit in the early chapters on Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einstein, and Erwin Schrodinger.  There are also numerous scientists spread throughout the book including Richard Feynman and Fritjof Capra who wrote The Dancing Wu Li Masters.

The story is very eccentric and outright strange to the point where it is funny.  There are very surprising sources of funding for the experiments which helped establish quantum physics.  There is the Esalen institute a New Age retreat in California, Werner Erhard and Est who were part of the human potential movement,  Henry Dakin the philanthropist and supporter of paranormal research, and the CIA with its remote viewing experiments.

The experiments themselves are very interesting to read about. They prove things like quantum encryption, nonlocality, and entanglement.  Some experiments do not succeed like faster than light communication.

This is a fascinating history about a very unusual topic which most people have a difficult time understanding.  It shows a process where fringe science is made into accepted science.

The book is very easy to read.  It mostly focuses on the people behind the story, not the physics.  The writing is very clear. There is an index, extensive notes, and bibliography.  There are numerous black and white photographs and easy to understand diagrams.  I found it to be a delightful book to read.

Daily Thoughts 7/4/2011

Aristotle depicted by Raphael, holding his Ethics: detail from the Vatican fresco The School of Athens, 1510 – 1511


Daily Thoughts 7/4/2011


I relaxed yesterday.  Today I finished reading How Hippies Saved Physics. It was an enjoyable, but odd book. The last few chapters I read were about experiments in quantum physics and faster than light communication as well as a bit on quantum cryptography which supposedly makes messages undecipherable without special codes.  There is an end chapter about how counterculture affects science.  David Kaiser reminds us that the computer revolution was at least partially fueled by the Whole Earth Catalog.


I started reading the second article in On Strategy.  It is The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy, another article by Michael Porter who write extensively on competitition.


I spent quite a bit of time reading this weekend.


Web Bits


Publishers and the Internet A Changing Role
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2011/jun/30/publishers-internet-changing-role


Radical Changes: As We Reinvent Ourselves, are We Losing Our Leaders? by Margaret Tice
http://www.schoollibraryjournal.com/slj/home/891010-312/radical_change_as_public_libraries.html.csp

Daily Thoughts 7/2/2011

Gary Zukav author of The Dancing Wu Li Masters, An Overview of the New Physics, Taken 24 December 2009 by Christopher Briscoe

Daily Thoughts 7/2/2011

I have been reading more of How The Hippies Saved Physics.  The book cites many popular science titles like The Dancing Wu Li Masters by Gary Zukav, and The Tao of Physics by Fritzjof Capra.  Popular physics titles often popularize ideas that are on the fringes of science.

In a more modern sense Michio Kaku writes popular science books which include many new ideas from science. Also Stephen Hawking writes some excellent popular science titles.  These kind of titles bring new ideas to the majority often without the filter of the scientific community.

I enjoy reading these kinds of titles.  There many references to books that I would like to read in How the Hippies Saved Physics.  For example, I placed the book, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn on hold.

I read a little bit from the book On Strategy. The first article from the Harvard Business Review is What Is Strategy by Michael Porter who has written extensively on the concept of competitive intelligence.

Web Bits

Council, Bloomberg Keep New York City Library Funding Nearly Flat
http://www.libraryjournal.com/lj/home/891175-264/council_bloomberg_keep_new_york.html.csp

Cory Doctorow-- No Endorsement --An article on 3D printed objects. 
http://www.locusmag.com/Perspectives/2011/07/cory-doctorow-no-endorsement/

This points the way to some very interesting ideas.  I can see the book changing to include print on demand objects like metal bookmarks, clasps for hardcovers, and other book related objects. 

Daily Thoughts 7/1/2011

Marshall, Henrietta Elizabeth (1908). Stories of Beowulf. black and white illustration of a mother and son reading a book on a chair.

Daily Thoughts 7/1/2011

I read some more of How The Hippies Saved Physics this morning.  The author is writing about the idea of the observer effect in physics. 


Library Journal sent me some Advanced Reading Copies of books; Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, A Sound Among the Trees A Novel by Susan Meissner, The Double Life of Alred Buber by David Schmahmann which has an interesting cover, The Language of Flowers by Vanessa Diffenbaugh which is coming out in September, Child Wonder a novel by Roy Jacobsen told from a child's perspective, The Harvest of Grace by Cindy Smallwood  which has an Amish element to it, and The Crossing A Novel by Serita Jakes.  I think I am going to read Ready Player One by Ernest Cline, it seems to have that bits versus atoms thinking which is starting to crop up among the digerati.  Also, Child Wonder looks quite interesting.

Today, I worked on writing a number of flyers for events including a wills workshop and a workshop on mortgage law.  As always, I checked the Twitter account and the displays and looked over the book sale.

I also checked out the book, HBR's 10 Must Reads On Strategy which is published by the Harvard Business Review.

How The Hippies Saved Physics is become more interesting as I read it.  It is describing how the Fundamental Fysiks Group got funded and tied in with new age and eccentric groups and places like Esalen, Werner Erhard,  and Henry Dakin.  There is a touch of spoon bending with Uri Geller, psi, fringe science, and pseudoscience thrown in to make it even more fascinating.  We get descriptions of quantum physics in relation to remote viewing, underground newspapers from the 1970s, and makeshift laboratories.  The list of ecceentric physicists is interesting including Richard Feynman, Fred Alan Wolf, and Jack Sarfatti.  At points it makes me laugh and smile because at the same time as it is very serious, it touches on the outlandish.  There are points where icons of counterculture get woven into the story like Ram Dass and Ira Einhorn. It is a great read, especilly if you are interested in how fringe science becomes accepted or counterculture.

Web Bits

Crowdfunding: When the Publisher Doesn’t Cover the Creator’s Expenses
By Todd Allen

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/comics/article/47781-crowdfunding-when-the-publisher-doesn--t-cover-the-creator--s-expenses.html%20%20

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2011

Albert Einstein

Daily Thoughts 6/30/2011

Last night I read some of How the Hippies Saved Physics.  The book is a popular treatise that focuses on the philosophy of science.  Quantum physics has a lot of strange qualities which can be interpreted in very unusual ways.  The author spends some time focusing on the Fundamental Fysiks Group at University of California Berkeley which was a group founded in the 1970s.  Right now, I am reading about the early creators of quantum physics, Niels Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, Albert Einsteen, and Erwin Schrodinger.

There is a book on mashups called Remixthebook by Mark Amerika coming out in September.  I spent a little time reading the latest Publishers Weekly.

I also spent some time going over the ordering pattern this afternoon as well as checked through the gift books for books to add.  There were a number of donated books like Don Quixote by Cervantes and Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens which were assigned for the schools.  This is the thing which is easiest to find among donated items.

I checked the displays in the morning and udpated the Twitter account.  Our website came back up which was a relief.  I also sent in the monthly statistics for programs.

Things went fairly smoothly today.

On the way home, I read some more of How The Hippies Saved Physics.  The author is writing about John S. Bell who describes spooky action at a distance in physics. It is hard to describe or even understand Bell's Theorem.

Web Bits

Why It's Important for Communities to Have Bookstores
http://marketplace.publicradio.org/display/web/2011/06/27/pm-why-its-important-for-communities-to-have-bookstores/