Schrödinger Cat Comix

Also see I can has Heisenburger?

Supernature--the Story of Esalen

Esalen Institute--a lab for exploring radical human possibilities.

I got my first glimpse of Esalen in February 1963. Stanford psychology grad student Allen Sidle and his wife told me about something hot happening in Big Sur. Together with Tom Records (who later joined a Gurdjieff group in New York) we drove south along the rugged California coast to a spot on the map labeled "Slate's Hot Springs", which boasted a cliff-side bath house, a lodge and several motel rooms.

We traveled down there to hear a Stanford religion professor talk about his mystical experience. Frederic Spiegelberg, author of many books on comparative religions, as a teacher at Stanford had deeply impressed both Dick Price and Michael Murphy, who were busy turning Slate's Hot Springs into a meditation and seminar center which they were calling "Esalen Institute".

Our little gang was privileged to witness Esalen in embryo--the place was barely six months old.

Professor Spiegelberg spoke that sunny afternoon to an audience of about 20 people, standing not in a traditional classroom but on the edge of a cliff with the Pacific Ocean as his backdrop. He told us of his trip to the ashram of Shri Aurobindo in Pondicherry, India. Aurobindo was seated in a chair in a small room with a long line of devotees at the door who one by one came forward to receive his blessing. Spiegelberg awaited his turn, stepped forward, met the Master's gaze and was suddenly "X-rayed to the core" by some psychic emanation flowing from that being in the chair. The encounter lasted no more than a few seconds in "real time" but to Spiegelberg it seemed to last forever. He spent an hour attempting to describe to us what he could remember and express of this powerful and unexpected shaktipat experience in the presence of Aurobindo. It sounded to me an awfully lot like LSD.

I returned to Esalen many times: to hear Tim Leary speak, to participate with Ed Maupin in his "Symbo Experiment" in group telepathy, to attend meetings convened by Ralph Abraham, Terence McKenna and Jeffrey Kripal, to explore with wife Betsy near-by Lime Kiln Creek and sometimes just to enjoy the baths. For several years, with Saul-Paul Sirag, I led seminars on quantum physics which are mentioned in Rice University professor Jeffrey Kripal's authoritative history Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion.

Recently Kripal and Cinema Arts film producer Scott Hulan Jones have been constructing a film version of the history of Esalen with the working title Supernature: Esalen and the Human Potential. A big portion of the movie is already "in the can", and using material from the Esalen archives, they hope to complete a rough cut by September 2012, to coincide with the celebration of Esalen's 50th birthday.

You can view here the first Supernature trailer, featuring a few of "the hippies who saved physics", as well as founder Mike Murphy, Jeffrey Kripal and other Esalen worthies. To raise money for additional filming and editing, the Supernature crew is seeking funding via Kickstart. In its nearly fifty years of existence, Esalen Institute has transformed many thousands of lives. If you have benefited in any way from Esalen, kicking in to support Supernature would be a great way to return the favor.

Scott Hulan Jones at Esalen's Big House

Time Machine Design

Japanese Translation of Nick Herbert's Faster Than Light

Starting from the upper right, and reading downward, the characters are phonetic ta-i-mu, but the ending u goes silent, so this is "time" and is written in English (katakana).

The middle column phonetically reads ma-shi-n, or "machine" again written in English.  The bottom character is the phonetic Japanese particle -no- indicating possession.

The top character in the left column is the verb tsuku- which means "to build", and it is followed by a phonetic -ri, turning it into a noun meaning "construction".

The bottom character on the left is kata (the same word as in martial arts), meaning "form".  The composite tsukurikata means "building instructions".

So the whole thing reads time machine no tsukurikata which literally means "time machine's building instructions" -- Cool!

(translation by Alec MacCall, Santa Cruz NOAA scientist and Celtic musician). Thanks, Alec.

=====================================

How could the ability to signal faster-than-light be used to construct a time machine? Here physicist/programmer Richard Baker shows what you would need to send a signal from the present to the past if your FTL signal was infinitely fast--instantaneous communication as in Ursula LeGuin's science-fiction "ansible". 

Baker starts by considering the rest frame V = 0 and drawing a Minkowski diagram with time increasing in the upward direction and one spatial dimension plotted in the sidewards direction. In this diagram, the speed-of-light limit divides spacetime into two distinct regions: 1) those events that can be causally connected to point P (which are called "time-like") and 2) those events that are causally disconnected from P--called "space-like". In Baker's diagram time-like events occur in the yellow region, which is called the "light-cone", and space-like events occur in the blue region, called the "absolute elsewhere".

If we could send an instantaneous signal from P, it would travel along the white horizontal axis (t = 0) in FIG 1, but it would not go backwards in time. To build a time machine we need to introduce a second reference frame moving to the right at velocity V with respect to the rest frame.

FIG 1 -- Spacetime diagram: Rest Frame V = 0

The fundamental premise of Einstein's theory of special relativity is that space and time look different for observers that are in relative motion. A system of equations called the Lorentz Transformations shows how to translate between the spacetime events as they appear to an observer in the rest frame (V = 0) and to an observer in the frame moving at velocity V.

FIG 2 -- V= 1/4 c Frame as seen in V = 0 Rest Frame

Assume that our moving frame is traveling at 1/4 of the speed of light. This moving frame is bounded by the same light cones but in the rest frame the moving frames time and space axes seem tilted as
shown by heavy blue lines in FIG 2. Now if the observer in the moving frame sends an instantaneous signal to the right--the direction of his frame's motion--it will always go forward in time (as seen from the rest frame). However, if the moving observer sends an instant signal in the opposite direction, it will seem (in the rest frame) to go backwards in time.

One way to remember the direction of this effect is to imagine running on an escalator. If you run UP the UP escalator, all you do is go faster. But if you run DOWN the UP escalator fast enough you can go backwards in time.

The signal goes back in time but it is traveling into the rest frame's elsewhere. To construct a time machine in the rest frame we have to bounce that signal back. This is accomplished with a second frame located at distance D traveling at velocity minus V. We do the "DOWN the UP escalator trick" in this second frame and the signal returns to the rest frame BEFORE IT WAS SENT.

Richard Baker concisely derives the time machine effect for FTL signals which travel instantly. I will follow his example (and modify his diagrams) for FTL signals of finite velocity Z where Z is greater than c--the velocity of light. I will derive the "time machine equation" for all frame velocities V and all FTL signaling velocities Z, but in FIG 3 will show the results for only one frame speed (V = 1/4 c) and three FTL speeds (Z = 2c, 4c and 8c).

FIG 3 -- FTL signals (Z = 2c, 4c, 8c) in the 1/4 c frame--viewed from the Rest Frame

Deriving the time machine equation is a schoolgirl exercise in special relativity. Lorentz transforming into the moving frame, putting in a slanted line representing a signal traveling at velocity Z, then transforming back to the rest frame, it is easy to see that the "time machine factor" F is given by the simple expression:

F = (ZV - 1)/(Z - V)

when Z and V are expressed in multiples of c, F is a dimensionless number proportional to how far back you go in time when sending an FTL signal Z a distance D from a frame traveling at velocity V. Only if F is positive do signals go backwards in time.

The "one-way time-travel equation" is: T = FD

For example if D = 1 light-year and F = 1/2 then T is 1/2 year backwards in time. Since the time machine is not complete unless we bounce the signal back, this number must be doubled.

The "time machine equation" is: T = 2FD

It is easy to see that the time machine factor will only be positive if Z > 1/V. Therefore for a pair of frames moving at V = 1/4 c, the FTL signal must be faster than 4c for the time machine to work. FIG 3 shows three values of Z. For Z = 2c, the signal goes into the future; for Z = 4c, the signal stays at t = 0, traveling neither into the past nor the future. For Z = 8c, the signal travels into the past. Only the last FTL signal is fast enough to build a time machine.

As the speed Z is made faster and faster, the time machine factor F goes to V. Thus the time machine expression T(instant) for instantaneous (ansible-class) signal speeds is:

T(instant) = 2VD

To put these numbers in perspective, we imagine building a time machine that sends an FTL signal from Earth to the Moon and back that arrives at Earth before it was sent. For our moving frames we use rotating disks whose rim velocities are V = 1/4c from which FTL signals can be sent and received at speed Z. To keep the numbers simple, we assume the Earth-Moon distance to be D = 2 light-seconds.

Time Machine operating between Earth and Moon

To operate the time machine we send the FTL signal when the disk is moving in the opposite direction to the motion of the FTL signal (using the DOWN the UP elevator effect) and we receive this signal at a detector moving at the same speed and direction as the sender. When V = 1/4c and Z = 8c, the time machine factor F is 0.129. From the time machine equation we see that the signal will/did arrive at Earth about 1/2 second before it was sent. The signal can be resent N times and progressively displaced 1/2 N second backwards in time but no further back than when the machine was first turned on.

For Z = 8c, the one-bounce time travel is 1/2 second. If the machine were operating in ansible mode (Z = infinity), the time machine factor F is equal to V which in this case is 1/4. Hence in ansible mode the one-bounce time travel interval is 4 x 1/4 = one second backwards in time.

Faster-than-light signaling devices have long been a science-fiction staple, from Ursula LeGuin's ansible to Star Trek's subspace radio. A short review of famous fictional FTL devices can be found here.

Artist's conception of Ursula LeGuin's Ansible FTL communicator

Sward Soars

Santa Cruz poet Robert Sward (photo: Alan Lundell)

Gathering this Sunday at artist/sculptor Coeleen Kiebert's garden studio overlooking the Pacific to celebrate the publication by Red Hen Press of New and Selected Poems 1957-2011 by Robert Sward. Poets and artists in great abundance. Many of the Santa Cruz cogniscenti showed up at Coeleen's including local columnist Bruce Bratton, poets Len Anderson, David Swenger, Tilly Shaw, T. Mike Walker, Joanna Martin, Robin Lysne. Stephen Kessler, Dean Cervine, Sun Lundell. Angela Blessing was there, along with Bruce Damer, Elke Maus, Ken Adams and dozens of other colorful folk I did not recognize. Encouraged by his many admirers, Sward roared and soared. The event was videoed by Alan and Sun Lundell.

Sward's wife Gloria Alford created the cover art Words, Words, Words for her husband's book. In Gloria's painting the alphabet seems to be emerging from the walls of a cave--as if humans were only just beginning to discover the uses of language.

Sward often uses humor as a wedge to pry open and examine the insoluable complexities of ordinary life. Some of his poems consist of imagined conversations with his dead father, a Chicago Jewish podiatrist turned AMORC  mystic, the subject of Sward's collection Rosicrucian in the Basement. For example:

ONE STOP FOOT SHOP

"We walk with angels
and they are our feet."

"'Vibrating energy packets,'" he calls them. "'Bundles of soul
in a world of meat.'  Early warning system--
dry skin and brittle nails;
feeling of numbness and cold;
these are symptoms; they mean something.
I see things physicians miss."

"All you have to do is open your eyes, just open your eyes,
and you'll see: seven-eighths of everything is invisible, a spirit
inside the spirit.
The soul is rooted in the foot.
As your friend Bly says, 'The soul longs to go down';
feet know the way to the other world,
that world where people are awake.
So do me a favor: Dream me no dreams.
A dreamer is someone who's asleep."

"You know, the material world is infinite,
but boring infinite," he says, cigarette in hand,
little wings fluttering at his ankles.

"And women," he says, smacking his head,
"four times as many foot problems as men.
High heels are the culprit."

"I may be a podiatrist, but I know what I'm about:
feet. Feet don't lie,
don't cheat, don't kiss ass. Truth is,
peoples' feet are too good for them."

Robert Sward and Gloria Alford in Coeleen's garden

A Memorable Halloween

Attila the Hun

A few years ago, August O' Connor and I were invited to one of Santa Cruz's most exclusive social events--Kate Bowland's annual Halloween Party. Kate Bowland is a legend in midwife circles, has delivered more than a thousand babies, and helped make more people-friendly both home and hospital births in California. And Kate knows everyone. So her party was sure to be a "scene".

The rules were simple. Show up as some recognizable character and for the first two hours, play that character's role. Afterwards you can be yourself. Kate was dressed as her favorite childhood hero--Annie Oakley--and would cock and fire an empty BB gun into the air whenever she pleased. Her husband Steve was dressed as Mikhail Gorbachev, complete with forehead birthmark, grey suit with red star on the lapel. Steve greeted every guest with a hearty Russian bearhug: "Welcome to the party!"

Later in the kitchen, Kate told us that many of the stories about Annie Oakley that her father "read" to her as a child were most probably the products of her father's imagination. She was never able to find many of these stories in any Annie Oakley bios.

Entirely unplanned, one woman came as Jackie Kennedy and another as Marilyn Monroe. After sizing up each other across the room they got together and treated the guests to a splendid cat fight. Most of the guests agreed that this tussle of celebrities was one of the evening's high points.

I decided to engage with Atilla the Hun who was sitting in a throne-like chair royally observing the proceedings with a jaundiced eye. "Hi, Atilla," I said, "You're obviously a very powerful man. But I sense that you are in need of my help." I was wearing what looked like a corny Batman (or cat) mask with a green Celtic knot on my chest.

"Need your help? I need to kill and eat you. Who are you anyway?"

Atilla was obviously really getting into his role.

"Never mind me," I said. "See that woman over there? Let's call her over here."

I gesture to August and she slithers over to Atilla's throne. "This is Lady Luck," I say. "And I am Lord Luck. Would you accept our help? Do you agree that you need us?"

"Cancel the death threat," says Atilla. "The help of both of you I most definitely can use."

Even a barbarian warlord recognizes how important it is to have luck on your side.

Later, after the meal and the customary intoxicants, I wandered out onto Kate's deck to discover King Satan himself lying in a beach chair looking out over the lights of Santa Cruz and into the darkness of Monterey Bay. I sat next to him and shared one of my long-term fantasies--not as legendary Lord Luck but as ordinary Nick Herbert.

"Mephistopheles, I presume?"

"That's me."

"As a scientist, Meph, I've always been fascinated by the Faust legend--the notion of negotiating with the Devil himself for some deep wisdom not accessible to others. So I'm really excited to meet you and want to hear more about that famous "Faustian bargain". Do you take my soul and give me deep wisdom in exchange?"

"That soul stuff is really old-fashioned," the guy in the devil suit replied, taking another sip from his bottle of beer. "The price for deep wisdom is very different from what you've been told."

"What's the price?"

"The price for deep wisdom, Nick, is separation--separation from the life of ordinary humanity. End of interview."

I left Satan to enjoy his view of the Bay and am still contemplating his version of the Faustian bargain. He was not really Satan, after all--just an ordinary guy in a mask at Kate Bowland's party. But his answer is certainly worth thinking about.

Thanks, Kate, for a truly memorable Halloween.

On other fronts, Los Gatos sci-fi author and Renaissance man, Rudy Rucker, recently published on his blog, the simplest description of quantum tantra that I have ever read. Read Rudy's post and inform yourself about the next big quantum science/religion/medicine/recreation of the future.

Lord and Lady Luck

How to Build Time Machine

Faster Than Light--Japanese Edition

The hottest news in physics this fall was the alleged discovery at CERN that neutrinos travel slightly faster than light. Most physicists believe this measurement is the result of some as yet undiscovered systematic error but already a handful of theoretical physicists are claiming that they have a new theory which can explain these spectacular results.

A few years ago I published a book Faster Than Light: Superluminal Loopholes in Physics that explored possibilities for exceeding Einstein's well-known universal speed limit. Note for the record: I did not anticipate superluminal neutrinos. But in that book I do make the claim that if superluminal particles exist, then it would be possible to build a time machine--that is, a device that sends signals from the future into the past, allowing us to "know the future" before it actually happens. Somewhere in that book I may have actually posted a design for such a device. Why else would the Japanese edition of this book (pictured above) be called How to Build Time Machine?

Can one actually build a time machine using superluminal particles?  Suppose such a device works by sending signals back and forth from the Moon. Both on Moon and Earth you have access to spinning disks whose edges travel at 1/2 light speed. Mounted on these disks are sender/receivers of superluminal particles that travel at twice the speed of light. For ease of calculation assume that the Earth-Moon distance is 2 light seconds.

1. How would you construct a time machine (TM) using these ingredients?

2. How far into the future would your TM reach?

3. Could such TMs be cascaded to extend their range indefinitely?

Send solutions to nickherbert3ATgmail.com. I will publish the most interesting Time Machine proposal on this blog and award the winner a copy of Physics on All Fours.

Warning: You may have to invent some slightly new physics to solve this problem. For instance, how does the velocity addition rule work for FTL particles? And how does one correctly interpret the
space-dependent clock shift in the Lorentz Transformations?

Gentlemen (and Ladies), start your (faster than light) engines.

Sirag Numbers Enter the Canon

Saul-Paul Sirag lecturing at Esalen Institute

The Sirag Numbers, first arising in the context of "accidental commutation" in the quantum theory of angular momentum (and dedicated to Saul-Paul on his 72nd birthday), were first defined on this blog and partially "tamed" by myself and Saul-Paul Sirag.

Recently these numbers have attracted the attention of the larger mathematical community (thank you, Antti Karttunem) and are now listed in the Online Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences as Integer Sequence A196224. The Sirag Numbers were "completely tamed" by Jack Brennan, Ray Chandler, Charles P. Greathouse and Harvey P. Dale who devised formulas which generate all Sirag numbers. Happy birthday, Saul-Paul! Now that this sequence has been officially recognized, the one thing lacking is to discover an application for Sirag Numbers in the real world.

Also in the news this week, sci-fi author Rudy Rucker paid me a visit at the Quantum Tantric Ashram where we discussed philosophy and literature in my redwood forest retreat. Over tea and stollen, Rudy presented me with copies of his book of paintings Better Worlds and his latest novel, set in Santa Cruz CA, Jim and the Flims which chronicles a throroughly Ruckeresque vision of the afterlife. Hint: the Rucker afterlife is not even close to what you've been taught in school; it more resembles some seriously twisted DMT trip.

Also this weekend Beverly Rubik, a colleague from the Consciousness Theory Group and the Esalen Seminars on the Nature of Reality, invited me to Berkeley to give a talk at her Institute for Frontier Science.

Dr Beverly Rubik, PhD

I took Beverly's invitation as an opportunity to express my latest conceptions about quantum tantra and to read from my work-in-progress Harlot Nature. The talk was well-attended by a responsive crowd which included Dana Ullman, Jim Johnson and Allison Kennedy, the co-founder of the innovative Berkeley-based psychocyberdelic magazine Mondo 2000.

Nick performing at Institute for Frontier Science

After the talk Beverly treated Allison and I to supper at P. F. Chang's Chinese Bistro in Emeryville. Walking to Chang's in the dark our group was surprised by what appeared to be a hidden portal to another reality but when entered turned out to be a time tunnel memorializing the landscape's early inhabitants. Inside the portal, a parade of black stone slabs, each etched with text and pictures, told the story of Emeryville's former human habitation, brief by geological standards. A beautiful and informative piece of public art--the city of Emeryville's Shellmound Memorial.  

Entrance to Emeryville Shellmound Memorial

Quantum Tantra Stripped Bare

Nick Herbert aka Doctor Jabir 'abd al-Khaliq

At the invitation of Len Anderson, though the auspices of Poetry Santa Cruz, Nick Herbert appeared as Featured Poet at Poet/Speak, a monthly open reading at the downtown Santa Cruz Library. This reading happened to coincide with a Greek Street Festival sponsored by Prophet Elias Greek Orthodox Church across the street which added a wonderful ethnic gaiety to our readings, as poets in the upstairs library room vied to outshout the clarinets, bouzoukis and Zorba impersonators downstairs in the library parking lot.

For this reading, Nick takes on the persona of Doctor Jabir, who prophesizes in tongues the Quantum Tantric Revelation: that someday soon quantum theory will give humans a more intimate way of connecting with Nature that will supercede our present-day science and religions.

His Epistle to the Greeks is the high-water mark of Jabir's prophetic career. In this performance, Jabir enters a poetic trance and strips quantum tantra bare! Fortunately this landmark Epistle to the Greeks did not evaporate into thin air, but happened to be captured on video by Alan and Sun Lundell from Cougar Rock Ridge in Boulder Creek.

Jabir's Epistle to the Greeks represents the purest revelation to date of the Inner Truth of Quantum Tantra. Al and Sun just happened to be in the right place, at the right time, to record the quantum tantric equivalent of the Sermon on the Mount.

September Events

Nick contemplating the Sirag Numbers

First of all, I would like to thank all the peeples dat remembers my birthday this year. And thanks for the many sweet birthday gifts including the opportunity to handle an 1895 Winchester 45-70 rifle

On Sunday, Sept 18, Nick will be the Featured Reader at Poet/Speak, a monthly event hosted by Poetry Santa Cruz. Reading will occur at 2 PM at Santa Cruz Main Library Meeting Room, 224 Church St. Santa Cruz, CA. Open Mike signup. A rare chance to experience quantum tantra live.

On Tuesday, Sept 20, MIT professor David Kaiser will describe his new book "How the Hippies Saved Physics" at the University Club in San Francisco from 6 to 9 PM. Some of the "hippies" will be present for interrogation including Jack Sarfatti, Fred Allen Wolf and Russell Targ. $25 including refreshments. For more info contact Michael Sarfatti at sarfatti@alum.mit.edu.

The Sirag numbers have been partially tamed! Mark Buchanan and Dick Shoup produced a list of SN up to 2995 from which Saul-Paul Sirag extracted several quasi-periodic interval pattern of period 32. From Saul-Paul's data, Nick Herbert constructed this morning the basic equations that all Sirag numbers must satisfy. The Herbert equations classify all Sirag numbers as Primary SNs or Secondary SNs. For the Primary SNs the Herbert equations generate true Sirag numbers. For the Secondary SNs, the Herbert algorithm generates true Sirag numbers but also false ones. However the Herbert classification is exhaustive--any true Sirag number will be generated by one of the Herbert algorithms.

The Primary Sirag numbers (SPs) fall in two classes, Even and Odd. Their defining algorithms are:

SE(n) = 12 + 32n where n = 0 -> N

SO(n) = 12 + 32n - 25 where n = 1 -> N

The Even Sirag numbers SE(n) repeat with a period of 32 beginning with the first Sirag number J*(1) =12. The Odd Sirag numbers SO(n) repeat with a period of 32 beginning with J*(3) = 19. Thus the primary Sirag numbers are represented by two superposed periodic sequences separated by the interval "7". These two equations generate true Sirag numbers but fail to generate ALL SIRAG NUMBERS. For instance J*(2) = 15 is not a member of SO(n). J*(2) is a Secondary Sirag number (SS).

The Secondary Sirag numbers (SSs) fall into four classes--SS3, SS4, SS12 and SS13. These SNs are generated by the four equations:

SS3(n) = SO(n) - 3

SS4(n) = SO(n) - 4

SS12(n) = SE(n) -12

SS13(n) = SE(n) - 13

Any Sirag numbers will be found to be described either as a SP or a SS. Thus this classification is exhaustive. The first set of equations (SPs) can be used to generate Sirag numbers; the second set (SSs) are useful only for classification--some of the numbers generated are not true Sirag numbers.

As an example of this classification scheme we can now recognize J*(2) as SS4(1). The famous Sirag number "1939" representing the year of Saul-Paul's birth turns out to be the Primary Sirag number SO(61). Does the largest computed Sirag number "2995" belong to one of these sets?

The skeptical reader may wish to check Herbert's claims by testing to see if any Sirag number refuses to be pressed into one of these six classifications.

Herbert's equations for the Sirag numbers are a generalization of Saul-Paul's discovery that the intervals between consecutive Sirag numbers are dominated by "7"s and "25"s. And that these intervals are further haphazardly divided into sub-intervals "3 + 4 = 7" and "12 + 13 = 25". And these intervals are the ONLY INTERVALS that appear. No pattern has yet been discovered in the distribution of subintervals, Hence the present lack of an algorithm that will generate all Sirag numbers.

Now shout it from the rooftops:

The Sirag Numbers are (partially) tamed!

Candy From Strangers

FLURB #12 is here!

Rudy Rucker's shameless "webzine without a net"

FLURB tests the edges--careful!--no guard rails.

After reading Rucker & DiFilippo's Fjaerland

in FLURB12

Nick was hooked.

Inspiring fables for quantum tantrikas.

FLURB #12 is here!