Honest Reflections
Podcast
A second podcast episode titled “The Failings of the David Bohm Society” has been released. We felt it was important to put out this assessment of the reality of the situation we’re facing. Our work continues and intensifies, but we want everyone to know what we’re up against and what is needed for anyone to have success in this field.
New Material
The Barry Long Foundation has recently made available a two-hour-long conversation between David Bohm and Barry Long. Recorded in December 1983, the conversation touches upon time and consciousness.
Review in Science
Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the publication of The Essential David Bohm. Àlex Gómez-Marín reviewed the book for Science.
Bohm’s Academic Career in the United States
An excerpt from Volume 5 of History of the Physics Department, University of California, Berkeley by Raymond T. Birge:
Born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, 1917. B.S., Pennsylvania State College, 1939. White Fellow at Penn State and then teaching assistant at California Institute of Technology, 1939–40, continuing there in 1940–41. In his two years (1941–43) as a graduate student (and teaching assistant) at Berkeley, Mr. Bohm had a straight A record. All five of his preliminary examinations for the Ph.D. degree were passed within the two-month period, January 28 to March 30, 1943 and all but one with a grade of “Excellent,” a time record I think without precedent in the department. His thesis, classified like so many others, was titled “Theoretical Investigation of Scattering of Various Nuclear Particles.”
Dr. Bohm worked with the theoretical group in the Radiation Laboratory from October 30, 1942 to August 31, 1946. He then held the title of Research Physicist until January 31, 1947, when he joined the faculty of Princeton University as assistant professor of physics. His folder is quite bare of information on his subsequent activities (and he does not appear in American Men of Science) except for the single notation that on May 31, 1951 he was acquitted of the charge of contempt of court. I believe he was involved in the same sort of difficulties that beset other of our graduate students who, like Weinberg, had worked with Professor Oppenheimer. In the 1951 membership list of the American Physical Society, Dr. Bohm’s address is given as Princeton University. In the 1955 list it is Universidade de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. His name does not appear in later lists.
Quote
This issue’s Bohm quote is taken from “On the Problem of Truth and Understanding in Science.”
It seems clear, then, that understanding is something radically and fundamentally different from associative thinking. However, it is only in the context of the fact that understanding actually takes place that the question of truth can arise. For if there is no understanding of what is being thought and said, what meaning can there be to asking whether it is true or false? But when we understand deeply enough, then, as we can see by actually experiencing it as a fact, there is the possibility of perceiving the truth or falsity of what is being thought and said.
Truth, like understanding, is basically implicit. If one were to give a definition of truth, at the end one could say “And this is the true definition of truth,” thus showing that the hearer had to understand the meaning of truth before communication was even conceivable. This means that all efforts to reduce science to some definite, explicit, “positive” characteristics are bound to fail, because none of these makes sense except in a context in which the undefinables, “truth” and “understanding,” are present from the very beginning.
Support the David Bohm Society
Please consider becoming a member of the society.
We’re still looking for old camera lenses from the film days (which we will adapt for video purposes) as well as any video card that’s relevant to deep learning. If you have either of these that you’re willing to donate, please contact us.