The Hard Road to the Softer Side: Lessons from the Transformation of SEARS

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When Arthur C. Martinez moved from vice chairman of Saks Fifth Avenue to the top spot at Sears in 1992, his immediate duty was clear: use his outsider's perspective to remake a stodgy and floundering 19th-century retailer into one prepared for the challenges and opportunities of the 21st century. The problems he uncovered ran deeply enough to require two complete transformations, sandwiched around corporate legal problems that led to millions in direct damages and an incalculable loss in consumer goodwill. The Hard Road to the Softer Side tells how Martinez went about this conversion during his eight- year reign, the book's title playing off the ad campaign central to his efforts to reposition the company from a dowdy purveyor of tools and appliances to a modern outlet for fashion and fun. The key was recognizing that Sears's primary customer had shifted over the years from the man of the family to the woman, and that everything from store design and brand selection to prices and marketing efforts had to reflect that reality. To effect these changes, he unflinchingly confronted a succession of sacred cows--the most notable of which, the venerable Sears catalog, was losing so much money he was reluctantly forced to kill it. He also closed dozens of unprofitable stores, shed longtime affiliates like Coldwell Banker and Allstate, oversaw a cautious entry into e-commerce, and even adopted some concepts used by aggressive competitors. The specifics won't apply to many companies unless they also do $40 billion-plus in annual sales, but the story of Sears has always been the story of American retailing, and the principles behind its 1990s resurgence (focus intently on the customer, keep a close eye on the competition, don't be afraid of change) are generally applicable to enterprises of other sizes and types as well. --Howard Rothman

Book Description

For the better part of a century, Sears, Roebuck and Company touched the lives of almost everyone in America. A stunning tale of marketing and savvy, the company started selling watches and quickly became an essential source of goods for the American home. Sears brought the Christmas dreams of distant children to life; introduced the American homemaker to a collection of appliances that stripped much of the drudgery from daily living; and put solid, dependable tools in the hands of strong, eager men. At the same time, it forged a solid relationship with its customers, earning that most valuable business asset of them all: loyalty.

And then, when it could least afford to, Sears lost its way. It gradually forgot about its customers. It no longer understood (or cared) who its competitors were. It shifted its focus inward, to the interests and needs of its huge bureaucracy, all at the expense of the customers who found themselves in declining, dismal stores. The greatest retailer in world history had become a company with a great past, a disappointing present, and a dismal future.

The Hard Road to the Softer Side: Lessons from the Transformation of Sears is the story of how Sears recovered from this downfall, told by the visionary who built the team that forged the company’s rebirth. When Arthur Martinez took charge at Sears in 1992, he found a once-great company facing a loss of $4 billion, with a Soviet-style bureaucracy, little idea of its target customer, and an army of 300,000 disheartened employees. Many experts thought Sears was too far gone to save.

But save it Martinez did, putting Sears in the black by 1994 and sailing on through 1997. It wasn’t easy. Almost everything the company had become needed to change. Fifty thousand jobs disappeared. The Sears catalog, which had become so much a part of the company’s mythology, was put to rest. More than 100 stores were closed. But what rose from all of that turmoil was a new commitment to customers and a strategy that should have been apparent: in the American family, the mother is the chief financial officer.

With a boldness and determination backed by billions of dollars in renovations, Sears revived its connection to its customers and, at the same time, brought its own people back to life. The advertising sent the message, the sales staff opened its arms, and the customers came back. The new Sears was keeping its eye on the marketplace, its focus on the customer, and its interests firmly connected to the financial health of its shareholders. Then Sears hit the wall again with new aggressive competitors, a huge ethics problem, a war for talent, and a slowdown in sales.

The story of how Martinez and his team worked their way through not one but two crises is compelling and highly instructive, especially for anyone working in a company with an entrenched corporate culture or a long tradition that needs to be updated in order to stay competitive.

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And then, when it could least afford to, Sears lost its way. It gradually forgot about its customers. It no longer understood (or cared) who its competitors were. It shifted its focus inward, to the interests and needs of its huge bureaucracy, all at the expense of the customers who found themselves in declining, dismal stores. The greatest retailer in world history had become a company with a great past, a disappointing present, and a dismal future.

The Hard Road to the Softer Side: Lessons from the Transformation of Sears is the story of how Sears recovered from this downfall, told by the visionary who built the team that forged the company's rebirth. When Arthur Martinez took charge at Sears in 1992, he found a once-great company facing a loss of $4 billion, with a Soviet-style bureaucracy, little idea of its target customer, and an army of 300,000 disheartened employees. Many experts thought Sears was too far gone to save.

But save it Martinez did, putting Sears in the black by 1994 and sailing on through 1997. It wasn't easy. Almost everything the company had become needed to change. Fifty thousand jobs disappeared. The Sears catalog, which had become so much a part of the company's mythology, was put to rest. More than 100 stores were closed. But what rose from all of that turmoil was a new commitment to customers and a strategy that should have been apparent: in the American family, the mother is the chief financial officer.

With a boldness and determination backed by billions of dollars in renovations, Sears revived its connection to its customers and, at the same time, brought its own people back to life. The advertising sent the message, the sales staff opened its arms, and the customers came back. The new Sears was keeping its eye on the marketplace, its focus on the customer, and its interests firmly connected to the financial health of its shareholders. Then Sears hit the wall again with new aggressive competitors, a huge ethics problem, a war for talent, and a slowdown in sales.

The story of how Martinez and his team worked their way through not one but two crises is compelling and highly instructive, especially for anyone working in a company with an entrenched corporate culture or a long tradition that needs to be updated in order to stay competitive.

"Arthur Martinez provides us with a genuinely inspiring and challenging story of the great Sears turnaround of the 1990s. Learning this story will provide every manager and business leader with invaluable insights on how to build a stronger, more customer-centric business."
   ADRIAN J. SLYWOTZKY, VICE PRESIDENT OF MERCER MANAGEMENT CONSULTING AND AUTHOR OF THE PROFIT ZONE AND HOW DIGITAL IS YOUR BUSINESS?

"Be warned. This is a story as gripping as a good novel, complete with easily absorbed wisdom and a hero. It's also an authentic blueprint of how the best managers in the best businesses in our country get the job done."
   CHARLOTTE L. BEERS, FORMER CHAIRMAN AND CEO OF OGILVY & MATHER

"Honest and insightful, Arthur

Customer Reviews:

A Champion of Change.......2001-11-14

A fascinating and insightful look at the retailing business from a true champion of change- Mr. Arthur C. Martinez.

Not factual.......2001-11-05

There is a lot of misinformation in this book and the contents should not merely be accepted on face value.

Book Description

The Dutch telecommunications market is probably one of the most open in the world. Three years after its full liberalisation (which was completed six months ahead of the EU timetable) the Netherlands have approximately 65 operators with interconnection or special network agreements, including five providers of mobile telephony networks. Nearly all of the world's largest international players have established a presence in the Dutch telecom market. It is for their benefit and for the benefit of their advisers that the book Dutch Telecommunications Law has been published. It contains the full text of the Dutch Telecommunications Act and of the most important decrees adopted thereunder, concurrently in Dutch and in the English language. In addition, Dutch Telecommunications Law contains a practical introduction to the telecommunications laws of the Netherlands described by leading practitioners in the field.

Dutch cable companies to offer access. (Netherlands).(high-speed Internet access)(Brief Article): An article from: European Telecom

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Dutch cable companies to offer access. (Netherlands).(high-speed Internet access)(Brief Article): An article from: European Telecom

Manufacturer: Information Gatekeepers, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is an article from European Telecom, published by Information Gatekeepers, Inc. on January 1, 2002. The length of the article is 444 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Dutch cable companies to offer access. (Netherlands).(high-speed Internet access)(Brief Article)
Publication: European Telecom (Newsletter)
Date: January 1, 2002
Publisher: Information Gatekeepers, Inc.
Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Page: 9(2)

Article Type: Brief Article

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Interceptability of telecommunications: Is US and Dutch law prepared for the future? [An article from: Telecommunications Policy]

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Interceptability of telecommunications: Is US and Dutch law prepared for the future? [An article from: Telecommunications Policy]
B.J. Koops , and R. Bekkers
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Telecommunications Policy, published by Elsevier in 2007. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

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For many decades, governments have successfully intercepted telecommunications to collect information about-potential-criminals and terrorists. A crucial part of contemporary policy is legislation that requires telecommunications providers to make their networks and services interceptable. This paper discusses two examples of interceptability legislation: the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) in the US and the Telecommunications Act in the Netherlands, in order to focus on basic questions, considerations, and trade-offs relevant to designing legal interceptability laws. In particular, the sustainability of interceptability policies as laid down in these laws is questioned, since they are under significant pressure. Technical and market developments challenge their effectiveness and costs. These developments include IP-based services, seamless roaming, default encryption at various telecommunications layers, and the 'identity boom'. Market challenges include substantial shifts in the value chain and the explosion of traffic volumes. This paper aims to determine which interceptability policy is best suited for coping with the challenges that lie ahead.

Book Description

Different termite pests require different control methods, and not all termite species are pests. Termites, however, are notoriously difficult to identify. Foraging and infesting populations associated with agricultural and forestry crops consist almost entirely of worker castes, while until recently these termites could be identified only by their soldier and adult castes. The author's pioneering work provided the first features for identifying worker castes. This book provides a key to the worker castes of all the genera of termites found in soils from Africa and the Middle East, together with a full set of detailed descriptions, accompanied by illustrations of their most important features. Anyone with a working knowledge of insect anatomy will be able to identify termites associated with crop damage; the book is essential for workers in crop protection and entomology.

The Identification of Worker Castes of Termite Genera from Soils of Africa and the Middle East

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The Identification of Worker Castes of Termite Genera from Soils of Africa and the Middle East
W. A. Sands
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000N6C1LW

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A tiny little fatal flaw in his assertion

A Man's Sacrifice Of Career For Truth

Give Dr. Gentry the Nobel Prize

A gem burried in details

Interesting, good, but misleading in aspects.

Creation's Tiny Mystery
Robert V. Gentry
Manufacturer: Earth Science Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution

ASIN: 0961675330

Customer Reviews:

A tiny little fatal flaw in his assertion.......2007-08-25

I very much wanted to like this book. Unfortunately Gentry's basic assumptions are wrong, therefore his conclusion is wrong.... and grossly so.

What Gentry calls "polonium halos" are not polonium halos: they are radon halos, constructed as the result of alpha particle cascades following inculted pathways in the rock matrix of assorted minerals. He should have known this fact, since at least one of his samples was collected at a uranium mine.

Gentry has been corrected on this subject many hundreds of times after his book was published. Gentry should have had a physicist check his hypothesis first, before publishing the book. But of course Gentry is a Creationist, and the last thing a Creationist will ever do is have a scientist or two check his cherished and much hoped for beliefs.

Which is a shame: Gentry is a good person. It is sad to see him making a fool of himself over such a simple and basic error.

A Man's Sacrifice Of Career For Truth.......2005-01-02

As far as I know, Mr. Gentry (who should have a Ph.D.) was refused the doctorate because his research into radiohalos would "embarass" Georgia Tech. Interesting how peer pressure rules among eggheads. Jesus said "How can ye, that receive honour among yourselves, receive the honor that cometh from God only?"

Give Dr. Gentry the Nobel Prize.......2003-02-16

After reading his book, I met and later briefly corresponded with Dr. Gentry when he visited Southern California some years ago. I found him to be a serious researcher, methodical scientist, with projects planned years in advance. His weighty results on Polonium halos cannot be so lightly dismissed as those stuck on the old earth paradigm would like to do, nor should they be first, ignored ("they're so tiny, after all"), and then, suppressed ("we'll lose our funding"), as establishment, big science has done.

All the criticisms I have seen leveled against Dr. Gentry's findings are beside the point, straw men, or "evidence" of "old age" which has been roundly refuted in many other publications. If you care for the truth, read the book. If you can't handle the vast detail and correspondence reproduced in the book, get his video.

Although I had the honor, as a student, to briefly meet the late, great, Drs. Richard Feynman and Fred Hoyle at Caltech, standing beside Dr. Gentry was a bigger honor! I went over everything in the book with a fine-toothed comb. There was no logical flaw. No point of fact I could dispute. The implications of his work are truly profound.

A gem burried in details.......2002-01-10

I rank this book as one of the most significant works I have ever read.

The book is terribly detailed and hard to read because Robert Gentry is out to prove a point - not just make it. Because he is a detail oriented scientist, he burries you in all the facts that describe polonium halos ad nausium.

But if you dig through, and it helps if you know a little nuclear physics, you will finally come up with the astounding point of this book - The Earth was made in a very short time - in a matter of hours! This blows many preconceptions out the window.

Gentry was published in such prestigeous publications as Science and Nature - until the inescapable conclusions of his facts were discovered by the establishment.

He also goes into how he was suppressed from further research and his part in the infamous Scopes trial.

If you can handle technical reading and really want to know the truth - this book is for you!

Interesting, good, but misleading in aspects........1999-10-17

I thought that this book was a good read about the life story about a solid scientist. Gentry uses his evidence to combat the uniformitarian principle, but I was disappointed (especially as a fellow Christian) to find that he does set the premise with some misleading techniques. For example on page 33 he suggests that if the uniformitarian principle can be falsified, then there "is no basis for assuming that radioactive decay rates have been constant and thus no basis for believing the earth is billions of years old"; thus giving the false idea that radioactive decay rates are our only determinant that the earth is very old, not mentioning other astronomical evidences (there are a lot of very convincing ones), things such as magnetite layering in sediment, annual layers in ice cores, and even dendrochronology, which gives an age of the earth older than he does. Not that it's the responsibility of the book to explain away all of these (and many many more) evidences for an old earth, but he does set the main premise in a misleading (some would even say dishonest) way, more than just what I can mention here. He also gives such high respect to his own work and his own interpretation of his work that he claims that when confronted with evidence for instantaneous creation, (such as he claimes to have), then the billions of years of earths history "simply evaporates". I think that it would be more honest to say that all good, solid evidence for the age of the earth must be taken into account, especially in this area where fallable humans make the interpretations. (although honest, I realize that this technique obviously would'nt make for a very compelling book)

Also, to a person just introduced to the subject of polonium halos for the first time, one is lead to believe throughout the book by Gentry that no other explaination for them exists aside from his own, that may be considered valid.

I was also disappointed that his report of his evidence makes up only a small portion of the book, the rest of which is compromised of his life struggles relating to his research, and his court trial.

Although this is an interesting read, I would not recommend it for someone who is new to the topic of the age of the earth.

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Creation's Tiny Mystery
Robert V. Gentry
Manufacturer: Earth Science Associates
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000KY8MOC

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In this remarkably illustrative and thoroughly accessible look at one of the most intriguing frontiers in science and computers, award-winning New York Times writer George Johnson reveals the fascinating world of quantum computing—the holy grail of super computers where the computing power of single atoms is harnassed to create machines capable of almost unimaginable calculations in the blink of an eye.

As computer chips continue to shrink in size, scientists anticipate the end of the road: A computer in which each switch is comprised of a single atom. Such a device would operate under a different set of physical laws: The laws of quantum mechanics. Johnson gently leads the curious outsider through the surprisingly simple ideas needed to understand this dream, discussing the current state of the revolution, and ultimately assessing the awesome power these machines could have to change our world.

Customer Reviews:

NP=P.......2007-05-31

The hardest problem is revealing how protein folding occurs. "Some of the amino acid beads are `hydrophobic' or water-fearing, avoiding the cellular fluids by congregating inside the cell. Others are hydrophilic, migrating to the outer edge of the protein." There is a 3D tug-of-war to find the path that leads to the correct form. Searching though the labyrinth of possible foldings suffers from exponential explosion.

1. Quantum Computers could be used to simulation simplified proteins. The Quantum machine may be able to predict how the protein would fold.
2. The traveling saleman problem is a Non-Determinist Polynomial problem require exponential amounts of time that too solve. Conventional computers for 10 cities would require exploring 10X9X8X7X6
X5X4X3X2X1 = 3,628,800 trajectories with 1,814,400 unique trajectories.
3. "Satisfiability Problem", the classic problem is planning a party. A will only attend if C does and E doesn't, while C requires that B and G be there. 10 invitations will have 2^10 combinations to explore. 40 invitations results in a trillion combinations.
4. Shors algorithm of calculating large number factors offers hope that an quantum computer would be able to crack the domain of NP complete. In Shor's algorithm a number wave can be formed. Factors for 15, find a seed value 7 by random selection, raise 7 by I and mod by 15 resulting in the series: 1,7,4,13, 1, divide the period of the wave in half, at 4 and divide by 2 and then apply as a power to 7, 7^2 yielding 49, pick two integers to the left and right, 48 and 50 and mod by 15, resulting in the factors 3 and 5. With large and longer numbers, the rapidly increasing load of calculations is overbearing. A load that only a quantum computer could handle.
5. A fourier transform could run on a quantum computer. Fourier transform involves generating a bunch of test waves, each with a different period, and trying them to see if they match the wave you want to analyze.
6. "Unlike the head of the Turning machine, the laser in the quantum cellular automation doesn't read the information on the tape. It fires off order to be carried out, simple rules. The qubits essentially read each other (entanglement)." The atoms don't need to adjacent, atom a might be entangled with atom D, or E with B. In quantum CA, the rules are internal, consequences of the ways the qubits interact." The result is the quantum equivalent of AND, OR, and NOT gates. Given a problem to solve, coded as an initial pattern of qubits, and the proper program of laser pulses, the system will evolve to produce the answer, in happy isolation from the outside world."
7. Grover's algorithm can be used to perform a quantum search for data. Suppose names with a binary rank, Gina 00001 through Lolly 10000 (16 names, 16 binary ranks). Using 5 qubits all the ranks can be represented simultaneously. Suppose your searching for Grover 01001. Find by subtracting 01001 from the names. When it found the right match, it would amplify its wavelet, and juxtapose the others, peak to trough, canceled each other out. "The quantum computer examines the entries simultaneously and picks out the ciphertext we are seeking, which is linked to the key that produced it. Step by step, this wavelet's amplitude is inflated while the others are squeezed down."

simple metaphors.......2006-01-18

Johnson tackles a difficult subject. One that is very non-intuitive to a reader unversed in physics. Yet in simple but clear metaphors, he seems to succeed.

He shows the difference between a Turing machine implemented via classical physics and a hypothetical quantum computer. The idea of a parallel computation acting on a superposition of states is shown not to be too awkward to grasp. This is enhanced by a discussion of Shor's algorithm and why factorising large numbers is vital to code breaking.

Hoping for more..........2006-01-02

Even though Richard Feynman once quipped, "...nobody understands quantum mechanics," I was still hoping to come away with a better understanding of quantum computing than Johnson provides. The author spends too much time covering the general principles of computing and not enough time on quantum computing. Specifically, he beats the reader over the head with the rather clear concept of the Turing machine. He forays into the tinkertoy computer -- an interesting historical curiosity, to be sure -- but does not make clear how the tinkertoy computer relates to quantum computing, other than that it is an example of a Turing machine, and does not even explain the tinkertoy machine well enough to get a clear idea of its functioning. Much the same is true for the simple Geniac switch, love of his childhood, which occupies an unseemly number of pages. At the same time, quantum computing is not covered precisely enough for the reader to digest and express the gist of it.

What is interesting to the computer programmer is a) how the program is loaded, b) how processing is accomplished, and c) how the output is read. We can set an initial state by shining a laser on a bunch of particles (Johnson pretty much leaves it at that). The problem here is that setting the initial state of a program is not the same as loading the program itself, in other words, somewhere there must be a distinction between loading code and loading data, as well as code operating on data. It seemed to me that Johnson skirts the issue by ignoring this distinction and leaving the processing "black-box" to the collapse of probability waves of entangled particles whose initial state was set by a laser. The probability waves' collapse -- by what mechanism we never find out -- is somehow controlled by a poorly explained mathematical theory that normally governs the behavior of cellular automata. On the other hand, if code and data are one and the same, then it seems at first blush that the output should deterministically be known at the start, or that the output would be no more helpful than the input.

My feeling persists, however unfair, that science writing should be left to the rare scientists in each field who possess the pedagogic and literary skill to explain their work to a lay audience, and not left to science journalists. Throughout the text, I kept waiting for that spark that synthesizes the concepts into some feeling of real comprehension, but never got it. Perhaps, given Feynman's assessment of quantum mechanics, that elusive spark is impossible -- especially for a popular science book. On the other hand, maybe it is and "A Shortcut Through Time" isn't it.

Like a video game walk through for applied quantum theory!.......2004-08-10

Most "beginner" books on quantum theory I've tried to read take the reader on a chronological tour of who discovered or developed what. I hate that. Just becase B happened before A doesn't mean that it's easiest to understand if you describe B before A!

Well, Johnson doesn't cheat the reader by taking this easy way out. He's distilled all the background necessary to understand the key concepts behind quantum theory and how it can be used in a crazy revolutionary way to compute, boiled it down to the bare minimum required and organized it in such a way as to make things crystal clear.

No oblique anecdotes. No historical "human-interest" segues dumped in for filler. Just applied quantum theory 101, pure and simple.

Reading this very compact book took me all of half a day and after that I felt like I had just climbed a set of stairs from darkness to illumination. Before: "What's quantum theory?" After: "I get it now."

There is some sensationalism, but it's easy to read around that. Besides, hype is engaging! It makes you go "Wow, cool!"

-- Insert Superlative Here --.......2004-07-25

This guy not only describes quantum computing in a way that should be accessible to nearly everyone, but he does it in a highly entertaining, highly readable way. By appealing to a healthy dose of abstraction, the author is able to seamlessly touch on an amazing array of topics from computational theory to quantum mechanics to cryptography. Occasionally he sinks deeper into the quantum quagmire to examine a few quantum algorithms, but he never loses sight of his intended audience: the scientifically curious layman.

This book does contain a large amount of hype, but to his credit the author includes the opinions of a few noteworthy skeptics to lace all the optimism with a sprinkle of doubt. If you are looking for a quantum appetizer, or to bring yourself up to speed on the buzz behind quantum computing, I couldn't recommend this book more highly.

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Time, Quantum and Information

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 354044033X

Book Description

This collection of essays presented to Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker on the occasion of his 90th birthday addresses a wide readership interested in astronomy, physics, and the history and philosophy of science. The articles treat subjects such as the social responsibility of scientists, thermonuclear processes in stars and stellar neutrinos, turbulence and the emergence of planetary systems. Furthermore, considerable attention is paid to the unity of nature, the nature of time, and to information about, and interpretation of, the structure of quantum theory, all important philosophical problems of our times. The last section describes von Weizsäcker's ur-hypothesis and how it will theoretically permit the construction of particles and interactions from quantized bits of information.

John Bell Across Space and Time.(Quantum [Un]speakables: From Bell to Quantum Information)(Book Review): An article from: American Scientist

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John Bell Across Space and Time.(Quantum [Un]speakables: From Bell to Quantum Information)(Book Review): An article from: American Scientist

Manufacturer: Sigma Xi, The Scientific Research Society
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Binding: Digital

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Process Physics: From Information Theory To Quantum Space And Matter (Contemporary Fundamental Physics)

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Making Light Matter of Dark Matter
A new paradigm for physics?

Process Physics: From Information Theory To Quantum Space And Matter (Contemporary Fundamental Physics)
Reginald T. Cahill
Manufacturer: Nova Science Publishers
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1594543003

Customer Reviews:

Making Light Matter of Dark Matter.......2007-01-30

As we proceeded with our investigation into the arcane science
of microwave laser particle beam physics, we discovered several barriers.

One of these was the apparent effects of Dark Matter on the
path of MASER beams.

We could never explain why our system behaved in such a way
that contravened the principles of so-called "Dark Matter".

One of our crew was an avid reader of leading-edge physics
and science books and came across a possible explanation in
Process Physics:

Dark Matter could be a figment of human imagination
or a deliberate false hypothesis that misleads the "educated"
away from certain crucial flaws in accepted scientific theory.

This easily provided an explanation for why we observed results
almost opposite those forecast by several of Einstein's theories.

In the 19th century, the Theory of Darwin was all the rage
in England and throughout the Commonwealth, even as the various
Einstein theories are rigidly specified in "accepted"
scientific thought and investigation in this age.

It becomes more evident to some of us that "modern science"
is probably a religion based around dogmatic beliefs of
a very materialistic physical value system.

PP helped some of us break through some of the barriers
laid down by the Thought Police of modern "science".

Cahill's book is best read and used by scientific investigators
with adequate collegiate backgrounds in mathematics
related to physics and quantum mechanics.

PP is probably a book Galileo would have been proud of,
and perhaps, would have possibly faced another death threat,
or termination of salary support, from the ruling Roman
religious elite of that day or the ruling Czars
of today's "space age" physical materialist physicians.

I conclude that PP yields some very interesting,
and mathematically challenging exposures, a
revealing paradigm, that can be used to advantage
when examining the enigmatic Laws of Nature
and inconsistencies of "popular" science.

A new paradigm for physics?.......2006-10-10

Reginald Cahill is attempting nothing less than a revolutionary paradigm shift in physics. It is to be accomplished by modeling time as a process instead of as a geometric line. The old geometric model captures some aspects of time, such as the notion of events in an order and the quantitative "length of time" between events, but it is unable to capture the fundamental distinction between the past and the future. "The past is fixed and at best partially recorded, while the future is undecided and certainly not recorded" (p. 12). The failure of physics to model time as a process led eventually to Einstein's conception of time as the fourth dimension of spacetime, the block universe whose future popped into existence as soon as the universe was formed, and gravity as a curvature of spacetime. Perhaps Cahill's most startling claim is that "the Einstein curved spacetime construct is without experimental support, that it actually never was confirmed by the key and celebrated experiments...," but it persists in the face of contradictory evidence because "the non-process paradigm has acquired the status of a belief system, as distinct from a science..." (10-11). Process physics does support the relativistic effects of special relativity (time-dilation and length contraction), but places them within a different theory of time, space and gravity. Cahill says that quantum effects also emerge naturally from process physics.

Process physics models reality as a "self-organizing semantic information system," whereas non-process models are merely syntactical. For example, a Turing computing machine is a syntactical system in the sense that the information held by the machine is meaningless to the machine itself. My word processor doesn't understand what I write, although hopefully I do! A syntactical system is just a set of objects acted upon by other objects, and such a system can be modeled with a set of symbols to represent the objects and a set of rules describing their interactions. As biologist Robert Rosen has written, "the formalist position, that the universe of discourse needs to consist of nothing more than meaningless symbols pushed around by definite rules of manipulation, is exactly parallel to the mechanical picture of the phenomenal world as consisting of nothing more than configurations of structureless particles, pushed around by impressed forces" (Life Itself, p. 7). Rosen has argued that this framework is inadequate for understanding living systems, let alone human minds. Now Cahill is arguing that it is inadequate for understanding reality in general.

If one takes seriously the notion that the future is less defined than the past, then one may regard reality as a process of ongoing self-definition, with each "now" an occasion of self-definition. We need a model of an information system that can actively use the information within itself to further define itself, continually constructing its future out of its past. Thinkers in the humanities and social sciences have described human minds and cultures this way. Cahill is trying to model all of physical reality as such a semantic system. He models it mathematically as a stochastic neural network whose nodes are sub-networks of the same kind, ad infinitum (no "bottom" or beginning of reality being supposed), and whose iterations within a nonlinear dynamic process capture the notion of process time. The fundamental equation describing the matrix iterations includes a noise factor that "limits the self-referential relational information but, significantly, also acts in such a way that the network is innovative in the sense of generating semantic information...." (p. 24). So the system never stops defining itself. From this mathematical foundation, he proceeds to reformulate and extend fundamental physics, including a new theory of quantum gravity.

I am not a physicist, so I can't evaluate Cahill's physics as such. I am a sociologist interested in paradigm shifts, and I give Cahill high marks for addressing the problems with the prevailing scientific paradigm. How well his work will stand up to scientific scrutiny remains to be seen. Time (what else?) will tell.

Information, physics, quantum: The search for links

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Information, physics, quantum: The search for links
John Archibald Wheeler
Manufacturer: s.n
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Quantum Theory | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007BU4DK

A quantal interpretation of sensory channel uncertainty and reaction time and the psychological time quantum and the discrimination of succession (NASA contractor report)

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A quantal interpretation of sensory channel uncertainty and reaction time and the psychological time quantum and the discrimination of succession (NASA contractor report)
Alfred B Kristofferson
Manufacturer: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
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Quantum Theory | Physics | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007HSUX0

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