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PHYSICS
CONFERENCE
"Novel
Configurations
in
Quantum
Field
Theory"
Sponsored
by
The
est
FoundationJanuary
22
through
24,
1977
San
Francisco
 
I.
THE
CONFERENCE
A.
Definition of the Conference
The
est
Foundation
is
sponsoring
and
supporting the conference for physicists
at
Franklin
House
on
January 22, 23,
and
24,
1977.
The
est
Foundation, insponsoring the conference, provides only financial
and
logistical
support.
Some
of the physicists
who
will
be
attending
have
determined the subjectmatter of the conference,
have
selected the other
participants,
and have
extended the
invitations to
those
participants.
The
topic of the Conference
is:
~Novel
Configurations in
Quantcm
FieldTheory". This topic
was
selected, as
we
have
been
told
by
the physicists
who
did so, because
it
represents the current IIfrontier" of theoreticalphysics. Essentially,
it
is
concerned with the nature of the ultimateconstituents of matter
and
the forces
that
hold
those constituents together:
B.
Purpose
of the Conference
The
est
Foundation
has
sponsored
this
conference in alignment with
its
own
purpose as a foundation,
which
is
to support research
and
educationalprojects related to the experience of individual
and
social transformation.
The
foundation's purpose in sponsoring
this
conference, therefore,
is
two
fold:
1)
to provide a space for the transformation of the
participants'
experience
of
physics;
2)
to provide a space for the transformation
of
physics
and
its
contribution to transformation in general.
The
intended
result
of the conference for the
participants
is
the miraculousoccurrence
ofinspiration,
communication,
and
enthusiasm,
and
the experience
of
true value for themselves
and
for
the
world
of physics in
having
met.
C.
Background
A precedent
for
a small
non-academic
physics conference
was
established
by
The
Solvay Conferences.
The
fo
11
owi ng
pa'ragraphs bri ef1y
gi
ve
some
i nfor-mation about these conferences.
 
v
The
Solvay Conferences,
which were
actually
called the Solvay Congresses,
were
held in Brussels, Belgium. Ernest Solvay, a Belgian
industrial
chemist
who
had
made
a fortune with a
new
process of manufacturing
sodium
carbonate,dabbled in physics as a
hobby and
in
1911
conceived the notion of assemblingleading
European
physicists together,
at
his expense,
and
getting
their
opinions of his ideas.
He
left
the organization of the Congress
to
hisfriend Walther Nernst, then a professor in Berlin
and
a leading physicalchemist.
By
the time the
invitations
to the
first
Solvay Congress in
1911
were
issued, Nernst
had
succeeded in broadening the scope of the Congress
to
a discussion
of
the
central
problems of physics.
The
Congress of
1911,
which
included such people as
H.
A.
Lorentz,
Max
Planck,
Madam
Curie,Ernest Rutherford, as well as
Einstein,
was
a
great
success
and
developedinto
an
institution
which
lasted
for
many
years.
During
the
two
decades
after
1911, the Solvay Conferences
became
the
single
most
important
forum
for the exchange of ideas
by
the
great
physicists
ofthe period.
It
was
especially
noted for the
historic
dialogue
between
Einstein
and
Bohr,
which
actually
continued over a period of about
three
decades, concerning Einstein1s
growing
skepticism about the
definitive
valueof
Quantum
Theory. Anecdotes
from
these meetings
have
become
part
of thefolklore of
modern
physics. For example,
Bohr
has
recounted
one
of his
most
celebrated discussions with
Einstein,
which
took place
at
the SolvayConference in Brussels in
1930.
For
this
occasion, Einstein
had
inventeda remarkable imaginary device involving clocks
and
scales
which
appeared
to
violate
the Uncertainty
Principle.
After a
sleeplessnight,
Bohr
discovered
that
Einstein
had
forgotten
to
take into account the
effect
ofhis
own
discovery
that
clocks ran
at
a slower
rate
in a
gravitational
field,
and
that,
indeed, the Uncertainty Principle
was
secure.
The
highly
theoretical
discussions
at
the Solvay Conferences
had
enormous
practical
import in determining the
direction
of inquiry in physics.
The
issues raised
at
these conferences continued
to
be
debated in earnest for
many
years
to
come.
Ehrenfest,
for
example,
who
knew
both Einstein
and
Bohr
well
and
witnessed
many
of
their
discussions
at
the Solvay Conferences,
was
so tormented
by
his
own
conflicting
feelings about
who
was
right
(and
there-
fore in
which
direction
physics should
move)
that
it
is
generally agreed
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