"How the Hippies Saved Physics"

[Xicano]

MIT Professor David Kaiser describes the field of physic's bumpy transition from New Age to cutting edge.

In recent years, the field of quantum information science has catapulted to the cutting edge of physics. Long before the big budgets and dedicated teams, however, the field smoldered on the scientific sidelines within the hazy, bong-filled excesses of the 1970s New Age movement. Many of the ideas that now occupy the core of quantum information science once found their home amid an anything-goes counterculture frenzy, a mishmash of spoon-bending psychics, Eastern mysticism, LSD trips, CIA spooks chasing mind-reading dreams, and comparable "Age of Aquarius" enthusiasts.


((video)) http://forum-network.org/lecture/how-hippies-saved-physics

[laughingliberal]

1. Ah, yes. I well remember my days of advanced physics studies. nm

[ret5hd]

11. If you remember it, you weren't really there man!

[laughingliberal]

13. ROFL!! nt

[Ernesto]

2. works for me.... nt

[1776Forever]

3. And thus we have the Space Shuttle engines. Thanks for posting!

I am going to buy that How the Irish Saved Civilization! Can't wait to read it!

[tridim]

4. It's really too bad LSD lasts so long.

It's just too much of a commitment.

Glad I tried it a few times in college though. It provided insight that has stuck with me for 20 years.

[Warpy]

7. It does transform how you look at the world

even if all those insights turned out to be twaddle if you tried to write them down when you were tripping.

There was a study done in the early 80s of acid freaks and how they'd turned out. They didn't find a disproportionate number of burnouts but what they did find was that they tended to cluster into human services professions like medicine, social work, and even retail.

I'm glad I did it. There's no way I'd do it again now. I can get to much the same place through meditation, plus the OP is right, there's too much of a time commitment involved.

[Richard Steele]

12. Excellent post. nm

[diane in sf]

5. I remember!

[Warpy]

6. Still do, actually

or did when I worked at MIT and picked brains all over the place. A lot of those cutting edge researchers are daily grass smokers and many dabble in other substances as well as meditation.

Face it, the type of mind that produces a good, sober accountant is not going to produce a cutting edge physicist.

[1776Forever]

9. Ditto the Space Industry - But they would never admit it! n/t

[boppers]

10. Ditto the Computer industry - And we kind of laugh about it. eom

[patrice]

8. Thanks!