It is also the fourth in the open second group of
Experiences Of A Friend
(click
here
for the complete first group of thirty five
Experiences Of A Friend):
I am indebted to Palmer Kelly who inspired this conversation and
contributed material.
I'm laying down this entire
essay
with one single purpose: to
share
ie to showcase one single remark he made. I could
simply
repeat that remark here, leave it at that, and be done with it. It
would be an
essay
of very few
words
- but then you'd have no
context
in which to
fully
appreciate it.
He conceived of,
created,
and produced the
extraordinary
series of
physics
conferences, then hosted them at
his home, the Franklin
House
in the Pacific Heights neighborhood of
San Francisco.
His guest list read like a who's who of contemporary
scientists, the upper echelon whose
interests,
commitments,
and intellects were if not currently documenting what
the physical universe
and its components are comprised of, then at least
discovering
it at a level more profound than any before them. Stephen Hawking ("A
Brief
History
Of
Time")
attended. Nobel Prize-winning
physicistsRichard Feynman,
Murray Gell-Mann, Steven Weinberg and others attended.
The agenda which was set for the conferences was really only their
starting
point.
Everyone knew once intellects like theirs
got
started, the ensuing
conversations
could go anywhere. Indeed, that was
the wholeidea:
to start from what we already
know,
and then to lay bare even that which we don't yet
knowwe don't yet
know
about the composition of and the laws governing
the physical universe.
But at least for starters, heady topics like
black
holes, supernovas, and quarks et al made the
list.
It's in a
meeting with him,
with his staff, with the crack projects team, and with their
assistants
where this
essay
really takes place. We're planning another
physics
conference, mapping it out, indeed
co-creating
it with him in a
way
that he's
brilliant
at
leading.
It's
a future
which
experience
has proven will unfold exactly according to his plan like clockwork. At
the end of the
meeting,
he
stands up
to leave, hugs and
saysgoodbye
to, and
thanks
and acknowledges everyone. Then, just before he exits the room, he
turns around to face our awesome group one more
time
and, in the
spirit of
our upcoming guests and the
conversations
they'll launch,
says:
Woah! Is he just referring to leaving the room? Or is he
referring to
his entire
life?
Either
way
it's an astonishing thing to
say,
an amazing
possibility
to
come up
with. It's even
worth
titling an
essay
for. Everyone within earshot
laughs.
"That's
Werner!"
we
sayknowingly.
But as off the charts astonishing as it is, it's not the remark I
alluded to. That one comes
next.
When he's almost out the door, he throws a second nugget over his
shoulder. Beaming that blazing
100 megawatt
smile, he
says: