ABSTRACT:
In recent years, the field of quantum information science -- an amalgam of topics ranging from quantum encryption, to quantum computing, quantum teleportation, and more -- has catapulted to the cutting edge of physics, sporting a multi-billion-dollar research program, tens of thousands of published research articles, and a variety of device prototypes. This tremendous excitement marks the tail end of a long-simmering Cinderella story. Long before the big budgets and dedicated teams, the field moldered on the scientific sidelines. In fact, the field's recent breakthroughs derive, in part, from the hazy, bong-filled excesses of the 1970s New Age movement. Many of the ideas that now occupy the core of quantum information science once found their home amid an anything-goes counterculture frenzy, a mishmash of spoon-bending psychics, Eastern mysticism, LSD trips, and CIA spooks chasing mind-reading dreams. For the better part of a decade, the concepts that would, in time, blossom into developments like quantum encryption were bandied about in late-night bull sessions and hawked by proponents of a burgeoning self-help movement -- more snake oil than stock option. This talk describes the field's bumpy transition from New Age to cutting edge.
More information on Dr. Kaiser's work is available at: http://web.mit.edu/dikaiser/www/. For a biographical sketch of Dr. Kaiser, click the "Read More" button.
BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH:David Kaiser is an associate professor at MIT, where he teaches in the Program in Science, Technology, and Society and in the Department of Physics. He completed Ph.D.s in physics and the history of science at Harvard University. Kaiser is author of the award-winning book, Drawing Theories Apart: The Dispersion of Feynman Diagrams in Postwar Physics (2005), which traces how Richard Feynman's idiosyncratic approach to quantum physics entered the mainstream. Recent edited books include Pedagogy and the Practice of Science: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives (2005) and Becoming MIT: Moments of Decision (2010). His latest book, How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival, will be published by W. W. Norton in June 2011. Kaiser's reseach has received awards from the American Physical Society, the History of Science Society, the British Society for the History of Science, and MIT. He has also received several teaching awards from Harvard and MIT.
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