Ted Bastin
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Edward William "Ted" Bastin (8 January 1926 – 15 October 2011) was a physicist and mathematician who held doctorate degrees in mathematics from
Queen Mary College , mottoeng = With united powers , established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College , type = Public researc ...
, London University and physics from
King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the city ...
, to which he won an Isaac Newton studentship. For a time, he was visiting fellow at Stanford University, California and a research fellow, King's College, Cambridge, England. The boats stored at the
River Cam The River Cam () is the main river flowing through Cambridge in eastern England. After leaving Cambridge, it flows north and east before joining the River Great Ouse to the south of Ely, at Pope's Corner. The total distance from Cambridge to ...
boathouse, King's College, Cambridge, include "Ted", the lightweight wooden scull named after Ted Bastin, who won races in it for King's from 1950 to 1953.


Work

Bastin’s research specialties included the foundations of physics, especially the discrete and finite aspects of quantum mechanics and relativity. He believed that a view of physical space in which space is defined not as a continuum but as a finite set of points was capable of resolving the clash between the continuum aspect of the classic theory of relativity and the discrete aspect of quantum physics. He was strongly influenced by Eddington's view that the various dimensionless and cosmological constants such as the
fine structure constant In physics, the fine-structure constant, also known as the Sommerfeld constant, commonly denoted by (the Greek letter ''alpha''), is a fundamental physical constant which quantifies the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between ele ...
had a unique status or significance as constraints upon the possible values of the natural atomic and cosmological constants of which they are ratios, and hence on all possible measurements. Along with
Frederick Parker-Rhodes Arthur Frederick Parker-Rhodes (21 November 1914 – 2 March 1987) was an English linguist, plant pathologist, computer scientist, mathematician, mystic, and mycologist, who also introduced original theories in physics. Background & educati ...
,
Clive W. Kilmister Clive William Kilmister (3 January 1924 – 2 May 2010) was a British mathematician who specialised in the mathematical foundations of physics, especially quantum mechanics and relativity. Kilmister attended Queen Mary College London for both hi ...
and John Amson, Ted Bastin is noted for the discovery of, and research on applications of, the so-called combinatorial hierarchy which defines this view of space. While at th
Cambridge Language Research Unit
(founded by
Margaret Masterman Margaret Masterman (4 May 1910 – 1 April 1986) was a British linguist and philosopher, most known for her pioneering work in the field of computational linguistics and especially machine translation. She founded the Cambridge Language R ...
) he and Parker-Rhodes used
Maurice Wilkes Sir Maurice Vincent Wilkes (26 June 1913 – 29 November 2010) was a British computer scientist who designed and helped build the Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC), one of the earliest stored program computers, and who inv ...
'
EDSAC The Electronic Delay Storage Automatic Calculator (EDSAC) was an early British computer. Inspired by John von Neumann's seminal ''First Draft of a Report on the EDVAC'', the machine was constructed by Maurice Wilkes and his team at the Universi ...
to compute the combinatorial hierarchy. However, the theory gave rise to no testable predictions and was generally regarded as too speculative. He was on firmer ground in his objection to the (then generally accepted)
Copenhagen interpretation The Copenhagen interpretation is a collection of views about the meaning of quantum mechanics, principally attributed to Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg. It is one of the oldest of numerous proposed interpretations of quantum mechanics, as featu ...
of quantum theory, and also to other conceptual difficulties, such as the nature and role of observation and measurement, which he regarded as contributing to logical muddle arising from confusing ontological and epistemological aspects of the theory. His assessment of the philosophical difficulties and obscurities in quantum theory that had to be overcome before any change in the basic structure could take place was penetrating; it was only his attempt to overcome the formal difficulties that failed. He collaborated with
David Bohm David Joseph Bohm (; 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) was an American-Brazilian-British scientist who has been described as one of the most significant theoretical physicists of the 20th centuryPeat 1997, pp. 316-317 and who contributed u ...
to organize the "Quantum Theory and Beyond" colloquium at Cambridge University in July 1968, chaired by O. R. Frisch. The colloquium was sponsored by the
Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...
, Carnegie Institution of Science, and Theoria Inc., and resulted in a book by the same name. Bastin worked with David Bohm on other theoretical physics projects as well, particularly by having discussions with the latter on his theory of hidden variables in quantum theory. Bastin was a founding member, with
H. Pierre Noyes H. Pierre Noyes (December 10, 1923 – September 30, 2016) was an American theoretical physicist. He became a member of the faculty at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University in 1962. Noyes specialized in several areas o ...
,
Clive W. Kilmister Clive William Kilmister (3 January 1924 – 2 May 2010) was a British mathematician who specialised in the mathematical foundations of physics, especially quantum mechanics and relativity. Kilmister attended Queen Mary College London for both hi ...
, John Amson and
Frederick Parker-Rhodes Arthur Frederick Parker-Rhodes (21 November 1914 – 2 March 1987) was an English linguist, plant pathologist, computer scientist, mathematician, mystic, and mycologist, who also introduced original theories in physics. Background & educati ...
, of the Alternative Natural Philosophy Association (ANPA), Cambridge, England. Their first meeting was held in the autumn of 1979 at Prof. Kilmister's "Red Tiles Cottage " near Lewes. The organization was joined in 1980 by
David McGoveran David McGoveran (born 1952) is an American computer scientist and physicist, software industry analyst, and inventor. In computer science, he is recognized as one of the pioneers of relational database theory. Education David McGoveran majored ...
and Tom Etter, among others. Meetings were first held annually at King's College, Cambridge and now continue annually at Westcott House. Bastin gave serious attention to
paranormal phenomena Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, Folk culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific under ...
, notably the
psychokinesis Psychokinesis (from grc, ψυχή, , soul and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), or telekinesis (from grc, τηλε, , far off and grc, κίνησις, , movement, label=ㅤ), is a hypothetical psychic ability allowing a person ...
of
Uri Geller Uri Geller ( ; he, אורי גלר; born 20 December 1946) is an Israeli-British illusionist, magician, television personality, and self-proclaimed psychic. He is known for his trademark television performances of spoon bending and other i ...
. Bastin was also,Times obituary: http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/obituaries/article3228789.ece with
Margaret Masterman Margaret Masterman (4 May 1910 – 1 April 1986) was a British linguist and philosopher, most known for her pioneering work in the field of computational linguistics and especially machine translation. She founded the Cambridge Language R ...
,
Dorothy Emmet Dorothy Mary Emmet (; 29 September 1904, Kensington, London – 20 September 2000, Cambridge) was a British philosopher and head of Manchester University's philosophy department for over twenty years. With Margaret Masterman and Richard Braithw ...
and
R. B. Braithwaite Richard Bevan Braithwaite (15 January 1900 – 21 April 1990) was an English philosopher who specialized in the philosophy of science, ethics, and the philosophy of religion. Life Braithwaite was born in Banbury, Oxfordshire, son of th ...
a founding member of the
Epiphany Philosophers The Epiphany Philosophers was a group of philosophers, scientists and religious (priests, nuns and monks) who met regularly and published between 1950 and 2010. The focus of their endeavours was on the relationship between science and religion. Fou ...
in Cambridge, a society founded to pursue links between science and religion, and which was based on the journal ''Theoria to Theory''. Bastin died in Wales in 2011.


Publications


A Sequential Logic for Information Structuring in "Mathematics of a Hierarchy of Brouwerian Operations"
with A. F. Parker-Rhodes (
Fort Belvoir Fort Belvoir is a United States Army installation and a census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County, Virginia, United States. It was developed on the site of the former Belvoir plantation, seat of the prominent Fairfax family for whom Fai ...
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01 MAY 1965). * ''Quantum Theory and Beyond''. Ted Bastin ed.
Cambridge University Press Cambridge University Press is the university press of the University of Cambridge. Granted letters patent by Henry VIII of England, King Henry VIII in 1534, it is the oldest university press A university press is an academic publishing hou ...
, 1971 (papers from the Quantum Theory and Beyond colloquium). * The Origin of Discrete Particles (Series on Knots and Everything, vol. 42) by T. Bastin and C. W. Kilmister (7 Aug 2009) * Combinatorial Physics (Series on Knots and Everything, vol. 9) by Ted Bastin and C. W. Kilmister (Oct 1995) * "A Clash of Paradigms in Physics", in The Encyclopedia of Ignorance (
Ronald Duncan Ronald Frederick Henry Duncan (6 August 1914 – 3 June 1982) was an English writer, poet and playwright of German descent, now best known for his poem '' The Horse'' and for preparing the libretto for Benjamin Britten's opera ''The Rape of Lucr ...
and Miranda Weston-Smith eds.) 1978


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bastin, Ted 1926 births 2011 deaths English physicists English mathematicians Alumni of Queen Mary University of London Alumni of King's College, Cambridge