The Fundamental Fysiks Group was founded in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17th ...
in May 1975 by two physicists,
Elizabeth Rauscher and George Weissmann, at the time both graduate students at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...
. The group held informal discussions on Friday afternoons to explore the philosophical implications of
quantum theory. Leading members included
Fritjof Capra
Fritjof Capra (born February 1, 1939) is an Austrian-born American physicist, systems theorist and deep ecologist. In 1995, he became a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. He is on the faculty of Schumacher ...
,
John Clauser
John Francis Clauser (; born December 1, 1942) is an American theoretical and experimental physicist known for contributions to the foundations of quantum mechanics, in particular the Clauser–Horne–Shimony–Holt inequality.
Clauser was a ...
, Philippe Eberhard,
Nick Herbert,
Jack Sarfatti
Jack Sarfatti (born September 14, 1939) is an American theoretical physicist. Working largely outside academia, most of Sarfatti's publications revolve around quantum physics and consciousness.
Sarfatti was a leading member of the Fundamenta ...
, Saul-Paul Sirag,
Henry Stapp, and
Fred Alan Wolf
Fred Alan Wolf (born December 3, 1934) is an American theoretical physicist specializing in quantum physics and the relationship between physics and consciousness. He is a former physics professor at San Diego State University, and has helped to p ...
.
David Kaiser argues, in ''How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival'' (2011), that the group's meetings and papers helped to nurture the ideas in quantum physics that came to form the basis of
quantum information science
Quantum information science is an interdisciplinary field that seeks to understand the analysis, processing, and transmission of information using quantum mechanics principles. It combines the study of Information science with quantum effects in ...
. Two reviewers wrote that Kaiser may have exaggerated the group's influence on the future of physics research, though one of them,
Silvan Schweber, wrote that some of the group's contributions are easy to identify, such as Clauser's experimental evidence for non-locality attracting a share of the
Wolf Prize
The Wolf Prize is an international award granted in Israel, that has been presented most years since 1978 to living scientists and artists for ''"achievements in the interest of mankind and friendly relations among people ... irrespective of nati ...
in 2010, and the publication of Capra's ''
The Tao of Physics
''The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism'' is a 1975 book by physicist Fritjof Capra. A bestseller in the United States, it has been translated into 23 languages. Capra summarized his mot ...
'' (1975) and
Gary Zukav
Gary Zukav (born October 17, 1942) is an American spiritual teacher and the author of four consecutive New York Times Best Sellers. Beginning in 1998, he appeared more than 30 times on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' to discuss transformation in hum ...
's ''
The Dancing Wu Li Masters
''The Dancing Wu Li Masters'' is a 1979 book by Gary Zukav, a popular science work exploring modern physics, and quantum phenomena in particular. It was awarded a 1980 U.S. National Book Award in category of Science. '' (1979) attracting the interest of a wider audience.
Kaiser writes that the group were "very smart and very playful", discussing
quantum mysticism
Quantum mysticism, sometimes referred pejoratively to as quantum quackery or quantum woo, is a set of metaphysical beliefs and associated practices that seek to relate consciousness, intelligence, spirituality, or mystical worldviews to the ideas ...
and becoming local celebrities in the Bay Area's counterculture. When
Francis Ford Coppola
Francis Ford Coppola (; ; born April 7, 1939) is an American film director, producer, and screenwriter. He is considered one of the major figures of the New Hollywood filmmaking movement of the 1960s and 1970s. Coppola is the recipient of five A ...
bought ''City Magazine'' in 1975, one of its earliest features was on the Fundamental Fysiks Group, including a photo spread of Sirag, Wolf, Herbert, and Sarfatti.
Research
Bell's theorem and no-cloning theorem
Hugh Gusterson
Hugh Gusterson is an anthropologist at the University of British Columbia and George Washington University. His work focuses on nuclear culture, international security and the anthropology of science. His articles have appeared in the LA Time ...
writes that several challenging ideas lie at the heart of quantum physics: that electrons behave like waves and particles; that you can know a particle's location or momentum, but not both; that observing a particle changes its behavior; and that particles appear to communicate with each other across great distances, known as
nonlocality and
quantum entanglement
Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of ...
. It is these concepts that led to the development of quantum information science and
quantum encryption
Quantum key distribution (QKD) is a secure communication method which implements a cryptographic protocol involving components of quantum mechanics. It enables two parties to produce a shared random secret key known only to them, which can then b ...
, which has been experimentally used, for example, to transfer money and electronic votes. Kaiser argues that the Fundamental Fysiks Group saved physics by exploring these ideas, in three ways:
Specifically, in 1981, Nick Herbert, a member of the group, proposed a scheme for sending signals faster than the
speed of light
The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant that is important in many areas of physics. The speed of light is exactly equal to ). According to the special theory of relativity, is the upper limit ...
using
quantum entanglement
Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of ...
.
Quantum computing
Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...
pioneer
Asher Peres
Asher Peres ( he, אשר פרס; January 30, 1934 – January 1, 2005) was an Israeli physicist. He is well known for his work relating quantum mechanics and information theory. He helped to develop the Peres–Horodecki criterion for quantum en ...
writes that the refutation of Herbert's ideas led to the development of the no-cloning theorem by
William Wootters
William "Bill" Kent Wootters () is an American theoretical physicist, and one of the founders of the field of quantum information theory. In a 1982 joint paper with Wojciech H. Zurek, Wootters proved the no cloning theorem, at the same time as Den ...
,
Wojciech Zurek
Wojciech Hubert Zurek ( pl, Żurek; born 1951) is a theoretical physicist and a leading authority on quantum theory, especially decoherence and non-equilibrium dynamics of symmetry breaking and resulting defect generation (known as the Kibble–Zu ...
, and Dennis Dieks.
In a review of Kaiser's book in ''
Physics Today
''Physics Today'' is the membership magazine of the American Institute of Physics. First published in May 1948, it is issued on a monthly schedule, and is provided to the members of ten physics societies, including the American Physical Society. I ...
'', Silvan Schweber challenges Kaiser's views of the importance of the Fundamental Fysiks Group. He writes that Bell's Theorem was not obscure during the preceding decade, but was worked on by authors such as John Clauser (who was a member of the group) and
Eugene Wigner
Eugene Paul "E. P." Wigner ( hu, Wigner Jenő Pál, ; November 17, 1902 – January 1, 1995) was a Hungarian-American theoretical physicist who also contributed to mathematical physics. He received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1963 "for his con ...
. Schweber also mentioned the work of
Alain Aspect
Alain Aspect (; born 15 June 1947) is a French physicist noted for his experimental work on quantum entanglement.
Aspect was awarded the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, jointly with John Clauser and Anton Zeilinger, "for experiments with entangle ...
, which preceded Nick Herbert's 1981 proposal.
Remote viewing
Given quantum theory's perceived implications for the study of
parapsychology
Parapsychology is the study of alleged psychic phenomena (extrasensory perception, telepathy, precognition, clairvoyance, psychokinesis (also called telekinesis), and psychometry) and other paranormal claims, for example, those related to near ...
and
telepathy
Telepathy () is the purported vicarious transmission of information from one person's mind to another's without using any known human sensory channels or physical interaction. The term was first coined in 1882 by the classical scholar Frederic W ...
, the group cultivated patrons such as the
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA ), known informally as the Agency and historically as the Company, is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal government of the United States, officially tasked with gathering, processing, ...
,
Defense Intelligence Agency
The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is an intelligence agency and combat support agency of the United States Department of Defense, specializing in defense and military intelligence.
A component of the Department of Defense (DoD) and the I ...
, and the
human potential movement
The Human Potential Movement (HPM) arose out of the counterculture of the 1960s and formed around the concept of an extraordinary potential that its advocates believed to lie largely untapped in all people. The movement takes as its premise the be ...
. In 1972, the CIA and DIA set up a research program, jokingly called ESPionage, which financed experiments into
remote viewing
Remote viewing (RV) is the practice of seeking impressions about a distant or unseen subject, purportedly sensing with the mind. Typically a remote viewer is expected to give information about an object, event, person or location that is hidden ...
at the
Stanford Research Institute
SRI International (SRI) is an American nonprofit scientific research institute and organization headquartered in Menlo Park, California. The trustees of Stanford University established SRI in 1946 as a center of innovation to support economic d ...
, where the Fundamental Fysiks Group became what Kaiser calls its house theorists.
[Kaiser, David]
"Lecture: How the Hippies Saved Physics"
April 28, 2010 Cambridge Science Festival
The Cambridge Science Festival was a series of events typically held annually in March in Cambridge, England and was the United Kingdom's largest free science festival. In 2019 it was announced that the Cambridge Science Festival and the Cambr ...
at MIT Museum
The MIT Museum, founded in 1971, is located at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It hosts collections of holography, technology-related artworks, artificial intelligence, architecture, robotics, maritime histor ...
, around 28:00 mins. posted at WGBH Forum Network, Retrieved from Internet Archive
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
, May 18, 2015 The group also attempted in mid-1975 to independently reproduce the experiments done by SRI in the field; in particular, an experiment featuring one subject in the laboratory attempting to draw or describe a scene, observed by a different individual from a remote location outside of the laboratory. An independent panel of judges was to then determine how close the produced images were to the target location. These experiments were determined not to be statistically significant, though Kaiser notes that one subject showed detailed descriptions of other targets than the one in question at the time.
[Kaiser 2011, p. 95]
See also
* ''
Epistemological Letters
''Epistemological Letters'' (French: ''Lettres Épistémologiques'') was a hand-typed, mimeographed "underground" newsletter about quantum physics that was distributed to a private mailing list, described by the physicist and Nobel laureate John ...
''
* ''
The Men Who Stare at Goats
''The Men Who Stare at Goats'' (2004) is a non-fiction work by Jon Ronson concerning the U.S. Army's exploration of New Age concepts and the potential military applications of the paranormal. The title refers to attempts to kill goats by staring ...
''
*
Parapsychology research at SRI Stanford Research Institute (now SRI International) in Menlo Park, California carried out research on various phenomena characterized by the term parapsychology from 1972 until 1991. Early studies indicating that phenomena such as remote viewing an ...
Notes
Further reading
"25th reunion of the Fundamental Physics Group", quantumtantra.com, accessed August 18, 2011.
''The New York Times'', November 6, 1974.
"How the Hippies Saved Physics (Excerpt)" David Kaiser, ''
Scientific American
''Scientific American'', informally abbreviated ''SciAm'' or sometimes ''SA'', is an American popular science magazine. Many famous scientists, including Albert Einstein and Nikola Tesla, have contributed articles to it. In print since 1845, it i ...
'', June 27, 2011.
*Dizikes, Peter
"Hippie Days" MIT News, June 27, 2011.
*Wisnioski, Matthew
"Let's Be Fysiksists Again" ''Science'', vol 332, issue 6037, 24 June 2011, pp. 1504–1505.
;Books
*
Fritjof Capra
Fritjof Capra (born February 1, 1939) is an Austrian-born American physicist, systems theorist and deep ecologist. In 1995, he became a founding director of the Center for Ecoliteracy in Berkeley, California. He is on the faculty of Schumacher ...
. ''
The Tao of Physics: An Exploration of the Parallels Between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism''. Shambhala Publications, 1975.
*
Amit Goswami. ''The Self-Aware Universe''. Tarcher, 1995.
*
David Kaiser''How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival'' W. W. Norton, 2011, .
*
Jack Sarfatti
Jack Sarfatti (born September 14, 1939) is an American theoretical physicist. Working largely outside academia, most of Sarfatti's publications revolve around quantum physics and consciousness.
Sarfatti was a leading member of the Fundamenta ...
. ''Space-Time and Beyond'', with
Fred Alan Wolf
Fred Alan Wolf (born December 3, 1934) is an American theoretical physicist specializing in quantum physics and the relationship between physics and consciousness. He is a former physics professor at San Diego State University, and has helped to p ...
and Bob Toben, E. P. Dutton, 1975.
*
Evan Harris Walker
Evan Harris Walker (1935 – August 17, 2006), was an American physicist and parapsychologist. . ''The Physics of Consciousness: The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life''. Da Capo Press, 2000.
*
Ken Wilber
Kenneth Earl Wilber II (born January 31, 1949) is an American philosopher and writer on transpersonal psychology and his own integral theory, a philosophy which suggests the synthesis of all human knowledge and experience.
Life and career
Wilber ...
(ed). ''Quantum Questions: Mystical Writings of the World's Great Physicists''. Shambhala Publications, 2001 (first published 1984).
*
Gary Zukav
Gary Zukav (born October 17, 1942) is an American spiritual teacher and the author of four consecutive New York Times Best Sellers. Beginning in 1998, he appeared more than 30 times on ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'' to discuss transformation in hum ...
. ''
The Dancing Wu Li Masters
''The Dancing Wu Li Masters'' is a 1979 book by Gary Zukav, a popular science work exploring modern physics, and quantum phenomena in particular. It was awarded a 1980 U.S. National Book Award in category of Science. ''. HarperOne, 2001 (first published 1979).
*
Nick Herbert
Nicholas Le Quesne Herbert, Baron Herbert of South Downs, (born 7 April 1963) is a British Conservative Party politician and was the Member of Parliament (MP) for Arundel and South Downs from 2005 to 2019. He was Minister of State for Police ...
. ''
Quantum Reality: Beyond the New Physics''. Anchor Press/Doubleday, 1985, {{ISBN, 0385187041.
American physicists
Quantum information science
1975 establishments in the United States
Quantum mysticism