Lessons from Asher by C.H. Bennett (in absentia).

Lessons from Asher

by C.H. Bennett (in absentia)

Asher Peres: Make it simple, because I can only understand simple things.

I think Asher’s most important lesson for other scientists is his very personal interpretation of the principle of Occam’s Razor.

William of Occam:Pluralitas non est ponenda sine neccesitate.

Teleportation is a simple thing. For his fellow teleportationists, discovering it with Asher was among the most fun and important research of our careers, It is a source of continuing nostalgia.

1994

1999

2003

We are vain about many aspects of the teleportation paper, even the figures.

%!% QQ.TP 1993.01.24 Quantum quadruplexing with teleportation300 400 translate % .51 dup scale % for width of PRL column/sinewave % from 0 0 to 10 0 {gsave currentpoint translate newpath 0 0 moveto 5 3.5 5 -3.5 10 0 curveto stroke grestore} def .6 setlinewidthgsave % inner part of figure (teleportation)35 rotate2 {180 rotate 70 0 moveto % phi particle 6 {10 0 rmoveto sinewave} repeat } repeat newpath -70 1.5 moveto 70 1.5 lineto % 2 bits from A to B -70 -1.5 moveto 70 -1.5 lineto stroke gsave 70 0 translate 110 rotate % 2 bits remain forever newpath 0 1.5 moveto 70 1.5 lineto 0 -1.5 moveto 70 -1.5 lineto stroke grestore newpath [ 2 2 ] 2 setdash % EPR to A -70 0 moveto -35 -50 lineto stroke newpath [ 5 2 ] 0 setdash % EPR to B 70 0 moveto -35 -50 lineto stroke [] 0 setdash 1 setlinewidth % two circles 2 { 180 rotate newpath 70 0 15 0 360 arc gsave 1 setgray fill grestore stroke } repeatgrestore

/Times-Roman findfont 18 scalefont setfont-37 -75 moveto (EPR-2) show/Times-Roman findfont 20 scalefont setfont-65 -46 moveto -4 3 (A) ashow/Courier findfont 18 scalefont setfont (') show/Times-Roman findfont 20 scalefont setfont50 33 moveto -3 3 (B) ashow/Courier findfont 18 scalefont setfont (') showgsave % second part of figure35 rotate newpath -130 1.5 moveto -205 1.5 lineto % 2 bits to B -130 -1.5 moveto -205 -1.5 lineto gsave -130 0 translate 110 rotate % 2 bits remain forever newpath 0 1.5 moveto 70 1.5 lineto 0 -1.5 moveto 70 -1.5 lineto stroke grestore 130 1.5 moveto 200 1.5 lineto % 2 bits from A 130 -1.5 moveto 200 -1.5 lineto stroke newpath [ 2 2 ] 2 setdash % EPR to B -130 0 moveto -65 -99 lineto stroke newpath [ 5 2 ] 0 setdash % EPR to A 130 0 moveto -65 -99 lineto stroke [] 0 setdash 1 setlinewidth % two circles 2 { 180 rotate newpath 130 0 15 0 360 arc gsave 1 setgray fill grestore stroke } repeatgrestore/Times-Roman findfont 18 scalefont setfont 14 -118 moveto (EPR-1) show/Times-Roman findfont 20 scalefont setfont-112 -80 moveto (B) show100 70 moveto (A) showshowpage

Asher’s efficiently hand coded PS figure was only 2532 bytes. Its caption included a proof that would have exceeded the Draconian PRL line limit if we’d put it in the main text.

It did increase our flow of interesting mail. For example, in 1997 I got a fat envelope from a previously unknown correspondent about a minor car crash she’d had several years earlier. The packet contained a police accident report, pictures of the dented car, a page of scrawled notes, and a cover letter explaining it all.

Asher initially opposed the name teleportation, on the grounds that it mixed Greek tele with Latin port. He preferred an all-Greek name, telepheresis, but I persuaded him to stick with the teleportation, on the grounds that it was already a well known word in science fiction, and would help make us infamous.

She seems to believe that showing her evidence to quantum experts will prevent the past from unraveling and getting worse.

A few years later a strange message arrived on my answering machine:

My name is Brian. I read about teleportation, and I’m calling you because I think I may have psychokinetic powers.... Uh Oh! I just moved a bass drum with my mind. And yesterday I bent a fork about one millimeter. Please call me back right away at 602-927-2644!

The first email of 2004 on the subject was less worrisome.

I'm sure previous to this e-mail you found your work on quantam teleportation to be very important, however, I am hoping to add some urgency to your work. I am in love, and in order to be there for the most wonderful girl on the face of the planet, I need to be able to teleport to her side at a moments notice (to protect her from one Trevor the Terrible). Now that you understand the severity of the situation, perhaps you can redouble your efforts to complete a working model of a teleportation machine. Yours truly, Howard N Smith PS If you have a destruct-o-ray for Trevor, I would be much obliged if you'd allow me to borrow it. Thanks again!

Asher is a well known foe of dogmatism and in the religious and political arena, for example resisting efforts to censor a poster on the gambling habits of the supreme being.

Does God play Dice?G*d

However, he is sometimes more sympathetic to dogmatism in scientific arena:

God

besides Ours

I must concede one advantage of the Fuchs-Peres ‘non-interpretation’: It probably would not have tempted the woman with the car to worry that the past is in danger of coming undone .

Asher is not religious man, but he sublimates his religious instinct into a passionate humanism and a curious hobby of finding religious symbols in the mineral kingdom, part of the great Book of Nature..

Peres meets with UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in New York 22 October 2001.

Another sign of his broad-ranging interests is his rumored diplomatic career.

In closing, I would like also to thank Asher for all he has taught us, explicitly and especially by example, over the years, and for one last thing, unwittingly helping me win an argument with my wife.

She complained that my backpack looked sloppy, more suitable for a schoolchild than a grown up scientist. She said, “Someone your age ought to have a briefcase or one of those good-looking shoulder bags for laptops.”

Then Asher, my senior and mentor, came into view, wearing a backpack that was twice as big as mine and bright yellow.