Begin forwarded message:

From: Jack Sarfatti
Date: November 26, 2007 1:50:11 PM PST
To: David K
Subject: Re: Physics/Consciousness Research Group in the 1970s

Dear David

Phone is not my preferred mode of communication because the channel capacity for scientific communication is too low. Also I only use a cell phone, quality not good noisy frequent drops on ATT and I do not like to stay on it - microwave radiation danger. This e-mail is much better for complex technical issues because we have a detailed record and can correct errors. So please ask me questions by e-mail. :-)

I am cc'ing this to some of the participants who I am still in touch with. Fred Wolf recently spoke to Werner who now lives in London. I also ran into Stan Klein only a few days ago who is doing very interesting brain research with Stapp. I think Fritjof Capra is still in Berkeley and Stan Klein is in touch with him. Unfortunately Tim Leary, George Koopman and Robert Anton Wilson have died. I think Gary Zukav lives on Mount Shasta. You should also talk to David Finkelstein.

We did not clearly understand "signal locality" issues back then in 1976. Indeed Nick Herbert's FLASH paper led to the no-cloning theorem so important in quantum computing today. Antony Valentini's papers
http://eprintweb.org/S/authors/quant-ph/va/Valentini
show how to hack quantum computers in principle.
Like string theory, quantum computers do not yet exist of course - except possibly our minds, which must be post-quantum computers with signal nonlocality as described here

quant-ph/0203049 (March 2002)
Subquantum Information and Computation
Antony Valentini
Received. 11 March 2002 Last updated. 12 April 2002
Abstract. It is argued that immense physical resources - for nonlocal communication, espionage, and exponentially-fast computation - are hidden from us by quantum noise, and that this noise is not fundamental but merely a property of an equilibrium state in which the universe happens to be at the present time. It is suggested that 'non-quantum' or nonequilibrium matter might exist today in the form of relic particles from the early universe. We describe how such matter could be detected and put to practical use. Nonequilibrium matter could be used to send instantaneous signals, to violate the uncertainty principle, to distinguish non-orthogonal quantum states without disturbing them, to eavesdrop on quantum key distribution, and to outpace quantum computation (solving NP-complete problems in polynomial time).

Signal nonlocality (sub-quantal non-equilibrium) also, obviously, has profound implications for the Hawking-Susskind debate on information loss down a black hole. Susskind was also at some of the later Erhard physics meetings. See his interview with John Brockman's "Edge". I met Lenny at Cornell in 1963 where we worked on the quantum phase operator problem with Johnny Glogower a childhood friend of mine. Phil Morrison got Johnny to Cornell at my urging. Also note my 1969 paper predicting supersolid helium that is reproduced in my book Super Cosmos. My paper was published months before Tony Leggett's. Also note my 1966 paper with Marshall Stoneham "The Goldstone Theorem and the Jahn-Teller Effect" cited in APS Resource Letter on Symmetry in Physics 1980. You should also speak to Ray Chiao now at UC Merced on my 1966 paper on self-trapped laser filaments described by a Landau-Ginzburg eq that he told Charles Townes helped him in his early experiments.


On Nov 26, 2007, at 11:31 AM, David K... wrote:

Dear Dr. Sarfatti,

I'm working on a book about physics in the 20th century, looking in particular at some of the waves of interest in topics like foundations of quantum mechanics. I'd like to talk with you by phone some time when it might be convenient for you. I am interested in your work during the 1970s with the Physics/Consciousness Research Group and related groups such as the Fundamental Physics Group at LBL and the Esalen workshops from that period. I recently read your book, 'Destiny Matrix,' which of course has lots of useful information in it, as well as some of your old essays like the material you contributed to the 1st edition of Jeffrey Mishlove's _Roots of Consciousness_. I have also spoken a few times with Fred Alan Wolf, Henry Stapp, and Robert Fuller, who was (as you know) director of Werner Erhard's 'est foundation' for a few years.

If you have some time this week or next, it would be a great help to my research if we could chat by phone. I'd be happy to give you a call, or you can try me at my current office number (while I'm on sabbatical):

Thanks --

best,
Dave K..