Science & Ultimate Reality





		Speakers Note: The participants below are also subsequently listed within individual groups to reflect their roles in various aspects of the Wheeler Project (symposium speaking, book chapter writing, planning and development, organizing, and cosponsoring). Many participants are contributing in more than one capacity. All biosketches follow these listings in alphabetical order. Andreas Albrecht - University of California, Davis: "The Arrow of Time, Entropy and the Origins of the Universe"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also a Program Development Committee member John Barrow - University of Cambridge: "Cosmology and Mutability"; chapter author; also a member of the Program Oversight Committee and a Program Development Committee member Raymond Chiao - University of California, Berkeley: "Conceptual Tensions Between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity: Are There Experimental Consequences?"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also a Program Development Committee member Philip Clayton - California State University, Sonoma, and Harvard University: "Emergence: Us from It"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also a Program Development Committee member Paul Davies - Macquarie University, University of Queensland, and Imperial College; pre-symposium electronic discussion group moderator and book overview and summary author; also a Program Development Committee member David Deutsch - University of Oxford: "It from Qubit"; chapter author Bryce DeWitt - University of Texas, Austin: "The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics"; symposium speaker and chapter author Freeman Dyson - Institute for Advanced Study: "Thought-Experiments in Honor of John Wheeler"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also Chair of the Program Oversight Committee and a Program Development Committee member Artur Ekert - University of Oxford; a Program Development Committee member George Ellis - University of Cape Town: "True Complexity and the Associated Ontology"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also a member of the Program Oversight Committee and a Program Development Committee member Timothy Ferris - Science Filmmaker and Writer; Master of Ceremonies, Wheeler Celebratory Banquet Kenneth Ford - Senior Program Consultant and a member of the Organizing Committee Marcelo Gleiser - Dartmouth College: "Emergent Coherent Behavior and the Problem of the 3 Origins: Cosmos, Life, and Mind"; symposium speaker and chapter author William Grassie - Executive Director, Metanexus Institute and a member of the Organizing Committee Peter Gruber - Founder, Peter Gruber Foundation Cosmology Prize; Cosponsor Lucien Hardy - University of Oxford: "How Come Quantum Theory?"; symposium speaker and chapter author Serge Haroche - College of France: "From Thought Experiments to Quantum Information: Creating and Manipulating Various Kinds of Schrödinger Cats"; chapter author Charles Harper - Executive Director, John Templeton Foundation and a member of the Organizing Committee Sidney Harris - Science Cartoonist; featured at the Wheeler Celebratory Banquet Stuart Kauffman - Santa Fe Institute: "Investigations: On the Nature of Autonomous Agents"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also a Program Development Committee member Paul Kwiat - University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana: "(Quantum) Erasing the Nature of Reality"; chapter author Robert Laughlin - Stanford University: "Emergent Relativity"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also a member of the Program Oversight Committee and a Program Development Committee member Andrei Linde - Stanford University: "Quantum Cosmology, Inflation, and Anthropic Principle"; symposium speaker and chapter author Hideo Mabuchi - California Institute of Technology: "Measurement, Feedback, and the Quantum-Classical Transition"; symposium speaker and chapter author Joao Magueijo - Imperial College: "Cosmic Lessons in Physics"; symposium speaker and chapter author Juan Maldacena - Institute for Advanced Study: "Quantum Gravity as an Ordinary Gauge Theory"; symposium speaker and chapter author Charles Misner - University of Maryland; a member of the Program Oversight Committee Christopher Monroe - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: "Information Processing at the Quantum-Classical Frontier"; symposium speaker and chapter author Juan Paz - University of Buenos Aires: "Using Qbits to Learn About It"; chapter author Jaroslav Pelikan - Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University: "The Heritage of Heraclitus: John Archibald Wheeler and the Itch to Speculate"; plenary lecturer William Phillips - National Institute of Standards and Technology (USA); a member of the Program Oversight Committee and a Program Development Committee member Lisa Randall - Harvard University: "The Shape of Gravity"; symposium speaker and chapter author Lee Smolin - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the University of Waterloo: "The Two Paradigms of Quantum Gravity and the Puzzle of Their Reconciliation"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also a Program Development Committee member Aephraim Steinberg - University of Toronto: "What Can Be Known: Past and Future"; symposium speaker and chapter author Max Tegmark - University of Pennsylvania: "Parallel Universes"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also Deputy Chair of the Program Oversight Committee and a Program Development Committee member Charles Townes - University of California, Berkeley; a member of the Program Oversight Committee Dieter Zeh - University of Heidelberg: "The Wave Function: It or Bit?"; chapter author Anton Zeilinger - Professor of Physics, Institute of Experimental Physics, University of Vienna: "Why the Quantum? It from Bit? A Participatory Universe?: Three Far-reaching, Visionary Questions from John Archibald Wheeler and How They Inspired a Quantum Experimentalist"; plenary lecturer; also a Program Development Committee member Shoucheng Zhang - Stanford University: "To See a World in a Grain of Sand"; chapter author Wojciech Zurek - Los Alamos National Laboratory: "Quantum Theory of the Classical"; symposium speaker and chapter author; also a Program Development Committee member Speakers/Writers Andreas Albrecht - University of California, Davis: "The Arrow of Time, Entropy and the Origins of the Universe" Raymond Chiao - University of California, Berkeley: "Conceptual Tensions Between Quantum Mechanics and General Relativity: Are There Experimental Consequences?" Philip Clayton - California State University, Sonoma, and Harvard University: "Emergence: Us from It" Bryce DeWitt - University of Texas, Austin: "The Everett Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics" Freeman Dyson - Institute for Advanced Study: "Thought-Experiments in Honor of John Wheeler" George Ellis - University of Cape Town: "True Complexity and the Associated Ontology" Marcelo Gleiser - Dartmouth College: "Emergent Coherent Behavior and the Problem of the 3 Origins: Cosmos, Life, and Mind" Lucien Hardy - University of Oxford: "How Come Quantum Theory?" Stuart Kauffman - Santa Fe Institute: "Investigations: On the Nature of Autonomous Agents" Robert Laughlin - Stanford University: "Emergent Relativity" Andrei Linde - Stanford University: "Quantum Cosmology, Inflation, and Anthropic Principle" Hideo Mabuchi - California Institute of Technology: "Measurement, Feedback, and the Quantum-Classical Transition" Joao Magueijo - Imperial College: "Cosmic Lessons in Physics" Juan Maldacena - Institute for Advanced Study: "Quantum Gravity as an Ordinary Gauge Theory" Christopher Monroe - University of Michigan, Ann Arbor: "Information Processing at the Quantum-Classical Frontier" Jaroslav Pelikan - Sterling Professor Emeritus of History, Yale University: "The Heritage of Heraclitus: John Archibald Wheeler and the Itch to Speculate" Lisa Randall - Harvard University: "The Shape of Gravity" Lee Smolin - Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics and the University of Waterloo: "The Two Paradigms of Quantum Gravity and the Puzzle of Their Reconciliation" Aephraim Steinberg - University of Toronto: "What Can Be Known: Past and Future" Max Tegmark - University of Pennsylvania: "Parallel Universes" Anton Zeilinger - Professor of Physics, Institute of Experimental Physics, University of Vienna: "Why the Quantum? It from Bit? A Participatory Universe?: Three Far-reaching, Visionary Questions from John Archibald Wheeler and How They Inspired a Quantum Experimentalist" Wojciech Zurek - Los Alamos National Laboratory: "Quantum Theory of the Classical" Special Note: In addition to the above-named contributors, the following authors will be contributing chapters to the book that will be published based on the symposium themes (additional authors will be announced): John Barrow - Cambridge University: "Cosmology and Mutability" Paul Davies - Macquarie University, University of Queensland, and Imperial College: Overview and Summary David Deutsch - Oxford University: "It from Qubit" Serge Haroche - College of France: "From Thought Experiments to Quantum Information: Creating and Manipulating Various Kinds of Schrödinger Cats" Paul Kwiat - University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana: "(Quantum) Erasing the Nature of Reality" Juan Paz - University of Buenos Aires: "Using Qbits to Learn About It" Dieter Zeh - University of Heidelberg: "The Wave Function: It or Bit?" Shoucheng Zhang - Stanford University: "To See a World in a Grain of Sand"