74 Wojciech Zurek, email to the author, March 9, 2008; see also Zurek (1983).
75 Zurek research notebook, entries for March 17 and 29, 1982, in WHZ.
76 See Georges Lochak and Simon Diner (Perugia conference organizers) to Wojciech Zurek, October 22, 1981; and Zurek to Lochak and Diner, November 10, 1981, in JAW, series II, folder “Zurek, Wojciech.”
77 Nick Herbert, email to the author, February 25, 2009.
78 Selleri (1984), 101–28, esp. 119; and Gozzini (1984), esp. 129, 137.
79 Scarani, Iblisdir, and Gisin (2005), 1228n5 (attributed to Gisin).
80 In addition to the published papers by Selleri and Gozzini in the conference proceedings, see also Tarozzi (1984); and Srinivas (1984), esp. 375nn18–20.
81 Wojciech Zurek research notebook, entry for April 27, 1982, in WHZ.
82 Wojciech Zurek, email to the author, March 9, 2008.
83 Zurek, email to the author, March 9, 2008. See also Misner, Thorne, and Zurek (2009), 46.
84 Wootters and Zurek (1982), 802, 803. For accessible introductions to the no-cloning theorem, see Buzek and Hillery (2001) and Wootters and Zurek (2009).
85 Dennis Dieks, email to the author, April 8, 2008; and Roger Cooke, email to the author, April 9, 2008.
86 Dieks, email to the author, April 8, 2008, and Dieks (1982), 271.
87 Dieks, “Communication by EPR devices” (1982), 272n2.
88 Dieks, email to the author, April 8, 2008. Most physics journals at the time (as now) used a “single-blind” reviewing system: referees were told the names of authors who had written the submissions under consideration, but identities of referees were not revealed to the authors.
89 Ghirardi, letter to the author, January 22, 2009.
90 GianCarlo Ghirardi and Tullio Weber to Alwyn van der Merwe, April 22, 1983, in GCG.
91 Alwyn van der Merwe to GianCarlo Ghirardi and Tullio Weber, June 24, 1983, in GCG.
92 Wojciech Zurek, email to the author, September 16, 2007.
93 Van der Merwe to Ghirardi and Weber, June 24, 1983, in GCG. See also Alwyn van der Merwe, unpublished memo, March 7, 2002, in GCG; and van der Merwe, email to the author, February 26, 2009.
94 Van der Merwe to Ghirardi and Weber, June 24, 1983, in GCG.
95 Ghirardi, letter to the author, January 22, 2009; and Ghirardi, email to the author, January 23, 2009.
96 Rudolf Peierls to Adriano Gozzini, June 26, 1983, in GCG; see also Adriano Gozzini to GianCarlo Ghirardi, June 28, 1983, in GCG.
97 Ghirardi and Weber (1983).
98 For an accessible introduction, see Singh (1999). In fact, RSA encryption had been invented in secret—appropriately enough—a few years earlier by Clifford Cocks, a mathematician working for the British Government Communications Headquarters, a continuation of the wartime organization that had tackled the Enigma code. Cocks’s work remained classified until 1997. See Singh (1999), 279–92. See also MacKenzie (2001), chap. 5.
99 See, e.g., Brassard (1988), chap. 4. In one standard scenario, users A and B share, in public, two large positive integers, n and g (with g < n). User A then selects a secret number, x, and calculates X = gx mod n, where “mod” means keeping the remainder after X has been divided by n. (For example, 34 mod 5 = 1: 34 = 81, and 81 can be divided evenly by 5 sixteen times, leaving a remainder of 1.) Meanwhile, user B selects her own secret number, y, and calculates Y = gy mod n. Next users A and B exchange X and Y in public, while keeping x and y to themselves. User A can then calculate Yx mod n = gxy mod n. Likewise, B can calculate Xy mod n = gxy mod n. By sharing only some of their large numbers, they have arrived at identical values with which to construct a secret encryption key.
100 Singh (1999), chap. 6. See also Brassard (1988).
101 MIT News Office (1994).
102 Stephen Wiesner, emails to the author, March 10 and 11, 2009.
103 Charles Bennett, email to the author, February 25, 2009.
104 Wiesner, email to the author, March 11, 2009; and Clauser interview (2009).
105 Wiesner, email to the author, March 10, 2009. On the Columbia protests, see Avorn et al. (1969) and Matusow (1984), 331–35.
106 Wiesner (1983), 85. On Wiesner’s “quantum money” scheme, see also Singh (1999), 334–37.
107 Stephen Wiesner, email to the author, March 10, 2009.
108 Nearly fifteen years later, Wiesner’s paper was published in the newsletter of the “Special Interest Group on Algorithms and Computation Theory” (SIGACT) of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM): Wiesner (1983).
109 Wiesner, email to the author, March 10, 2009; and Clauser interview (2009).
110 Nick Herbert, email to the author, March 11, 2009.
111 Charles Bennett, email to the author, February 25, 2009. See also Singh (1999), 338, 339.
112 Bennett, Brassard, Breidbart, and Wiesner (1983).
113 See John A. Wheeler to Mirdza Berzins Anderson, April 10, 1985, in JAW, series II, folder “Bennett, Charles H.”
114 Bennett, email to the author, February 25, 2009.
115 Bennett and Brassard (1984).
116 Bennett and Brassard (1984), 175.
117 Ekert (1991). In Ekert’s protocol, experimenters A and B announce the detector settings they had used for each run after all of their measurements are complete. For all those cases in which their detector settings happened not to match, they check to make sure that Bell’s inequality was violated—that is, they redo John Clauser’s old Berkeley experiment, to confirm that the quantum states had been unperturbed between source and detectors. With that security check complete, the experimenters can then focus attention, as in the original BB84 protocol, on those cases for which the detector settings did happen to match.
118 Hiskett et al. (2006); see also Nikbin (2006).
119 Schmitt-Manderbach et al. (2007).
120 On DARPA funding, see Oullette (2004/2005), 22–25. On Los Alamos’s group, see http://www.lanl.gov/science/centers/quantum/index.shtml; on the program at NIST, see http://qubit.nist.gov; and on comparable worldwide collaborations, see http://www.quantiki.org (all accessed July 29, 2009).
121 Private firms include idQuantique in Geneva (http://idquantique.com), MagiQ Technologies in New York (http://magiqtech.com), Quintessence Labs in Australia (http://www.quintessencelabs.com), and SmartQuantum in France (http://www.smartquantum.com). Major corporations with active research groups in quantum encryption include IBM (http://www.almaden.ibm.com/st), Hewlett-Packard (http://www.hpl.hp.com/research/qip), Toshiba (http://www.toshiba-europe.com/research), and Mitsubishi and NEC (http://global.mitsubishielectric.com/news/news_releases/
2006/mel0655.pdf); all accessed July 29, 2009.
122 Stix (2005), Nikbin (2006), Biever (2004), Kanellos (2004), Hesseldahl (2006), Pease (2008), and Naik (2009).
123 Jack Sarfatti, “The future machine,” unpublished memo, February 7, 1983, on 10; copy in JAW, Sarfatti folders.
124 Van der Merwe to Ghirardi and Weber, June 24, 1983, in GCG.
125 Milonni and Hardies (1982), 321, 322, esp. n4 (Peter Milonni was at the Perugia conference); Mandel (1983), 188; and Glauber (1986), esp. 338, 339, 362–366. For a useful overview of these calculations, see also Chyba and Abraham (1985). Mandel presented similar work in Friberg and Mandel, “Photon statistics of the linear amplifier,” paper presented at the Fifth Rochester Conference on Coherence and Quantum Optics, June 13–15, 1983; bound abstracts from the conference available in JFC. John Clauser was the chair of the session in which Mandel spoke, and recalls that Mandel told him there that he had undertaken the research because of Herbert’s FLASH paper: Clauser interview (2009).
126 Herbert, “Fourth Esalen seminar on the nature of reality: Brief impressions,” February 1, 1983, on 3; and “Esalen reality seminar 1985,” n.d., on 1; both in NH. See also Herbert (1986), 578 and (1988), 176, 177.
127 Charles Bennett, email to the author, February 25, 2009.
128 See esp. Kuhn (1959), Ord-Hume (1977
), Gardner (1991), Schaffer (1995), and Smith (1998).
129 Glauber (1986), 336. See also Herbert (1988), 177, 178.
130 Popescu and Rohrlich (1998), 45; Jozsa (1998), 64. See also Spiller (1998), 5; Nielsen and Chuang (2000), 56, 57; and Jaeger (2007), 153–57.
131 Based on data in Science Citation Index (1961–).
132 De Angelis, Nagali, Sciarrino, and De Martini (2007). In the preprint version (arXiv: 0705.1898v2 [quant-ph]), they thank both Zurek and Ghirardi; available at http://arxiv.org/abs/0705.1898 (accessed July 31, 2009). See also GianCarlo Ghirardi, letter to the author, January 22, 2009. The Italian team conducted the test in order to contribute to “a deeper, more complete understanding of the quantum cloning process and of the distribution of quantum information among the generated [imperfect] clones” (De Angelis et al. [2007], 193601-1).
133 Barbara Honegger, “Summary: Big Sur realism conference, Esalen 1985,” in NH.
Chapter 10: The Roads from Berkeley
Epigraph. My thanks to George Weissmann for providing videotapes of the Fundamental Fysiks Group reunion, November 18, 2000, San Francisco, from which these remarks were transcribed.
1 Rauscher interview (2008); Weissmann interview (2009); Elizabeth Rauscher, remarks transcribed from videotape of the Fundamental Fysiks Group reunion, November 18, 2000, San Francisco.
2 Jack Sarfatti to Saul-Paul Sirag, January 30, 1980, in JAW, Sarfatti folders.
3 Nick Herbert, email to the author, June 2, 2008. On the Consciousness Theory Group, see also Saul-Paul Sirag, email to the author, March 3, 2010.
4 Jack Sarfatti, “Psi wars!” personal ad, The Daily Californian (May 18, 1982): 12 (“duel of wits”). See also Sarfatti, “For the record,” memorandum, November 3, 1980, in JAW, Sarfatti folders; and “Higher Intelligence Agency, Physical Science Institute,” memorandum June 28, 1982, in JAW, Sarfatti folders.
5 Carroll (1981), 23.
6 Jack Sarfatti to John Wheeler, November 21, 1980, in JAW, Sarfatti folders.
7 Beers (1986). See also Chickering interview (2009).
8 A. Lawrence Chickering to Richard D. DeLauer, March 12, 1982, in JAW, Sarfatti folders.
9 Chickering to DeLauer, March 12, 1982.
10 Jack Sarfatti to Reagan Administration, “Request for funds,” November 9, 1981, in JAW, Sarfatti folders.
11 Chickering to DeLauer, March 12, 1982. Such requests are relatively common in the world of Pentagon discretionary spending, which rarely (if ever) needs to pass through peer review. One sociologist has likened this funding approach to Pascal’s wager, named for the seventeenth-century philosopher Blaise Pascal. Pascal reasoned that it is better to believe in God than not to, even if the likelihood of God’s existence seems slim, because the cost of faith is small and the price of being wrong much higher. See Collins (2004), 338–44. Cf. Weinberger (2006).
12 Richard D. DeLauer to A. Lawrence Chickering, March 29, 1982, in JAW, Sarfatti folders; Domenic A. Maio (colonel, U.S. Air Force, and military assistant to Defense Undersecretary for Research and Engineering) to A. Lawrence Chickering, July 12, 1984, reprinted in Sarfatti (2002a), 151; and Jack Sarfatti to John Wheeler, February 8, 1982, describing the reaction of Assistant Secretary of Defense Frank Carlucci, in JAW, Sarfatti folders. On the JASON group, see Finkbeiner (2006).
13 Chickering interview (2009); and Mrs. Evan G. (“Bootsie”) Galbraith to Jack Sarfatti, May 7, 1982, reprinted in Sarfatti (2002a), 152, 153.
14 Jack Sarfatti to Alwyn van der Merwe, November 9, 1981, in JAW, Sarfatti folders; emphasis in original.
15 Jack Sarfatti, “Summary of the book: Faster-than-Light,” July 1, 1982, in JAW, Sarfatti folders. See also, e.g., Jack Sarfatti, “For the public record,” November 3, 1980; Sarfatti to John Wheeler, February 25, 1982; and Sarfatti, “The Future Machine,” February 7, 1983, all in JAW, Sarfatti folders; and Sarfatti (2002a).
16 Sarfatti (1986). See also Sarfatti (1987), 118–20. Sarfatti’s idea was to use quantum entanglement to create coherent beams of W bosons, the carriers of the weak nuclear force. The W bosons, in turn, could stimulate neutrons inside the enemy warheads to undergo radioactive decay into protons, changing the nuclear composition of the weapons. Ordinarily W bosons decay after traveling only fractions of a millimeter. Sarfatti thought he could cook up a stable beam by exploiting entanglement.
17 The architect Lee Porter Butler, chair of Ekose’a, Inc., gave Sarfatti a modest grant in 1980, which quickly ran out; see Jack Sarfatti, “Basic research from the Galois Institute of Mathematical Physics,” May 16, 1980, in JAW, Sarfatti folders. In the 1990s, computer scientist and entrepreneur Joe Firmage established the International Space Sciences Organization (ISSO) in San Francisco, which supported Sarfatti’s work for several years: Sarfatti interview (2009). See also Butler (1980) and Sarfatti (2002b), 121.
18 Sarfatti interview (2009). For more on Sarfatti’s work on “metric engineering”—ways one might control the metric of space-time for purposes of interstellar travel—see his recent books: Sarfatti (2002a, b).
19 Jack Sarfatti, email to the author, July 16, 2010.
20 Saul-Paul Sirag, email to the author, March 3, 2010. See also Nick Herbert’s annual reports on the Esalen workshops, ca. 1979–1988, in NH.
21 Sirag, email to the author, March 3, 2010. See also Kripal (2007), 302.
22 Sirag, email to the author, March 3, 2010. See also Sirag (1977c, 1979, 1983, 1982, 1989). Sirag expanded upon his ideas in a long appendix to the second edition of Jeffrey Mishlove’s book The Roots of Consciousness, which replaced Jack Sarfatti’s appendix in the first edition: Sirag (1993). Sirag also gave updates on his research each year at the Esalen workshops, as described in Nick Herbert’s annual reports in NH.
23 Sirag, email to the author, March 3, 2010; and Sirag (2002).
24 Johnson (1988), 27. Capra maintains a list of editions of his various books on his website: http://www.fritjofcapra.net/publishers.html (accessed March 11, 2010).
25 Fritjof Capra, email to the author, March 18, 2010; and Capra (1982); on other editions, see http://www.fritjofcapra.net/publishers.html (accessed March 11, 2010).
26 Johnson (1988); and Romero (2006), C16. See also Kyle (1995), 88, 94, 95.
27 On Mindwalk, see Canby (1992), C22.
28 Capra with Spretnak and Lutz (1984); Capra (1988, 1996, 2002, 2007); and Capra with Steindl-Rast and Matus (1991). On the Center for Ecoliteracy, see http://www.ecoliteracy.org (accessed March 11, 2010). See also Anon. (2002/2003); Pisani (2007); and Fritjof Capra’s remarks videotaped at the Fundamental Fysiks Group reunion, November 18, 2000, San Francisco.
29 Wolf interview (2009).
30 Wolf interview (2009); Cassutt (1980), 50–52. My thanks to John Zipperman for providing a copy of the Future Life article. See also Huerta (1979), I10 (on Wolf’s and Leary’s performances). For more on Leary’s lectures that summer, see Sullivan (1979), F1.
31 Wolf interview (2009) and Wolf (1981).
32 My thanks to Dr. Wolf for providing a copy of his appearance on the Seattle Today show from spring 1981, originally broadcast on KING-TV, an NBC affiliate. See also Cassutt (1980), 52 (“youniverse”).
33 Wolfe (1976a), reprinted in Wolfe (1976b), 126–67.
34 Wolf interview (2009); Fred Alan Wolf, email to the author, April 10, 2008; and McDowell (1982a), C18 and (1982b), C9.
35 Wolf interview (2009); Toben with Wolf (1982); Wolf, (1984, 1985, 1986, 1988).
36 Wolf (1991, 1994, 1996, 2001, 2004, 2005).
37 Overbye (2006), F3; Fred Alan Wolf, email to the author, March 13, 2010. The cartoons can be found by searching for “Dr. Quantum” at http://www.youtube.com (accessed March 13, 2010).
38 Nick Herbert, emails to the author, November 28, 2007, May 4, 2009, July 15, 2009, and July 16, 2009; and Herbert (1985). The literary agent with whom Herbert began to work was John Brockman, who also served as Fritjof Capra’s agent beginning with Capra’s Turning Point (1982); Brockman also began representing Fred
Alan Wolf in the late 1980s. They had all crossed paths at the Esalen workshops in the late 1970s, where Brockman would sometimes go to scout out promising new topics or talent. (Nick Herbert, email to the author, April 14, 2009; Fritjof Capra, email to the author, March 18, 2010; and Wolf interview [2009].) I worked with Brockman’s agency while preparing this book, though not with John Brockman himself.
39 Herbert (1985), 17, 18, 21, 24, 52, 162, 170, 174, 181, 182, 219–26, 239–41, 257.
40 Lehmann-Haupt (1985), C13.
41 Stein (1987), 478, 479. The first textbook to treat Bell’s theorem appeared in the same year as Herbert’s Quantum Reality: Sakurai (1985), on 223, 232, a book aimed at advanced graduate students. See also Ballentine (1987), 787. During the mid-1990s, Herbert’s Quantum Reality was assigned in the course Physics 121 at Harvard University (“History and philosophy of physics”), taught by Professor Peter Galison, which was aimed at physics majors; I served as a teaching assistant.
How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival Page 40
