20. SCIENCE AND HUMANPOSSIBILITY

WE’VE CONSTRUCTED THIS EDIFICE CALLED WESTERN SCIENCE, THAT HAPPENS TO BE GOOD AT A FEW THINGS LIKE CT IMAGING OR GUIDING SATELLITES OR DESIGNING NUCLEAR REACTORS, BUT IT DOESN’T MEAN WE REALLY UNDERSTAND THE WORLD AT ALL.– Brian Arthur

On the last morning before we all departed Pari, I had breakfast with Jeffrey Tollaksen, chair of the Physics, Computational Sciences, and Engineering Department at Chapman University, and his wife, Jayne. We talked about the work he and Yakir were coleading at Chapman on the reformulation of quantum mechanics, which was beginning to provide a very different picture of the nature of time. The Economist characterized this body of work by saying, “The good news is reality exists. ...

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