Brian Josephson's home page (original) (raw)

latest| publications| videos/audios| astronomical| parapsychology| search| cultural

Autograph hunters please note

Welcome to the home page of Professor Brian Josephson, director of the _Mind-Matter Unification Project_of theTheory of Condensed Matter Group at theCavendish Laboratory, Cambridge, a project concerned primarily with the attempt to understand, from the viewpoint of the theoretical physicist, what may loosely be characterised as intelligent processes in nature, associated with brain function or with some other natural process.

Project members: Brian Josephson, Takeo Oku, Plamen L. Simeonov, Madan Thangavelu, Steven M Rosen, Alex Hankey, Mrittunjoy Guha Majumdar, Scott Kelso.

_'From the viewpoint of the theoretical physicist'_here means that there is a particular concern with general principles and the way these may help to reshape one's perspective on a problem. One of my guiding principles, also, has been the scientist's motto 'Take nobody's word for it' (nullius in verba), a corollary of which is that if scientists as a whole denounce an idea this should not necessarily be taken as proof that the said idea is absurd: rather, one should examine carefully the alleged grounds for such opinions and judge how well these stand up to detailed scrutiny.

Update: The latest Mind–Matter Unification Project lecture, entitled Taking into account Organised Complexity could Initiate a New Era in Physics, is now available on YouTube. The main point of the lecture is that full understanding of fundamental reality requires the use of biological concepts, such as those associated with Coordination Dynamics, as well as purely mathematical ones.

A preprint entitled 'Beyond the ‘theory of everything’ paradigm: synergetic patterns and the order of the natural world' is now available at researchgate.net, advancing further our project of 'rescuing fundamental physics' from the problematic state it is currently in. The key point in the paper is the applicability of the insights of Coordination Dynamicsto physics issues. Combining these insights with computer-based studies of language processing argues for a picture, analysed in detail, involving 'experts' working together in harmony. The preprint was uploaded to the physics preprint server arXiv on June 13, 2021 but, ever anxious to protect its readers from novel kinds of thinking, the archive's moderators rejected the paper, on the basis of it not containing any new ideas. I suggested that if one read the paper carefully enough one would see what the new ideas were. They responded (more or less) that their moderators were not into taking the time that that would involve, but they would reconsider if the paper were published in a reliable journal. Really? Wasn't the whole point of the archive to make papers available to people quickly, not to have to wait for publication in a journal?
Videosare now available for the talks given at the conference 'New Horizons in Water Science: Evidence for Homeopathy?'.

The video of my lecture on Complex Organisation and Fundamental Physics is now available on the web. It argues that "rather than regular physics underpinning biology, biological mechanisms involving 'structures of power' underpin the kinds of situations addressed in current physics". The slides shown in the lecture are also available.

How observers create realityWheeler proposed that repeated acts of observation give rise to the reality that we observe, but offered no detailed mechanism for this. Inthis paperthis creative process is accounted for on the basis of the idea that nature has a deep technological aspect that evolves as a result of selection processes that act upon observers making use of the technologies, leading to the conclusion that our universe is the product of agencies that use these evolved technologies to suit particular purposes.Some‘links of the day’ are available in this archive.

Follow this link for sundry Mind-Matter Unification Project video lectures (many now available at 720p quality), including:

• Life, Extended Mind, and Fundamental Physics
• Shifting Assumptions in Science: video extracts from the July 2008 Hokkaido Symposium
• Lecture: Which Way for Physics?
• Why misconduct allegations against Rusi Taleyarkhan, highlighted by Nature's correspondent Eugenie Reich, were dismissed. As yet, Reich has failed to respond to a letter drawing her attention to the 'Inconvenient Truths' exposed by the Journal and Courier article.
• The New Energy Times detailed report on the Taleyarkhan affair. The objectivity of this report contrasts strikingly with the agenda-driven character of the reports published in Nature.
  • Regrettably, NET also has a penchant for vindictive attacks on selected organisations and individuals. Here is my responseto one such article, created by NET's editor Steven B. Krivit.
• (video lecture) Can the Physicists' Description of Reality be Considered Complete?
• _Nature_is on the attack again, declaring 'being a worthwhile story' sufficient justification for the publication of serious allegations that it cannot substantiate. Details;correspondence with Editor.
• The propagandising activities of the anti-paranormal organisation CSICOP come to light through a recent TV programme. Among other things, an experimental outcome whose probability of occurring by chance was less than one in 50 was characterised by the sceptical investigators as "more consistent with chance guessing". Details
• How we might be able to understand the brain (paper presented at the International Conference on Complex Systems 2004, Boston, MA, together with video interview and PowerPoint presentation)
• A Physics World profile explains the background to the project and other things.
• Abstractions and the Brain (talk given at the Complex Systems Conference, Messina, December 2001)
• Cold Fusion politics (revised June 9, 2004). Anyone wondering whether cold fusion is a real phenomenon, or merely erroneous science, should study this talk by Charles Beaudette
• Unusually, the administrators of the physics archive at arXiv.org rapidly deleted a paper successfully deposited in the archive, perhaps as a reflex response to the fact that the paper concerned reviewed research in cold fusion. As a service to the scientific community, this 37-page review by Edmund Stormsis being made available on this web site. It is suggested that serious scientific comments on the review, by those registered for depositing papers in the archive, be deposited in the cond-mat section, with crosslinking to nucl-ex and a link to the original review (here). However, there can be no guarantee that such contributions will not be deleted from the archive as was the review itself.
  [Note: it is not the intention to include poor research on these web pages. If anyone feels there are problems with the review concerned which are not cleared up through correspondence with the author, would they please let me know at the email address below (no complaints received so far at Oct. 25th., 2004)]

See the cognitive science page for details of research relating to brain functioning; other topics with which the project is involved include

• relationships between quantum mechanics, observer mechanisms and mind processes
• relationships between quantum mechanics and the paranormal
• the cognitive significance of musical themes
• arguments for there being limits to the universality of quantum mechanics

The publications list has been reorganised. It is now divided into categories and is no longer split between two servers.
Information of topical or other special interest is included on this page.

• Scientists attack suggestion, in an official Royal Mail publication connected with its Nobel centenary stamps, that telepathy might be explicable on the basis of quantum theory
  • the text concerned and its origins
  • theoretical aspects
  • the attacks published in Natureand in the Observer
  • responsesby myself and by Royal Mail
  • the matter is debated on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, October 2, 2001 (2MB mp3 audio file)
    * a transcript of the debate plus additional commentary
    * the book review mentioned in the debate
  • have the critics overreached themselves: is this the beginning of the end for a situation where the paranormal is, to all intents and purposes, a forbidden topic of discussion in science?
  • other paranormal links
• "Beyond Quantum Theory" revisited (UK mirror)
• Constructional Tools as the Origin of Cognitive Capacities (paper presented at the ECHO IV conference, Odense, August 2000)
• Comments on the 'cultural bias' against the paranormal (published in Physics World, October 2000)
• _The received wisdom is not the whole story"_-- Brian Josephson's reviewof Robert Park's Voodoo Science, published in the Times Higher Educational Supplement
  • Eugene Mallove's review of Robert Park's book Voodoo Science
  • further review of Voodoo Science in the Washington Post
• Diagnosis of Millennium Bridge problem, published on June 14, 2000, confirmed as correct by Ove Arup on 28 June (report no longer available), and by more recent research at Bristol University.
  • commercial secrecy leads to bridge engineers not being aware that people push sideways (as well as downwards) when they walk: a New Scientist report (no longer available for public access)
  • "Load testing of a new design is extremely rare. Bridges are built to the codes developed by the great and the good ..."; article by Andy Beckett
• Dan Drasin explains the Art of Debunkery (revised edition)
• Physicists probe the paranormal: report on conference held at Trinity College, Cambridge (note: while the report itself is well balanced, there is a lot more evidence in favour of the reality of the phenomena than was presented at the conference)
• Lectures given by Jacques Benveniste at the Cavendish Laboratory colloquium on his controversial high-dilution experiments, including abstract and a review of the talk, and now a video
  • commenton the controversial aspect of the talk
  • Benveniste's home page
  • new research supports Jacques Benveniste'scontroversial 1988 paper on biological activity of highly diluted solutions
    See also
  • Is homeopathy nonsense? (and why it may not be)

A selection of publications, and other activities of the Mind-Matter Unification Project follows:

• An integrated theory of nervous system functioning embracing nativism and constructivism
• A Generative Approach to the Understanding of Cognitive Skills (with N.A. Baas)
• The 1982 Josephson/Blair theory of language acquisition (previously unpublished)
• The Truth of Science (book review)
• somecomet pictures including comet Hale-Boppviewed from Cambridge, April 15th., 1997

In view of the increasing importance of the subject, there is now a separate Parapsychology Page

Major journal's attempts to mislead its readers regarding evidence for parapsychology

• A recent issue of Nature admits (page 564 of the Apr. 9th. 1998 issue) the existence of a minor error that the journal introduced during the process of editing a parapsychology book review. But it remains silent about the more significant fact that when a misunderstanding of the reviewer is corrected the main basis of his criticism of the book in question disappears. Details

(added June 2nd., 1998) Michael Rossman characterises such behaviouras 'undignified and shameful for a journal of [Nature's] stature'

• Update of Aug. 14, 1998: the journal backs down under pressure and, after eight months delay, publishes a correction (page 413 of the 30 July 1998 issue).

You can get many of these pages in bookform in Japanese translation

Alternative Trinity Fellows' home page (available to Trinity Fellows only)

Cultural Area

• Interior: painting by Kate Olivier, former Senior Paintings Conservator at Harvard's Fogg Art Museum.

email contact

latest| publications| astronomical| parapsychology | search