The Feynman-Watts Lectures

Richard Feynman and Alan Watts

Imagine we are soaring in the sky and observing the peaks and valleys of the landscape below us. From a distance we see two gigantic mountains. Both mountains stood unmovable and proud. And then we wonder, what if we explore the two mountains and their terrains? So we fly to the first mountain. As we fly around and scan its territory we are filled with reverence and awe while witnessing its majestic beauty and symmetry. Then we fly to the second mountain. As we move closer and closer there is a brief moment when we lose of ourselves… The next thing we’re aware of is an afterglow of truthiness and ineffable mystique. And then we come to a realization. We know these two mountains are made of the same stuff. The same stuff that we are made of. The same stuff who is reading these words right now.

In the landscape of human intellectual achievement there are two major domains of knowledge: Western science and Eastern philosophy. Never before in recorded human history that these two domains of knowledge are freely accessible to everyone in this highly-connected and globalized world. Anyone with access to the internet has all this knowledge, literally, at her fingertips. But it wasn’t always the case. Before the internet, this knowledge had to be popularized one lecture, one book, one TV and radio broadcast at a time. During that time there were two key personalities who got the job done.

Richard Feynman was a towering figure in physics. His genius was the stuff of legend among his peers. But what separated him from other physicists was his zest for life and his uncanny ability to communicate the intricasies of science to a popular audience. He was a gifted physicist, mathematician, educator, Nobel Laureate, and a well-rounded human being. Aside from his many achievements, he was known for his classic lecture on “The Character of Physical Law” (The Messenger Lectures series). Below is a video of his lecture on “Seeking New Laws.”

Now I’m going to discuss how we would look for a new Law. In general we look for a new Law by the following process. First we guess it. Then we compute the consequences of the guess….  And then we compare those computation results to nature, or compare to experiments or experience. Compare it directly to observation to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement, is the key to science.

It doesn’t make a difference how beautiful your guess is. It doesn’t make a difference how smart you are, who made the guess, or what his name is, if it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong.

Alan Watts was a mystic, philosopher, author, and important figure who popularized Eastern philosophy in the West. He made Zen a household name. He was called “a great bodhisattva” by Shunryu Suzuki. He was also a prominent figure in the 60′s counter-culture. More recently, due to Youtube’s ubiquity, his classic “Eastern Wisdom and Modern Life” lecture series produced by KQED San Francisco and other lectures found new life on the internet. Below is a video of his lecture on “The Silent Mind.”

The sun is light but only because of eyes. Rocks are hard but only because of soft fingers. Falling rocks are noisy but only because of sensitive human ears. We cannot form any idea at all of what the world would be like without an observing mind. Even such things as duration, the span of time, depend upon the human mind to appreciate them. Space depends on a human mind to observe the world from a particular position and so know that there are things which are distant from it. Without this mind there could not be any world that we could think about or conceive or imagine in any way whatsoever. And so this shows in a very clear way that our mind and the external world go together. They are inseparable differences.

To this day Richard Feynman and Alan Watts continue to serve as paragons in their respective domains of knowledge. They exemplify what integral philosopher Ken Wilber calls the “three modes of human knowing” — – empiricism (eye of flesh), rationalism (eye of mind), mysticism (eye of contemplation) — – albeit with different, yet complementary, emphasis. Feynman emphasized empiricism and rationalism through physics and mathematics, while Watts emphasized mysticism through the practice of Zen Buddhist meditation. Feynman-Watts are inseparable differences. Without one or the other our understanding of the nature of Nature will be fragmented.

Zero Fixity aims to continue the Feynman-Watts spirit of inquiry by exploring the interface between awareness, cognitive science and technology. Join us as we immerse ourselves in awe of what reality is all about, while partaking in the pleasure of finding things out. . .