How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival by David Kaiser
"How the Hippies Saved Physics" took me back to my undergraduate days, my first two courses in Quantum Mechanics. Like the protagonists of Kaiser's book, I wanted to understand quantum mechanics. But the profs had their line that always closed off any inquiry ---"Shut up and calculate!" The math’s works, the theory works --- why are you wasting your time in trying to figure out the Schrodinger wave function, wave particle duality, which slit an electron passes through in Young's double-slit experiment? An exasperated prof finally told me, "Then why are you unhappy?" as if the problem was with ME instead of the physics. A physics that no one really understood. Physicists were happy to "shut up and calculate". And so I switched majors and took up Astronomy. At least astronomers struck me as honest about what they didn't understand.
And so I was thrilled to find a group of physicists who were also not content to "shut up and calculate". Dissatisfied with the current climate in physics, they set out to figure things out. Their searches took them into the heart of "non-local" effects, a study of consciousness and yes --- paranormal phenomena. Sometimes I wonder whether the "shut up and calculate" mantra, adopted by most physicists is their way of keeping their distance from those fringe subjects that make them uncomfortable. Which is why an inordinate amount of effort is spent in debunking them.
No, the Hippies didn't save physics. That claim is an exaggeration. However their efforts led them into new territory in understanding the nature of non-local effects, subtle features of the quantum theory that prevent all proposed forms of super-luminal communication. The role of consciousness in quantum effects and its possible connection to non-local effects remains a promising avenue for future research. Interestingly, recent experiments by Dean Radin suggest that the mind can influence the behavior of photons. We can't even use paranormal abilities to nail down the position of a photon!