I praise Joe Rogan for bringing the work of great minds, working at the frontiers of highly imaginative science and technology, to the attention of the public. In “Irrational mechanics,” I say that science “must descend from its ivory tower and join us in the street. This book is a manifesto for street science.” Joe Rogan’s work is a great example of street science.
I’ve been watching two recent episodes of Joe Rogan’s podcast.
One episode is a conversation with physicist and space engineer Harold “Sonny” White. One often hears White’s name in connection with “crazy” space propulsion ideas like the Alcubierre warp drive or the much maligned EmDrive. White also researches creative ways to extract energy from the “zero point field” of quantum fluctuations in the vacuum.
He has founded a company that wants to build nanotechnology able to leverage the Casimir effect to extract zero point energy from the quantum vacuum. The Casimir effect was first theorized by physicist Hendrik Casimir and then confirmed in the laboratory. When two parallel metal plates are very close to each other in the vacuum, there is a force that pulls them closer. White explains that this force comes from fluctuating fields in the quantum vacuum.
For a technical presentation of all these things, see for example the last chapter of “Future Spacecraft Propulsion Systems and Integration.”
Another episode is a conversation with maverick physicist Hal Puthoff, renowned (or maligned) for his work in unconventional scientific areas, including remote viewing and unidentified aerial phenomena (UAP). Puthoff has also been involved (bigtime) in the physics of the zero point field.
In the afterword to his science fiction novel “3001: The Final Odissey,” Arthur Clarke said that a 1994 paper by Puthoff, Bernard Haisch, and Alfonso Rueda, “may one day be regarded as a landmark paper.” In the novel, Clarke imagines a space drive known as the SHARP drive (Sakharov, Haisch, Rueda and Puthoff). Puthoff and his co-authors built on a concept first advanced by Andrei Sakharov.
“Based on earlier work by Sakharov, this purports to explain the origin of inertia - the intrinsic ‘sluggishness’ of all matter when any attempt is made to change its velocity (Newton again - the first law),” explained Clarke. “The paper argues that gravitational and inertial forces are due to the enormous energies (‘zero point fluctuations’) that pervade all space, even the so-called vacuum itself.”
“If I were a NASA administrator,” Clarke concluded, “I’d get my best, brightest, and youngest (no one over twenty-five need apply) to take a long, hard look at the Puthoff equations.”
“I have found a way to extract a small amount of energy from the electromagnetic fluctuations of the vacuum,” noted Robert Forward. “It is a vacuum fluctuation ‘battery’ and it is based on the Casimir effect.” This is the same effect upon which Sonny White is trying to build nano devices to extract energy from the quantum vacuum.
Puthoff’s collaborator Bernard Haisch as well has co-founded a company that wants to extract energy from quantum vacuum fluctuations.
Bernard Haisch also wrote books (1, 2) that link the physics of zero point vacuum fluctuations to fundamental physics, consciousness, and even a concept of God.
I’ve been reading Haisch’s books. The zero point field, he says, could explain quantum behavior, explain the origin of inertia, and be tapped as an inexhaustible source of energy on this planet and for interstellar propulsion. Not bad!
Zero point physics is based on stochastic electrodynamics, that is, the mathematical study of an ocean of random electromagnetic waves that fills the universe. In his recent book on hydrodynamic quantum analogues (HQA), Adam Forrest Kay notes that stochastic electrodynamics “actually tries to provide a picture of sub-quantum reality and explain things.”
Stochastic electrodynamics “is a useful computational tool,” explains Haisch, “even if you do not take the simplified approximations of stochastic electrodynamics completely literally (which you shouldn't).”
In fact, stochastic electrodynamics can only be a simplified approximation because it is based on the electromagnetic field alone and doesn’t take into account other vacuum fields.
The authors of a textbook on stochastic electrodynamics admit this. All vacuum fields “could contribute to the fundamental stochastic behavior of matter on the microscopic level,” they say. But at the scales to which quantum mechanics is most frequently applied, it is the electromagnetic vacuum that plays the pivotal role. “At deeper levels or for systems of another sort,” they add, “it may well be that other vacua become relevant.”
Kay suggests that gravitation may be involved. This could “create a connection between general relativity and quantum mechanics,” he says. “But so far this idea is like all proposals for the subquantum field in HQA: extremely speculative.”
So I consider stochastic electrodynamics as a simplified model of the zero point field, which should and will certainly be expanded and refined.
This brings me to my favorite conceptual models of the zero point field, which I outlined in Chapter 11 of “Irrational mechanics.” In the chapter I discuss current research on the quantum vacuum as a material substrate analogous to condensed matter like superfluids. I also discuss Edward Nelson’s stochastic formulation of quantum mechanics based on “a kind of Brownian motion that agitates all particles of matter.”
In the same chapter I say: “Like Nelson, David Bohm underlined the analogy between quantum paths and Brownian motion. But unlike Nelson, Bohm also proposed a more or less detailed model of what happens behind the scenes. In Bohm’s theory, quantum particles are pushed around by a fluctuating field called ‘quantum potential.’”
I should have used better wording, because this is kind of misleading. Bohm did not propose a detailed model of what happens behind the scenes, but limited himself to defining his quantum potential in a way that reproduces some aspects of known quantum mechanics. He repeatedly hinted at sub-quantum physics that could be the origin of quantum fluctuations, but didn’t propose a detailed model. He just speculated, like Nelson, that quantum fluctuations could be derived from “a deeper sub-quantum-mechanical level, in much the same way that the fluctuations in the Brownian motion of a microscopic liquid droplet come from a deeper atomic level.”
This is highly speculative science, but I sense that it’s becoming more and more respected. Christian Jooss, a physicist with evident Marxist sympathies, seems to like these ideas.
So zero point science could explain quantum behavior and the origin of inertia, not to mention the physics of UAPs, and zero-point engineering could give us unlimited energy and take us to the stars. What else is the zero point field good for?
Well, Haisch believes that the zero point field “may, in fact, be an expression of God.” His God is pure consciousness, and gives rise to physical worlds with conscious inhabitants like us. We are splinters of universal consciousness, “by which he is able to know himself.”
Haisch speculates that the zero point field could “possibly be a manifestation of the Ein Sof.” This is a Jewish traditional name for the state of God before creation. Haisch establishes parallels with the Akashic field of Theosophy and Eastern spiritual traditions. This is a cosmic memory field that stores “Akashic records” of everything that ever happens.
Haisch mentions UAPs, but doesn’t speculate much on remote viewing and other paranormal phenomena. But it seems to me that the possibility of accessing some kind of Akashic records through the zero point field would open the door to all sorts of paranormal phenomena and occult experiences.