Again, many thanks for your letter—and encouragement. I especially treasure the inscribed copy of “Logical Control: Computer vs. Brain,” and the current reprint. I am sorry that I didn’t get an opportunity to get down to Washington en route to Woods Hole and talk over the whole thing over a bottle of beer, dark beer. From what I hear of the demands on a first-rate mathematician’s time these days, you should be grateful that I didn’t get to see you, because I would have monopolized all your time. I appreciate your generosity in extending the invitation as a rain check to me.
Your mention of the Duke School of “psychology”—my quotes—leaves me cold. It’s too obvious and puts the cart before the horse. The important point that I was trying to make dealt not with the “possible parapsychological” manipulation of equipment or the materials a la telekinesis to produce the desired results, but that our Science may not be studying natural phenomena and trying to interpret them at all. The point, to get it down in black and white, is that our “Science”—yes, quotes—may be inventing the reality that it is supposedly studying. Inventing the atoms, molecules, cells, nuclei, et cetera … and then describing them, and in the description giving them reality.
While I was at Woods Hole I had some really good bull sessions about this very thing. I realize now that I may have been falling into the trap of solipsism, “who watches the quad,” et cetera, type of thing. Incidentally, my research is finally beginning to fall into shape. My sponsor and I had some pretty good sessions about it, and some of the screwy results I wrote you begin to make sense. I had the good luck to talk to an outstanding man in the field of nucleic acid synthesis and he was quite enthusiastic about the caliber of our work. He feels quite strongly—but has no real evidence—that the synthesis of both types of nucleic acid are independent of each other and has pointed out some significant references that I did not know about. I’m anxious to buckle down and really lick this nucleic acid problem … in time for a June degree.
Cordially,
Jonathan
P.S.
Please send me a reprint of your lecture on “Memory Banks—Transistorized Neurones.” The lecture was ingenious, but there are some biological phenomena with which I don’t agree. Remember, I’m the biologist. Honestly, Doc, don’t you think—entre nous—that your idea that a living organism, can be compared with automata in picking up informational items and processing them simultaneously in parallel, rather than in series, is naif?
J.
October 28, 1958
Dr. R. Von Engen,
Journal of the National Academy of Sciences,
Washington, D. C.
Dear Dr. Von Engen: