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Vladimir Chaloupka Professor of Physics Adjunct Professor, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Adjunct Pro

PHYS216/SIS216 = PHIS216: Science and Society From Bach to Einstein and beyond. or: Grand Tour of Science and Human Affairs, with Music or Science and Society, with Exuberance and Humility. Vladimir Chaloupka Professor of Physics

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Vladimir Chaloupka Professor of Physics Adjunct Professor, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Adjunct Pro

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  1. PHYS216/SIS216 = PHIS216: Science and Society From Bach to Einstein and beyond or: Grand Tour of Science and Human Affairs, with Music or Science and Society, with Exuberance and Humility Vladimir Chaloupka Professor of Physics Adjunct Professor, Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies Adjunct Professor, School of Music and BY FAR the most modest professor on campus (BY FAR!) www.phys.washington.edu/users/vladi

  2. PHYS216 / SIS216: • Science and non-science students in the same class, as microcosm of society • Learning not just from Instructor but also from each other • Reproducing Honors course • Syllabus: • 0) Introduction • Nuclear physics: E=mc2 • Molecular Biology: DNA • Discussions and Debates • J.S.Bach in Walker Ames • Grand Finale

  3. A test: (from my recent SIS201 lecture): What Is To Be Done? Vladimir Chaloupka [1] Readers well versed in the history of political philosophy will have recognized my title as identical to that of the most famous piece by my infamous namesake. Well, he was a rebel, and so am I. But the similarity ends there, I hope.

  4. Preview of the Syllabus And the square feet per person: 536 square feet vs. (536 feet) squared => An important goal of the course: improve (or install) your BS detector

  5. Course Preliminaries: • Readings for Friday: views of two physicists (see the webpage) • Friday sections: 1.5 minute/student: present yourself and your background and expected contributions; initial reaction to lectures/readings. Rehearse your presentation! • First Response paper due next Tuesday • More on course organization on Thursday (please EMAIL vladi@uw.edu any comments or questions about syllabus, schedule etc.) • Reminder: EITHER PHYS216 OR SIS216 can be taken for EITHER NW OR I&S requirements • Need ALL students to read their EMAIL • Need some students to transfer to section AD (AE has been integrated with AA-AD) • Instructor suffers from health problems => PLEASE cooperate!

  6. What I will be talking about this week: • Goals for the course • importance(?) of small nations • how to make a coherent whole out of science, music and human affairs • J.S.Bach as Amadeus phenomenon • J.S.Bach as a genetic phenomenon • Emergent complexity in science, art and society • Einstein as physicist, musician and prophet • The fascination of science: quantum mystery, Why is there Something rather than Nothing?, a walking molecule, … • The Basic Problem and the Big Gap • How to maximize the benefits from science and technology while minimizing the risks? • What Is To Be Done, and what I am doing: PHYS 216 / SIS 216; the Bristol experience and the upcoming WASMUN keynote address • How naïve was Albert Einstein? (and how naïve is VC?) • Conclusions: Fermi paradox, bonfire metaphor and Homo Sapiens

  7. The question of attitude: • Why teach science and non-science students in the same course? • How hard it is to “compete against physics majors or biology seniors? • Why teach so many apparently esoteric and even useless topics (e.g. music …)? • Why teach detailed science concepts to non-science students? • Why packing so much towards the end: final response paper / term paper / exam

  8. So in this class, I will try to: • Stretch your thinking and attitudes (cf. Honors Program) • Give you the feeling of what scientists actually do, and give you the confidence that much of it YOU could do, too • Improve your BS detector (cf. Marilyn vos Savant) • Teach you to doubt everything (including this advice) • Expose you to the environment of your peers of extremely varied and rich background • Make you think of some very important issues while having a good time

  9. From a citizen of a (very) powerful nation: “Even more than Vietnam 30 years ago, Iraq constitutes a major strategic setback. There is no getting around this. But Iraq is just that--a setback. What is essential is that the U.S. cut its losses there, contain the consequences and look for new opportunities to advance its interests around the world.” Richard N. Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations

  10. From a President(!) of a very small nation: • The modern era has been dominated by the culminating belief, expressed in different forms, that the world and Being as such is a wholly knowable system governed by a finite number of universal laws that man can grasp and rationally direct for his own benefit. … This, in turn, gave rise to the proud belief that man, as the pinnacle of everything that exists, was capable of objectively describing, explaining and controlling everything that exists .... Vaclav Havel former Czech dissident / President / playwright / philosopher

  11. Music and Science, with Exuberance and Humility • Pythagoras’ integers • Kepler’s Harmonia Mundi • Superstring Theory: all elementary particles as “modes of vibration” of the same string (ergo: “Princeton String quartet”) • Laser Interferometer Space Antenna: “listening to the gravitational Symphony of the Universe” • Music as an example of emergent complexity: parts of Art of Fugue “sound like parts of the Mandelbrot set” • Goedel Escher Bach • Exuberance and Humility: Two Pipe Organs

  12. LISA: Laser Interferometer Space Antenna Will detect the change of the distance as small as 10-11 m !!!

  13. LISA: listening to the gravitational symphony of the Universe

  14. LISA orchestra, soloists and the first 0.000 000 000 000 1 seconds

  15. The Andromeda Galaxy: 2 million light years away. The most distant object visible by naked eye (you have to know where to look, and find a really dark place, but the experience is very much worth it!) Note: for details on when and how to see Andromeda, see http://www.physics.ucla.edu/ ~huffman/m31.html

  16. Einstein as Scientist, Musician and Prophet • Einstein as scientist: In 2005 we celebrated the Centenary of Einstein’s Annus Mirabilis • Einstein as musician: from a review: “Einstein plays excellently. However, his world-wide fame is undeserved. There are many violinists who are just as good.” • Einstein as prophet: “Nuclear weapons changed everything except our way of thinking.”

  17. J.S.Bach as Amadeus • The central Theme of Amadeus (play/movie) applied to Bach • The Bach genetic phenomenon • Bach myths: BACH = 14 JSBACH = 41 even (from a doctoral Thesis [sic]): “the Unfinished fugue breaks off at bar 239 because 2+3+9 = 14” !

  18. Number of (male) Bach’s doing music at any particular year

  19. Exuberance and Humility in Music and Science Left: The pipe organ at the St. Marks Cathedral in Seattle Above: the 1743(Bach was just composing the Art of Fugue then!) instrument at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg.

  20. … finally I realized that to me, Goedel and Escher and Bach were only shadows cast in different directions by some central solid essence. Douglas Hofstadter

  21. Goedel Escher Bach Hofstadter • A musico-logical fugue in English • Goedel Undecidability Theorem: “In every sufficiently powerful formal system, there are propositions which are true, but not provable within the system” • (i.e. “Truth if more than Provability”) • Relief provided by fanciful Dialogues

  22. Hofstadter’s GEB Dialogues(in the spirit of Lewis Carroll) • ….. • Meaning and Form in Mathematics • Sonata for Unaccompanied Achilles • Figure and Ground • Chromatic Fantasy, and Feud • Brains and Thoughts • English French German Suite • Minds and Thoughts • …..

  23. Mandelbrot Set Tour • 1) z(0) = 0 • 2) z(n+1) = z(n)^2 + c and back to 2) • 3) if z(n) finite then c belongs to the set Amazingly, this simplest of algorithms results into an object of infinite complexity (and arresting beauty). One cannot but recall Dirac’s claim that the Quantum Electrodynamics explains “most of Physics and all of Chemistry” … Also: the varied copies of Mandelbrot “body” are reminiscent of various versions of Art of Fugue theme, and the filaments are like the secondary motifs …

  24. Science Ingredients: • “Physics is Different”: Creation of the Universe, Quantum mechanics, … • “Molecular Biology is (differently) Different”: the “kinesin” as an example of a marvelous machine • The phenomenon of “Phase transition”: The Basic Problem and the Big Gap

  25. What is the mass of bound system: M -> m1 + m2 Mc2 + E(binding) = m1c2 + m2c2 Therefore M = m1 + m2 – E(binding)/c2 • => For sufficiently strong binding M -> 0 !!! • => (???) Creation of the Universe out of Nothing (???) • Recent Physics Colloquium: “Why is there Something rather than Nothing?” Conclusion: “Maybe there is Nothing, cleverly disguised as Something.”

  26. Example of Modern Physics: The Central Mystery of Quantum Physics 1) click, click,..

  27. Example of Modern Physics: The Central Mystery of Quantum Physics 2) No clicks

  28. Example of Modern Physics: The Central Mystery of Quantum Physics 3) click, click, …

  29. Example of Modern Physics: The Central Mystery of Quantum Physics 4) No clicks

  30. Upcoming Colloquia April 6                   Anton Zeilinger (University of Vienna and Institute of Quantum Optics and Quantum Information, Austrian Academy of Sciences)Title: “Entangled Photons from the Foundations of Quantum Physics to Quantum Information”Abstract: Entanglement of photons, besides being of fundamental interest, is central to many quantum information protocols like quantum cryptography, quantum teleportation and all-optical one-way quantum computation. In entanglement-based quantum cryptography an automatic system for the encoding of voice mail or video streams was developed. Recent experiments also include novel fundamental tests of  quantum physics. In one series of experiments  entangled photons are distributed between the Canary islands of Tenerife and La Palma separated by 144 km.These allow for the first time a Bell test implementing the so-called free will condition.

  31. Setting of the Workshop on “What Exists in the Quantum World”, Summer Academy 2010 (plus Summer Festwochen), Traunkirchen (Austria).

  32. Physics is Different • Recent decades have taught us that physics is a magic window. It shows us the illusion that lies behind reality - and the reality that lies behind illusion. Its scope is immensely greater than we once realized. We are no longer satisfied with insights only into particles, or fields of force, or geometry, or even space and time. Today we demand of physics some understanding of existence itself. J.A.Wheeler

  33. Fig. 19: Marvelous Molecular machines contd. Left: “spontaneous” assembly and disassembly of a microtubule Above: a kinesin molecule walks[sic] along a microtubule, carrying an organelle See http://multimedia.mcb.harvard.edu/anim_innerlife_hi.html

  34. The Basic Problem • For the first time in human history, the capability of causing extreme harm is, or will soon be, in the hands of individuals or small groups. This is the 'Basic Problem'.  The actual manifestation of the problem will come as an intentional or accidental misuse of our new powers. • Illustration: knowledge of nuclear physics is not sufficient to actually build a nuclear weapon (expense, detectability). • Contrast with molecular biology (which I love !!!)

  35. the Basic Problem is a reflection of the Big Gap: the ever-increasing gap between the cumulative, exponential progress in science and technology on the one hand, and on the other hand, the lack of comparable progress in our ability to use our new technological tools thoughtfully and responsibly. • Musical illustration: who was mobbed in the 18th Century ? (Farinelli)

  36. Aristotle as a case study: Aristotle Physics: F = m times v F = m times a Aristotle Philosophy: "of the above mentioned forms, the perversions are as follows: of monarchy, tyranny; of aristocracy, oligarchy; of constitutional government, democracy."

  37. What Is To Be Done? • Education • Risk Assessment (instead of “relinquishment”) • Defensive and Preventive measures (intentional acts / accidents / natural ) • Coping with the aftermath • Strengthening of the International Law See www.phys.washington.edu/users/vladi/bp.doc

  38. The scope of the Basic Problem “Even if all nations impose strict regulations on the handling of nuclear material and dangerous viruses, the chances of effective enforcement, worldwide, are no better that current enforcement of laws against illegal drugs.” Sir Martin Rees, “Our Final Hour” Generalization: even if we succeed to make great progress in the five tasks outlined in “What Is To Be Done”, it would not provide guaranteed safety: large-scale disasters will still be quite possible. This shows that the five steps are not sufficient but necessary – we will certainly come to grief if we don’t solve them.

  39. Implications for International Studies • As argued in “What Is To Be Done”, the unrestricted national sovereignty is not compatible with modern science and technology • In particular, the idea of the USA as a benevolent hegemon is not applicable • Restricting national sovereignty is NOT equivalent to a “World Government”: in fact, some decentralization may be necessary, and even the US itself may be have become too big for a central government (cf. the California experiment of Gov. Schwarzenegger) • If this difficult but well-defined problem is addressed (as our Founding Fathers did two hundred years ago) then perhaps the even more difficult problems of Human Security can be solved

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