THE GOD THEORY: This is, of course, an actual book written by Dr. Bernard Haisch, and one that I highly recommend. Dr. Haisch is an astrophysicist who has authored well over a hundred scientific papers and was editor of the Astrophysical Journal for ten years. His groundbreaking work on the zero point field was partially funded by NASA.
Even if one disagrees with the thesis of The God Theory, the book offers a perspective on creation that is novel and thought provoking. The book also touches upon Dr. Haisch’s work with respect to the zero point field, and why it is possible that this field is responsible for the very existence of matter, and how manipulations of this field could affect mass, inertia, and gravity.
THE MIRACLE OF A FERTILIZED EGG BECOMING A HUMAN BEING: Many years ago, I was working toward a PhD in molecular biology (aka, genetic engineering), utterly fascinated by the field. I eventually changed course, earning a master’s degree instead, because, while I loved the science, I was horrible at lab work. Horrible. I was impatient and sloppy. And sloppy isn’t a great thing to be when one is working with high levels of radiation, and a potent carcinogen called ethidium bromide whose sole purpose in life is to mutate DNA.
But in any event, my first graduate level course in Developmental Biology (i.e. how an egg transforms into an adult) blew my mind. Nothing in all of biology is more fascinating and miraculous to me. How can a single fertilized egg cell possibly contain all of the instructions required to construct an entire human, and then be able to carry out these instructions with such perfection? This single fertilized cell is the progenitor of trillions of cells, which differentiate along the way into different types. And each of these uncountable offspring cells need to know what to be, and where to be, to create the incomprehensibly complex universe that is a human being. But there’s more. The system has to get energy and building blocks from the outside. How do we grow from an infant to an adult? We have to convert food into parts of our bodies. Food gives us energy, yes, but it is also our only source of building material. Our bodies must extract the raw materials we need for construction from such sources as ice-cream, meatloaf, and pasta, and then rearrange these raw materials into muscle cells, heart cells, brain cells, and so on.
The idea that a single fertilized cell could successfully transform itself into an adult human, including a brain with many billions of neurons and a consciousness, is utterly ludicrous. Impossible. There is no way this could ever succeed. And yet, all of us are living proof that it does . . .
HUMAN BEHAVIOR: The discussion of human behavior in the early chapters is as accurate as I could make it, and is based on my extensive reading, and my completion of a college course on human behavior. Genes do tend to shape beliefs and personality more than had been recognized in earlier decades, although environment does still play an important role as well.
HYPNOTISM: This is a very difficult area to research, as there is considerable misinformation out there, and it is hard to know which sources and people to trust. I read a number of research papers on the subject, and spoke over the phone at length to the ivy-league author of what many consider the definitive work in this area (who told me he preferred not to be acknowledged by name in the book). When Alyssa Aronson assures GQ that, “Hypnosis can’t transcend volitional capacity,” this is an exact quote from this world-leading expert (because I thought it sounded cool). All discussions of hypnotism in the book are accurate, to the best of my knowledge, including experimental results. This being said, the advances made by Alyssa Aronson and her Black Ops colleagues, with respect to the enhancement of subconscious belief and the placebo effect, are fictional.
TORTURE: This is obviously a controversial topic. I tried to convey the key points as accurately as I could based on my research, but as with all of these topics, interested parties should conduct their own research and decide which conclusions are valid.
THE PLACEBO EFFECT AND BIOFEEDBACK: Both fascinating, and both real effects. I was an executive in the biotech and pharmaceutical industry for many years before becoming a writer, and I have been involved with clinical trials of new medications, for which the placebo effect has loomed very large. I have also read extensively on the current state of knowledge. It has now been proven beyond a reasonable doubt that in many instances the mind is able to heal the body, using mechanisms that are not entirely clear.
INEDIA and BRETHARIANISM: Both very real, with numerous adherents around the globe, many claiming to have unimpeachable evidence of their ability to survive fasts of months and even years. According to the bible, along with Moses and Jesus, Elijah also fasted for forty days and forty nights, and a number of Catholic saints were said to have fasted for years, or even decades, (although they did make an exception with respect to partaking of the Eucharist).
THE ULTIMATUM GAME, CONFIRMATION BIAS, and THE LAKE WOEBEGON EFFECT: These are all real, and some of the most experimented upon phenomenon in the study of human behavior. After reading several books on these and other experiments, I have identified a number of common themes. Our memory isn’t nearly as good as we think it is. We are influenced by far more than we imagine at the subconscious level. We are less in conscious control of our own decisions than we realize. We are far less rational than we think, and far more easily fooled. We are poor judges of probability. We are more biased than we think. And we ignore data that doesn’t fit our preconceptions.
Other than this, we’re practically infallible :)
QUANTUM CONSCIOUSNESS and QUANTUM PHYSICS: Many scientists do believe that consciousness is a quantum phenomena. A quick search will reveal numerous books on the subject.
Everything written in the novel about the quantum realm is based upon widely accepted, accurate science. Except, of course, the ability to wield zero point energy with one’s mind. This isn’t possible—that I know of :)
Note that no field is more mind-blowing, confusing, complex, and counter-intuitive than quantum mechanics, so the highly simplified and summarized account I’ve presented in the novel is akin to sticking a toe into an ocean of water. And even experts in the field often disagree about the implications of this theory. Albert Einstein and Niels Bohr, two fathers of quantum physics, had epic disagreements on many topics in the field for many years.
INDIANA UNIVERSITY: My parents and a number of my relatives are graduates of Indiana University, Bloomington, and I have visited the campus any number of times. While some liberties were taken with the locations of buildings and French restaurants, the supercomputer mentioned in the novel and Hogwarts-like limestone structures are real. This area of the world does have spectacular woods, endless seas of corn, and massive wind turbines big enough to hide ambushing mercenaries.
Finally, as mentioned, an excerpt from the NASA article, Emerging Possibilities for Space Propulsion Breakthroughs, appears after Other Books by Douglas E. Richards.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Douglas E. Richards is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of five technothrillers, including Wired, Amped, Mind’s Eye, Quantum Lens, and The Cure. He has also written six middle grade/young adult novels widely acclaimed for their appeal to boys, girls, and adults alike. Douglas has a master’s degree in molecular biology (aka “genetic engineering”), was a biotechnology executive for many years, and has authored a wide variety of popular science pieces for National Geographic, the BBC, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Earth and Sky, Today's Parent, and many others. Douglas has a wife, two children, and two dogs, and currently lives in San Diego, California.
OTHER BOOKS BY DOUGLAS E. RICHARDS
WIRED (see synopsis below)
AMPED (The WIRED Sequel)
THE CURE
MIND’S EYE (see synopsis below)
THE PROMETHEUS PROJECT (SF, ages 9-99)
Trapped (book one)
Captured (book two)
Stranded (book three)
THE DEVIL’S SWORD (Thriller, ages 9-99)
ETHAN PRITCHER, BODY SWITCHER (ages 7-12)
OUT O
F THIS WORLD (SF/Fantasy, ages 9-99)
WIRED SYNOPSIS: A New York Times and USA Today bestseller! The #1 bestselling Kindle book for an entire year in two major categories: technothrillers and science fiction.
Kira Miller is a brilliant genetic engineer who discovers how to temporarily achieve savant-like capabilities in all areas of thought and creativity. But what if this transcendent level of intelligence brings with it a ruthless megalomania?
David Desh left the special forces after his team was brutally butchered in Iran. Now he has been reactivated for one last mission: find Kira Miller, the enigmatic genius behind a bioterror plot that threatens millions. But when Desh learns that the bioterror plot is just the tip of the iceberg, he is thrust into a byzantine maze of deception and intrigue, and he becomes a key player in a deadly game he can't begin to understand. A game that is certain to have a dramatic impact on the future course of human history. . .
MIND’S EYE SNOPSIS: A breathtaking new thriller about a stunning future that is rapidly approaching.
When Nick Hall wakes up in a dumpster—bloodied, without a memory, and hearing voices in his head—he knows things are bad. But they're about to get far worse. Because he's being hunted by a team of relentless assassins. Soon Hall discovers that advanced electronics have been implanted in his brain, and he now has two astonishing abilities. He can surf the web using thoughts alone. And he can read minds. But who inserted the implants? And why? And why is someone so desperate to kill him?
As Hall races to find answers, he comes to learn that far more is at stake than just his life. Because his actions can either catapult civilization to new heights—or bring about its total collapse.
Extrapolated from actual research on thought-controlled web surfing, Mind's Eye is a smart, roller-coaster ride of a thriller. One that raises a number of intriguing, and sometimes chilling, possibilities about a future that is just around the corner.
Emerging Possibilities for Space Propulsion Breakthroughs
Originally published in the Interstellar Propulsion Society Newsletter, Vol. I, No. 1, July 1, 1995. Marc. G. Millis, Space Propulsion Technology Division, NASA Lewis Research Center
Cleveland, Ohio
“New perspectives on the connection between gravity and electromagnetism have just emerged. A theory published in February 1994 (ref 11) suggests that inertia is nothing but an electromagnetic illusion. This theory builds on an earlier work (ref 12) that asserts that gravity is nothing other than an electromagnetic side-effect. Both of these works rely on the perspective that all matter is fundamentally made up of electrically charged particles, and they rely on the existence of Zero Point Energy.
Zero Point Energy (ZPE) is the term used to describe the random electromagnetic oscillations that are left in a vacuum after all other energy has been removed (ref 13). This can be explained in terms of quantum theory, where there exists energy even in the absolute lowest state of a harmonic oscillator. The lowest state of an electromagnetic oscillation is equal to one-half the Planck constant times the frequency. If all the energy for all the possible frequencies is summed up, the result is an enormous energy density, ranging from 1036 to 1070 Joules/m3. In simplistic terms there is enough energy in a cubic centimeter of the empty vacuum to boil away Earth's oceans. First predicted in 1948, ZPE has been linked to a number of experimental observations. Examples include the Casimir effect (ref 14), Van der Waal forces (ref 15), the Lamb-Retherford Shift (ref 10, p. 427), explanations of the Planck blackbody radiation spectrum (ref 16), the stability of the ground state of the hydrogen atom from radiative collapse (ref 17), and the effect of cavities to inhibit or enhance the spontaneous emission from excited atoms (ref 18).
Regarding the inertia and gravity theories mentioned earlier, they take the perspective that all matter is fundamentally constructed of electrically charged particles and that these particles are constantly interacting with this ZPE background. From this perspective the property of inertia, the resistance to change of a particle's velocity, is described as a high- frequency electromagnetic drag against the Zero Point Fluctuations. Gravity, the attraction between masses, is described as Van der Waals forces between oscillating dipoles, where these dipoles are the charged particles that have been set into oscillation by the ZPE background.
It should be noted that these theories were not written in the context of propulsion and do not yet provide direct clues for how to electromagnetically manipulate inertia or gravity. Also, these theories are still too new to have either been confirmed or discounted. Despite these uncertainties, typical of any fledgling theory, these theories do provide new approaches to search for breakthrough propulsion physics.”
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