David Bohm | |
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| Born | David Joseph Bohm (1917-12-20)20 December 1917 |
| Died | 27 October 1992(1992-10-27) (aged 74) London, England, UK |
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| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Theoretical physics |
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| Doctoral advisor | Robert Oppenheimer |
| Doctoral students | |
David Joseph BohmFRS[1] (/boʊm/; 20 December 1917 – 27 October 1992) was an American scientist who has been described as one of the most significanttheoreticalphysicists of the 20th century[2] and who contributed unorthodox ideas toquantum theory,neuropsychology and thephilosophy of mind. Among his many contributions to physics is his causal and deterministic interpretation of quantum theory known asDe Broglie–Bohm theory.
Bohm advanced the view that quantum physics meant that the oldCartesian model of reality—that there are two kinds of substance, the mental and the physical, that somehow interact—was too limited. To complement it, he developed a mathematical and physical theory of"implicate" and "explicate" order.[3] He also believed that the brain, at the cellular level, works according to the mathematics of some quantum effects, and postulated that thought is distributed and non-localised just as quantum entities are.[4] Bohm's main concern was with understanding the nature of reality in general and of consciousness in particular as a coherent whole, which according to Bohm is never static or complete.[5]
Bohm warned of the dangers of rampant reason and technology, advocating instead the need for genuine supportive dialogue, which he claimed could bridge and unify conflicting and troublesome divisions in the social world. In this, hisepistemology mirrored hisontology.[6][clarification needed]
Born in the United States, Bohm obtained his Ph.D. underJ. Robert Oppenheimer at theUniversity of California, Berkeley. Due to hisCommunist affiliations, he was the subject of a federal government investigation in 1949, prompting him to leave the U.S. He pursued his career in several countries, becoming first aBrazilian and then aBritish citizen. He abandoned Marxism in the wake of theHungarian Uprising in 1956.[7][8]
Bohm was born inWilkes-Barre,Pennsylvania, to aHungarian Jewish immigrant father, Samuel Bohm,[9] and aLithuanian Jewish mother, Frieda Popky.[10] He was raised mainly by his father, a furniture-store owner and assistant of the local rabbi. Despite being raised in a Jewish family, he became anagnostic in his teenage years.[11] Bohm attendedPennsylvania State College (now Pennsylvania State University), graduating in 1939, and then theCalifornia Institute of Technology, for one year. He then transferred to the theoretical physics group directed byRobert Oppenheimer at theUniversity of California, Berkeley Radiation Laboratory, where he obtained his doctorate.
Bohm lived in the same neighborhood as some of Oppenheimer's other graduate students (Giovanni Rossi Lomanitz,Joseph Weinberg, and Max Friedman) and with them became increasingly involved in radical politics. He was active in communist and communist-backed organizations, including theYoung Communist League, the Campus Committee to Fight Conscription, and theCommittee for Peace Mobilization. During his time at the Radiation Laboratory, Bohm was in a relationship withBetty Friedan and also helped to organize a local chapter of theFederation of Architects, Engineers, Chemists and Technicians, a small labor union affiliated to theCongress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).[12]
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DuringWorld War II, theManhattan Project mobilized much of Berkeley's physics research in the effort to produce the firstatomic bomb. Though Oppenheimer had asked Bohm to work with him atLos Alamos (the top-secret laboratory established in 1942 to design the atom bomb), the project's director,Brigadier GeneralLeslie Groves, would not approve Bohm's security clearance after seeing evidence of his politics and his close friendship with Weinberg, who had been suspected ofespionage.
During the war, Bohm remained at Berkeley, where he taught physics and conducted research inplasma, thesynchrotron and thesynchrocyclotron. He completed hisPhD in 1943 by an unusual circumstance. According to biographerF. David Peat,[13] "The scattering calculations (of collisions of protons and deuterons) that he had completed proved useful to the Manhattan Project and were immediately classified. Without security clearance, Bohm was denied access to his own work; not only would he be barred from defending his thesis, he was not even allowed to write his own thesis in the first place!" To satisfy the University, Oppenheimer certified that Bohm had successfully completed the research. Bohm later performed theoretical calculations for theCalutrons at theY-12 facility inOak Ridge, Tennessee. These calculations were used for theelectromagnetic enrichment of uranium for the bomb dropped onHiroshima in 1945.
After the war, Bohm became an assistant professor atPrinceton University. He also worked closely withAlbert Einstein at the nearbyInstitute for Advanced Study. In May 1949, theHouse Un-American Activities Committee called upon Bohm to testify because of his previous ties to unionism and suspected communists. Bohm invoked hisFifth Amendment right to refuse to testify, and he refused to give evidence against his colleagues.
In 1950, Bohm was arrested for refusing to answer the committee's questions. He was acquitted in May 1951, but Princeton had already suspended him. After his acquittal, Bohm's colleagues sought to have him reinstated at Princeton, but Princeton PresidentHarold W. Dodds[14] decided not to renew Bohm's contract. Although Einstein considered appointing him as his research assistant at the Institute, IAS President Oppenheimer "opposed the idea and [...] advised his former student to leave the country".[15] His request to go to theUniversity of Manchester received Einstein's support but was unsuccessful.[16] Bohm then left for Brazil to assume a professorship of physics at theUniversity of São Paulo, atJayme Tiomno's invitation and on the recommendation of both Einstein and Oppenheimer.
During his early period, Bohm made a number of significant contributions to physics, particularlyquantum mechanics andrelativity theory. As a postgraduate at Berkeley, he developed a theory ofplasmas, discovering theelectron phenomenon known asBohm diffusion.[18] His first book,Quantum Theory, published in 1951, was well received by Einstein, among others. But Bohm became dissatisfied with the orthodox interpretation of quantum theory he wrote about in that book. Starting from the realization that theWKB approximation of quantum mechanics leads to deterministic equations and convinced that a mere approximation could not turn a probabilistic theory into a deterministic theory, he doubted the inevitability of the conventional approach to quantum mechanics.[19]
Bohm's aim was not to set out a deterministic, mechanical viewpoint but to show that it was possible to attribute properties to an underlying reality, in contrast to the conventional approach.[20] He began to develop his own interpretation (theDe Broglie–Bohm theory, also called thepilot wave theory), the predictions of which agreed perfectly with the non-deterministic quantum theory. He initially called his approach ahidden variable theory, but he later called itontological theory, reflecting his view that astochastic process underlying the phenomena described by his theory might one day be found. Bohm and his colleagueBasil Hiley later stated that they had found their own choice of terms of an "interpretation in terms of hidden variables" to be too restrictive, especially since their variables, position and momentum, "are not actually hidden".[21]
Bohm's work and theEPR argument became the major factor motivatingJohn Stewart Bell'sinequality, which rules outlocal hidden variable theories; the full consequences of Bell's work are still being investigated.
When Bohm arrived in Brazil on 10 October 1951, the US Consul inSão Paulo confiscated his passport, informing him he could retrieve it only to return to his country, which reportedly frightened Bohm[22] and significantly lowered his spirits, as he had hoped to travel to Europe. He applied for and receivedBrazilian citizenship, but by law, had to give up hisUS citizenship; he was able to reclaim it only decades later, in 1986, after pursuing a lawsuit.[23]
At theUniversity of São Paulo, Bohm worked on the causal theory that became the subject of his publications in 1952.Jean-Pierre Vigier traveled toSão Paulo, where he worked with Bohm for three months; Ralph Schiller, student of cosmologistPeter Bergmann, was his assistant for two years; he worked with Tiomno and Walther Schützer; andMario Bunge stayed to work with him for one year. He was in contact with Brazilian physicistsMário Schenberg,Jean Meyer,Leite Lopes, and had discussions on occasion with visitors to Brazil, includingRichard Feynman,Isidor Rabi,Léon Rosenfeld,Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker,Herbert L. Anderson,Donald Kerst,Marcos Moshinsky, Alejandro Medina, and the former assistant toHeisenberg,Guido Beck, who encouraged him in his work and helped him obtain funding. The BrazilianCNPq explicitly supported his work on the causal theory and funded several researchers around Bohm. His work with Vigier was the beginning of a long-standing cooperation between the two andLouis De Broglie, in particular, on connections to the hydrodynamics model proposed byMadelung.[24]
Yet the causal theory met much resistance and skepticism, with many physicists holding theCopenhagen interpretation to be the only viable approach to quantum mechanics.[23] Bohm and Vigier both emphasized causality, not determinism.[25] In this context, Bohm proposed a causal approach in which the material world could be represented at an infinite number of levels, with stochastic dynamics at every level.[26]
From 1951 to 1953, Bohm andDavid Pines published the articles in which they introduced therandom phase approximation and proposed theplasmon.[27][28][29]
In 1955, Bohm relocated to Israel, where he spent two years working at theTechnion, inHaifa. There, he met Sarah Woolfson, whom he married in 1956. In 1957, Bohm and his studentYakir Aharonov published a new version of theEinstein–Podolsky–Rosen (EPR) paradox, reformulating the original argument in terms of spin.[30] It was that form of the EPR paradox that was discussed byJohn Stewart Bell in his famous paper of 1964.[31]
In 1957, Bohm relocated to the United Kingdom as a research fellow at theUniversity of Bristol. In 1959, Bohm and Aharonov discovered theAharonov–Bohm effect, showing how a magnetic field could affect a region of space in which the field had been shielded, but its vector potential did not vanish there. That showed for the first time that themagnetic vector potential, hitherto a mathematical convenience, could have real physical (quantum) effects.
In 1961, Bohm was made professor of theoretical physics at theUniversity of London'sBirkbeck College, becoming emeritus in 1987. His collected papers are stored there.[32]
At Birkbeck College, much of the work of Bohm andBasil Hiley expanded on the notion of implicate, explicate, and generative orders proposed by Bohm.[3][33][34] In the view of Bohm and Hiley, "things, such as particles, objects, and indeed subjects" exist as "semi-autonomous quasi-local features" of an underlying activity. Such features can be considered to be independent only up to a certain level of approximation in which certain criteria are fulfilled. In that picture, theclassical limit for quantum phenomena, in terms of a condition that theaction function is not much greater than thePlanck constant, indicates one such criterion. They used the word "holomovement" for the activity in such orders.[35]
In collaboration withStanford University neuroscientistKarl H. Pribram, Bohm was involved in the early development of theholonomic model of the functioning of the brain, a model for human cognition that is drastically different from conventionally-accepted ideas.[4] Bohm worked with Pribram on the theory that the brain operates in a manner that is similar to ahologram, in accordance with quantum mathematical principles and the characteristics of wave patterns.[36]
In addition to his scientific work, Bohm was deeply interested in exploring the nature of consciousness, with particular attention to the role of thought as it relates to attention, motivation, and conflict in the individual and in society. Those concerns were a natural extension of his earlier interest inMarxist ideology andHegelian philosophy. His views were brought into sharper focus through extensive interactions with the philosopher, speaker, and writerJiddu Krishnamurti, beginning in 1961.[37][38] Their collaboration lasted a quarter of a century, and their recorded dialogues were published in several volumes.[39][40][41]
Bohm's prolonged involvement with the philosophy of Krishnamurti was regarded somewhat skeptically by some of his scientific peers.[42][43] An examination in 2017 of the relationship between the two men presents it in a more positive light and shows that Bohm's work in the psychological field was complementary to and compatible with his contributions to theoretical physics.[38]
The mature expression of Bohm's views in the psychological field was presented in a seminar conducted in 1990 at theOak Grove School, founded by Krishnamurti inOjai, California. It was one of a series of seminars held by Bohm at Oak Grove School, and it was published asThought as a System.[44] In the seminar, Bohm described the pervasive influence of thought throughout society, including the many erroneous assumptions about the nature of thought and its effects in daily life.
In the seminar, Bohm develops several interrelated themes. He points out that thought is the ubiquitous tool that is used to solve every kind of problem: personal, social, scientific, and so on. Yet thought, he maintains, is also inadvertently the source of many of those problems. He recognizes and acknowledges the irony of the situation: it is as if one gets sick by going to the doctor.[38][44]
Bohm maintains that thought is a system, in the sense that it is an interconnected network of concepts, ideas and assumptions that pass seamlessly between individuals and throughout society. If there is a fault in the functioning of thought, therefore, it must be a systemic fault, which infects the entire network. The thought that is brought to bear to resolve any given problem, therefore, is susceptible to the same flaw that created the problem it is trying to solve.[38][44]
Thought proceeds as if it is merely reporting objectively, but in fact, it is often coloring and distorting perception in unexpected ways. What is required in order to correct the distortions introduced by thought, according to Bohm, is a form ofproprioception, or self-awareness. Neural receptors throughout the body inform us directly of our physical position and movement, but there is no corresponding awareness of the activity of thought. Such an awareness would represent psychological proprioception and would enable the possibility of perceiving and correcting the unintended consequences of the thinking process.[38][44]
In his bookOn Creativity, quotingAlfred Korzybski, the Polish-American who developed the field ofGeneral Semantics, Bohm expressed the view that "metaphysics is an expression of a world view" and is "thus to be regarded as an art form, resembling poetry in some ways and mathematics in others, rather than as an attempt to say something true about reality as a whole".[45]
Bohm was keenly aware of various ideas outside the scientific mainstream. In his bookScience, Order and Creativity, Bohm referred to the views of various biologists on the evolution of the species, includingRupert Sheldrake.[46] He also knew the ideas ofWilhelm Reich.[47]
Contrary to many other scientists, Bohm did not exclude theparanormal out of hand. Bohm temporarily even heldUri Geller's bending of keys and spoons to be possible, prompting warning remarks by his colleagueBasil Hiley that it might undermine the scientific credibility of their work in physics.Martin Gardner reported this in aSkeptical Inquirer article and also critiqued the views ofJiddu Krishnamurti, with whom Bohm had met in 1959 and had had many subsequent exchanges. Gardner said that Bohm's view of the interconnectedness of mind and matter "flirted withpanpsychism"[43] (on one occasion, Bohm summarized: "Even the electron is informed with a certain level of mind."[48]).
To address societal problems during his later years, Bohm wrote a proposal for a solution that has become known as "Bohm Dialogue", in which equal status and "free space" form the most important prerequisites of communication and the appreciation of differing personal beliefs. An essential ingredient in this form of dialogue is that participants "suspend" immediate action or judgment and give themselves and each other the opportunity to become aware of the thought process itself. Bohm suggested that if the "dialogue groups" were experienced on a sufficiently-wide scale, they could help overcome the isolation and fragmentation that Bohm observed in society.
Bohm continued his work in quantum physics after his retirement, in 1987. His final work, the posthumously publishedThe Undivided Universe: An Ontological Interpretation of Quantum Theory (1993), resulted from a decades-long collaboration withBasil Hiley. He also spoke to audiences across Europe and North America on the importance of dialogue as a form of sociotherapy, a concept he borrowed from London psychiatrist and practitioner ofGroup AnalysisPatrick de Maré, and he had a series of meetings with theDalai Lama. He was electedFellow of the Royal Society in 1990.[1]
Near the end of his life, Bohm began to experience a recurrence of thedepression that he had suffered earlier in life. He was admitted to theMaudsley Hospital inSouth London on 10 May 1991. His condition worsened and it was decided that the only treatment that might help him waselectroconvulsive therapy. Bohm's wife consulted psychiatrist David Shainberg, Bohm's longtime friend and collaborator, who agreed that electroconvulsive treatments were probably his only option. Bohm showed improvement from the treatments and was released on 29 August, but his depression returned and was treated with medication.[49]
On the day he died, Bohm said: "You know, it's tantalizing. I feel I'm on the edge of something."[50]
Bohm died after suffering aheart attack inHendon, London, on 27 October 1992, aged 74.[51]
The filmInfinite Potential is based on Bohm's life and studies; it adopts the same name as the biography byF. David Peat.[52]
In the early 1950s, Bohm's causal quantum theory of hidden variables was mostly negatively received, with a widespread tendency among physicists to systematically ignore both Bohm personally and his ideas. There was a significant revival of interest in Bohm's ideas in the late 1950s and the early 1960s; the Ninth Symposium of the Colston Research Society in Bristol in 1957 was a key turning point toward greater tolerance of his ideas.[53]
This paper will discuss in detail the concept of a holograph and the evidence Karl Pribram uses to support the idea that the brain implements holonomic transformations that distribute episodic information over regions of the brain(see§ Holonomic model of the brain).
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