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Copenhagen Revisited: An Examination of Quantum Weirdness

by Peter Chapman

Summary: At the Solvay conference 1911 and subsequent conference through to 1927,  a quantum theory based on then recent experiments  was developed. It is known as the Copenhagen interpretation.  It attempted to explain some of the seemingly bizarre and contradictory results of experiments.  In doing so it created a new theory which to many survives to this day, despite some new thinking and experiments.   More significantly it contradicts our sense of reality.

A number of well respected scientists, including Eistein, did not accept Copenhagen and continued to challenge its many tenets.

After sixty years of studying quantum theory as a hobbyist I have reached a number of conclusions related to the limitations of observability in the quantum world.  I will examine the contradictions, the limits of some of the experiments and question some of the seemingly intractable ideas that many scientists refuse to challenge. 

I will explain that Heisenberg was not in fact uncertain, Schrodinger did not have a cat that was in a suspended state of being neither alive nor dead until observed or that spooky action at a distance is something that can be used to communicate. I will conclude by questioning the feasibility of using quantum to create a massively parallel computer, this being the holy grail of quantum investment today.

I will avoid  complex mathematical models which seem to support and obfuscate reality. The talk will be general interest, not theoretical, academic or technical.

 I will mention briefly some of the literature that contradicts the established theory.

 Bio: I am an electrical engineer.  I have studied quantum physics a as hobbyist for most of my adult life having challenged it as an electrical engineering undergraduate..  I have never accepted many of the tenets of the Copenhagen interpretation and in this talk I will explain why.  I will do this by taking a “Sherlock Holmes” i.e. evidence based approach.    My presentation is the result of having studied the writings of David Bohm, John Bell, Richard Feynman, Stephen Hawkins, Brian Greene, Milo Wolff and others.

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/jyITQpPYN74

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Canada’s Nuclear Energy Pathways to Net-Zero – Opportunities and Challenges

Robert S. Walker, PhD, FCAE

Senior Fellow, Institute for Science, Society and Policy, UOttawa

ABSTRACT: The past year or so has seen a dramatic shift in the national debate regarding the role of nuclear energy in the transition of Canada’s energy system to “net-zero”.  Instead of a debate on whether or not new nuclear should be part of the future energy mix, the focus has shifted to how much new nuclear and how to achieve it. The need and opportunity for new nuclear in Canada is unprecedented:  unprecedented in scale, with pathway models suggesting a need for 10’s of GW of new nuclear; unprecedented in pace, with the need to install this new capacity in some 25 years or less; and unprecedented in energy markets, with new nuclear poised to serve not only its traditional role in Canada for baseload power for provincial electricity grids, but for off-grid electricity markets, for hydrogen production, for district heating and for emissions reductions of industrial processes.

At the same time, the transition must address other important priorities, including energy security, system reliability, affordability and accessibility, other externalities such as resource and land use, all while addressing the socio-economic implications for Canada’s energy sector, economy and society.  

Nuclear energy will only part of the net-zero solution; it must be a part of an effective and efficient transitioned energy system.  Even with the contemplated dramatic increase in nuclear energy supply, nuclear energy would still only account for ~15-30% of Canada’s transitioned energy system.  Canada will also need to grow its energy supply capacity using other low-emissions and emissions-reduction technologies, effectively integrated with new nuclear to achieve system reliability, affordability, accessibility and sustainability goals.

This presentation will examine why the changing perspective on new nuclear in Canada, the status of efforts to achieve the new nuclear ambition and the challenges to doing so.

BIO: Robert Walker is an independent advisor and retired public sector executive.  He is a Senior Fellow at the University of Ottawa’s Institute for Science, Society and Policy.

From November 2010 until his retirement in September 2015, Dr. Walker was with Atomic Energy of Canada Limited, first as Senior Vice President Nuclear Laboratories and from October 2011 as the corporation’s President and Chief Executive Officer.  From November 2014, he was concurrently the first President and CEO of AECL’s then wholly owned subsidiary, Canadian Nuclear Laboratories.

Prior to joining AECL, Dr. Walker had a career of 33 years as scientist, manager and executive with the research and development arm of the Department of National Defence.  From 2005 until 2010, he was the Assistant Deputy Minister Science and Technology at DND, the Chief Executive Officer of Defence Research and Development Canada and the departmental Chief Scientist.

Dr. Walker earned a BSc in Physics from Acadia University (’73), an MEng in Engineering Physics (’75) and a PhD in Electrical Engineering from McMaster University (’77).  He has been awarded three honorary Doctorates. He is a Fellow of the Canadian Academy of Engineering, a recipient of the Canadian Forces Medallion for Distinguished Service and the Canadian Nuclear Association’s 2015 Ian McRae Award of Merit.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/zcEh1gyoV8A

Notes:

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Title:  More Fun, Less Stuff

By: Michael (Mike) Nickerson, Independent Researcher on Sustainability, Author, and Active Member in the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome

Abstract:  

With the human family pressing against planetary limits, perpetual growth is no longer a viable option.  The Business-as-Usual model of society is challenging our relationships with the Earth’s natural systems and requires a different approach to mutual provision (i.e., the economy).through a change of perspective.

Children grow; adults, not so much.  The human family has reached physical maturity and, as with individual maturity, accepting responsibility for our strength is accompanied by the vast opportunities of adult life.  By focusing on what we can do with life, we can have more fulfillment with less impact on the environment.

Time tested biological processes can secure long-term well-being as society’s economic “metabolism” adapts to our new reality.  A shared vision of this reality can lead to a sustainable future by reducing consumption and establishing a more equitable distribution of material and intellectual wealth. 

This presentation will be presented via Zoom in  two segments with a preliminary discussion after the first session and a full discussion with Q&A following the 2nd half.

Bio: 

Mike Nickerson is author of “Life, Money & Illusion”, a book that explains how our changed relationships with the Earth requires a different approach to our long-term survival.  After a lifetime studying the ways in which societies change, along with the problems that are expanding as we press against our planet’s limits, the insights I’ve gathered on how we might avoid overshoot and collapse are finally being seen as helpful.  See for example: http://www.sustainwellbeing.net/what_people_are_saying_tour.html and http://www.sustainwellbeing.net/what_people_are_saying.html. 

My objective is to help our communities recognize that as a species, we are grown up now, that while continued expansion can be disastrous, there is a long and satisfying future awaiting us when we acknowledge that our planet is finite and accept responsibility for the impacts we are having on each other and on the Earth.
http://www.sustainwellbeing.net/transforming.htm

You can find more on Mike here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-nickerson-17ab212a/?originalSubdomain=ca

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/Tb3KOlQIlgA

Slides:

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Title: Artificial Intelligence is on a Rampage: A Call for Guardrails & Regulations

Speaker: Peter MacKinnon, Senior Research Associate, Faculty of Engineering, uOttawa & Member IEEE-USA Artificial Intelligence Policy Committee, Washington, D.C.

Abstract: The AI rampage started in the public eye less than a year ago with the release of an AI tool based on advances in natural language process (NLP), a branch of AI, and generally referred to as a chatbot. ChatGPT, the tool in question, is now in its 4th iteration since release in November 2022, with each iteration improving performance and its anthropomorphic likeness. ChatGPT currently has over 100 million monthly users and the website generated 1.6 billion visits in June of this year.* 

Concurrently, other types of AI tools that manipulate and replace a person’s likeness with that of another have created a burgeoning field of deepfakes. This is achieved through the use of generative visual and audio content by means of AI methods based on deep learning and neural network architectures, such as generative adversarial networks. We will highlight these and other technical developments.

Current uses of AI in the form of chatbots, deepfake imagery and creation and manipulation of sound (e.g., a person’s voice), are creating a wide range of concerns about the design, deployment and use of such sophisticated AI tools. Consequently, governments, lawmakers and many commentators on the evolution of AI are raising concerns these days about the need for AI guardrails and regulations.  

We will explore the present state of national and international efforts to constrain unrestricted competition through various ways and means that amount to at a minimum guardrails, (e.g., voluntary buy-in to certain constraints like 3rd party certification of algorithms) to hard rules with criminal penalties.  * https://explodingtopics.com/blog/chatgpt-users

Biography:  Peter has a background as a scientist, business manager, entrepreneur, domestic and international bureaucrat, executive, diplomat, management advisor, and academic; including today being affiliation with both the Telfer School of Management and the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ottawa.

He is a pioneer in the commercialization of AI and today is actively involved in ethical and policy issues related to AI, especially as a member of the IEEE-USA Artificial Intelligence Policy Committee.  Peter has an extensive background on the forefront of scientific and technological breakthroughs around disruptive technologies and their impacts on society.  See www.linkedin.com/in/peter-mackinnon-ba88682a/ for more background.

Peter, as noted, is associated with the Faculty of Engineering at uOttawa and serves as the Chair of the Foresight Synergy Network, sponsored by the Telfer School of Management at uOttawa.

Recently, Peter penned an op-ed with Eli Fathi, Chairman of MindBridge Analytics, an AI firm involved in financial fraud detection and recipient in 2022 of the Order of Canada.  The topic of the op-ed is Generative Artificial Intelligence & Integrity: Winners and Losers.  Access to this piece will be provided during the webinar.

Title: The Electric Throttle for our Energy Transition: Community Microgrids

By Art Hunter, Ph.D.

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/RpC2QYRGwfY

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Summary: 
In our climate emergency, much has been proposed to move the world off fossil fuels and into clean renewable energy. This evolution has been stated and restated from multiple sources using multiple disciplines with propaganda, myths, and confusion mixed with facts. This presentation is intended to inform with clarity and address how to decarbonize and electrify everything using microgrids. The rapid buildout of microgrids at a global scale demands an understanding of the existing electrical grid, renewable energy generators, energy efficiency, thermal heat pumps (atmospheric and geothermal), energy storage, Electric Vehicles, and complex control systems. What are the 21 advantages of community microgrids, and do they really lead the way forward technically, economically, politically, democratically, and socially?
Let’s examine the facts and what other leaders are doing.

Biography:
Dr. Art Hunter was born in Thunder Bay, attended the Royal Military College, and obtained a Ph.D. in Hypersonic Aerodynamics from Imperial College in London, England. Over six decades he has had extensive management and laboratory experience in university, government, and the private sector. Art was the project manager of Canadarm for Space Shuttle at the National Research Council and has consulted with hundreds of private sector companies undertaking Science and Technology Research and Development. He has been awarded national and international awards and published technical papers and books. He designed, built, and operated a home laboratory demonstration microgrid for the past six years. It has solar generation, energy efficiencies, Tesla Powerwall home batteries, a ground source heat pump, many IoT sensors and actuators with a sophisticated control system, and two electric vehicles. He now leads the Information Technology and communications committee for the Canadian Association for the Club of Rome in Ottawa.

Title: Why is it so hard to beat Anthropogenic Global Warming?

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/rLzvSsJppEc

Date: June 27, 2023 commencing at 1:00 – 3:30 pm via Zoom with pre-registration required using the following link <deleted as event has passed>.

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Abstract:
Sociopathic narcissistic leadership in our current mercantile empire is potentially leading us to the brink of extinction by ignoring climate change solutions. After nearly 300,000 years of egalitarian nomadic life, encounters with archaic humans were quickly followed by a switch to agriculture, and the rise of empires in which wealth, status and the abuse of power established modern society. The extremely wealthy fossil fuel empire is now global. At best, its intentions are to reach net zero by 2100. I will explore the consequences of that decision and describe briefly the potentially devastating climate creep we can expect. 

Feeding the resistance to solving climate change has been the fossil fuel encouraged rise of anti-science and in particular the rise of aggressive climate change deniers. I include examples of their behaviour, including the “macho man” and “petro-masculinity” along with examples. I will describe anecdotal results of a survey of deniers defining the “loss” if we reach net zero by 2100. Then I will examine the cost of ignoring anthropogenic climate change compared to solving climate change, and end with a brief look at a future world that could work.

Biography:

Alan R. Emery, BSc. University of Toronto, MSc. McGill University, PhD. Cornell University and University of Miami

Alan’s scientific specialty is ecology and evolution with a focus on marine sciences. He pioneered in direct observation underwater at night on coral reefs and in fresh water. He was among the first to dive under the ice in the Arctic. He has led expeditions to the Arctic, Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Oceans. He was a research scientist with the Fisheries Research Board of Canada, the Ministry of Natural Resources in Ontario, Professor at the University of Toronto, Curator and Sciences Coordinator at the Royal Ontario Museum, President of the Canadian Museum of Nature, and has been the governor, president, or director of many scientific organizations. 

He has published nearly 100 scientific, technical, and popular articles and books spanning subjects from marine biology to the management of academic organizations. He has appeared on hundreds of radio and television interviews and has been the subject of, technical advisor for, or written over 150 television shows for CTV, Discovery, and the CBC.

As part of his work with indigenous people, he prepared policy papers for Canada, the World Bank and the UN. In addition, he has worked as a consultant with the Canadian Nuclear Waste Management Organization almost since its inception.  When his brother fell terminally ill, Alan brought his engineering company back to a profitable position to be sold by his brother’s family. 

Recently, Alan has moved his primary attention from global biodiversity loss to the solution of human-caused global warming. In 2015, he initiated and is now leading an international group of scientists and engineers to help solve the global warming problems.  It is called The Stable Climate Group (http://www.stableclimate.org/). 

“Peter MacKinnon here, FSN Chair.  I wish to advise that we have a new 2023 program for FSN with the first of five webinars scheduled as per the notice below.  I apologise for the hiatus as the three of us who maintain FSN were preoccupied with demanding work over the winter. 

The following three webinars, which include the notice on The Computer Revolution as noted below, will then be followed by a hard hitting presentation on Climate Change issues followed by a webinar in July on ChatGPT, Large Language Models and the issue of regulating AI.”

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Date: June 8, 2023 from 1:00 to 3:30 ET via Zoom

Title: The Computer Revolution

Presenter: Gord Deinstadt, Independent Researcher

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/FvS8xhN-ZHA

Abstract:
This seminar will discuss the development of numbers, arithmetic, and computing aids in antiquity before moving on to the history of modern calculating tools and full-blown computers. 

I will then predict some near-term (within 5 years) developments in computer hardware. 

Finally, I will discuss the problem of ransomware and an approach to easing the problem with enhanced computer hardware. Note that this seminar does not discuss ChatGPT or any other aspect of AI, which will be covered in forthcoming webinars.

Biography:
Gord Deinstadt met his first computer, a PDP-5 donated by DEC Canada, in 1966 upon entering Ottawa Technical High School. He went on to Algonquin College to study electronics, then worked in the computer industry for 30 years, first in hardware then in software.  He then bailed out from the Internet frenzy of the 90s to become an academic. As an academic he completed a BA in Classics and BA and MA in Philosophy while teaching Ancient Science and Technology (Course: TSE2305) at Carleton University. He retired in 2020.

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Next Event details

Title: Why is it so hard to beat Anthropogenic Global Warming?

Date: June 27, 2023 commencing at 1:00 – 3:30 pm via Zoom with pre-registration required

Website: https://fsncanada.com/2023/06/07/fsn-seminar-june-27-at-1-pm/

In memory of my good friend and colleague the late Robert Hoffman, I am very pleased that FSN has decided to post on its website the Club of Rome Theme Paper we co-authored and presented at its Annual Meeting held in Ottawa in September 2013.  The paper examines why the governance of the commons is an appropriate frame of reference for analysing the interrelationships between humans and the biophysical world, and describes the critical role played by Elinor Ostrom and her many colleagues in furthering our understanding of this frame of reference as captured in their Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) Framework.  The more recent discussions of Rob and I over the past decade illustrated how and why the IAD framework and insights of Ostrom, for which she won the 2009 Nobel Prize for Economic Sciences, have become even more important for managing the global commons and addressing the climate change wicked problem

Derek Ireland

Here is the paper:

Planetary Limits: Coming Future Threats?

by Peter MacKinnon

Synergy Technology Management & Faculty of Engineering, uOttawa

November 18, 2022

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/OmhmX5Qk9uo

Update 1: here are the slides.

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Abstract

Today’s world is faced with a growing range of increasing planetary-scale threats to the environment, the biosphere and humankind. Climate change is the most widely discussed of these threats, yet it is only one of nine interrelated planetary-scale disturbances triggered by human activities over the past two and a half centuries.  

This webinar will explore the emergence and practicality in viewing the Earth’s planetary system through the lens of these planetary limits or boundaries. 

‘Planetary boundaries’ represent human-caused perturbations of Earth systems making them change in a way not accommodated by the environmental boundaries separating the natural changes since the end of the last Ice Age, some 10,000 years ago.  Thus, crossing a planetary boundary comes at the risk of abrupt environmental change. 

The framework is based on scientific evidence that human actions, especially those of the industrialized world, have become the main driver of global environmental change.

The implications of crossing these limits as well as the timing and interdependencies among such crossings will form the basis for discussion in terms of addressing these future threats.

Biography

Peter serves as chair of FSN. He has a background as a scientist, business manager, entrepreneur, domestic and international bureaucrat, executive, diplomat, management advisor, and academic; including affiliation with both Telfer and the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Ottawa.

He is a pioneer in the commercialization of AI and today is actively involved in ethical and policy issues related to AI, especially as member of the IEEE-USA Artificial Intelligence Systems Policy Committee.  Peter has an extensive background on the forefront of scientific and technological breakthroughs around disruptive technologies and their impacts on society.  www.linkedin.com/in/peter-mackinnon-ba88682a/.

His scientific career included working in paleoclimate studies based on ice core and radar data from polar ice sheets.  He served as Chief Glaciologist at the World Data Center for Glaciology at the University of Colorado (Boulder), where he was involved in the development of the concept of Nuclear Winter. 

A Meditation on the Corruption of Our Character:

An Attempt to Assess the Dangerousness of Conservative Populist Politicians

By 

Ruben Nelson, Executive Director, Foresight Canada

Youtube link: https://youtu.be/fkkO7LlUApY

Abstract:  In this webinar, Ruben Nelson, one of Canada’s most distinguished Foresight practitioners, will dig into three questions related to the above topic, namely: 

1. How should we assess the rise of conservative populist politicians in Canada?  
2. In combination, is the noisy ruckus and the apparent success of Pierre Poilievre, Danielle Smith and François Legault just a new kind of ‘business as usual’?  
3. Or is it a sign, as Dr. James Alexander Corry, then past Principle of Queen’s University, put it in his 1973 lecture when being honoured by the Royal Bank of Canada, that “Something has gone wrong!”  If the latter, what sense can we make of what has gone wrong?  

Ruben will “draw a long bow” on these questions.  He will suggest that beneath the titillation of much of the political nonsense of our times lies a truly rare evolution in human consciousness and culture.  He also will suggest that such a transition, if it is to be successful, requires a quality of leadership which must be extraordinary.  

Since the development of such leadership is not on the agenda of any sector of Canadian society, we should not be surprised that feckless politicians, as well as those who would use them, have grasped the deep turmoil of our times to advance their own fortunes.  In short, we are in far more and far deeper trouble than these politicians understand.  Sadly, we as citizens share a superficial understanding of the danger we are in.  

Bio:  Ruben Nelson has long been fascinated by the many ways we and our world are changing and what this evolutions mean for our future.  He is one of a handful of Canadians who, in the 1960s and ‘70s, pioneered serious futures thinking and its application to the practice of strategic Foresight.  

He has used his insights in every corner and sector of Canada to assist those willing to work with him make reliable sense of their adjacent futures.  Ruben’s research has led him to the view that, if we are to sustain success in the unique conditions of the 21st Century, we must develop new mental maps of where we are in history.  

For over six decades, Ruben has taught philosophy and comparative religion, worked for Pierre Trudeau, helped formulate Canada’s policy on Multiculturalism and been a leader in the Canadian Association for Futures Studies, the International Association for Humanistic Psychology, the World Futures Studies Federation and the Institute on Religion in an Age of Science.  Ruben is a Fellow of the World Academy of Art and Science and the World Business Academy.  

Ruben was born and raised in Calgary, educated at Queen’s University, Kingston, Queen’s Theological College, Kingston, and United Theological College, Bangalore, India.  Today, Ruben is Executive Director of Foresight Canada.  He and Heather have been married for 61 years.  They live with their three cats Lac Des Arcs in the Alberta Rockies.  They have two, now adult, children.