INTERVIEW
Q: Could you tell us a bit about your childhood?
CJ: I was born and raised in a western suburb of Warsaw, Poland, a few miles from Frederic Chopin's birthplace.
My movie "career" began at the age of 12 when I was cast
to dub a role in a children's movie, and ended at 13 after
my voice had changed. However, I recall that in about three
weeks I made an ungodly amount of money while working with some fascinating people, and ever since that
time I've retained an abiding interest in the world of performing arts.
Q: In retrospect, what was distinctive about your high
school experience?
CJ: I went to a college prep school that emphasized math, science, and foreign languages. In particular, four years
of Latin inspired a lifelong love of the classics. Even
today when I teach introductory physics or science and religion I like to go back to Plato, Aristotle, or
sometimes St. Augustine, to the roots of our concepts of
time, gravity or design vs. accident.
Q: Then after high school you came to this country?
CJ:Yes.In 1963 I crossed the Atlantic on an oceanliner, and found
myself living in Venice Beach and going to UCLA like Jim
Morrison and Ray Manzarek. In fact, Jim Morrison was
composing his songs on the roof of a nearby building, and
Linda Ronstadt lived several blocks away. Every day I 'd
take a "big blue bus" to UCLA from a bus stop near a diner
that later became immortalized as a "soul kitchen." I often
ask myself, how did I manage to be in the right place at the right time? To have been a teenager in California in
the 60s was an amazing experience!
Q: You sound like you miss California.
Yes, particularly in winter. To me, California is the land
of optional winter. Once I went to the beach and skiing in the mountains, all in the course of a single day! I like to
fly to Southern California frequently and revisit the days
when I was a "starving graduate student." My girlfriend and
I would celebrate the slightest successes by going out to
places like Two Guys From Italy in Costa Mesa or Verdugo's
in South Coast Plaza, or when the money was really low, to a Jack-in-the-Box. To this day, the food from the Jack-in-the-Box is to me
one of the most potent symbols of California because you
can't get it on the East Coast or in the Midwest (except in
the St. Louis area but that's too far to drive). However, in the grand scheme of things I believe one is precisely
where one is needed, and so I feel I'm exactly where I'm
supposed to be at this time.
Q: You seem to be very interested in Jack Kerouac.
CJ: One reason I'm fascinated by Jack Kerouac and his writings
is that personally I had many of the experiences he
describes in his books: I hitchhiked every summer and was
known to ride buses from one end of the continent to the
other. I learned how to drive in a dark green '57 Chevy
with a stickshift. I trusted two strangers to drive my
'67 Mustang across country for me when I towed a U-Haul
trailer with all my belongings from California to Boston.
I had many intense experiences "on the road."
Q: According to your CV, you got to know personally many famous physicists like Feynman and Reines. Did this influence your career?
CJ: Academically speaking, I'm descended from two Nobel Prize
winners in Physics, not that it did me any good! My own
Ph.D. adviser at the University of California - Irvine,
Myron Bander did his Ph.D. at Columbia University under
Gerald Feinberg, famous for the study of supraliminal
velocities and coining the term "tachyon." Feinberg, in turn did his thesis at Columbia under T.D. Lee who completed his doctorate at the University of Chicago under
Enrico Fermi. Both Fermi and T.D. Lee were Nobel laureates.
Even though this had a marginal effect on my career, it's
still a great honor to be part of such a great lineage.
Q: Could you tell us about your current plans?
CJ: I've been invited to give a talk at a university in the
Midwest in their Distinguished Speaker Series. The title
I've chosen, "Cosmic Optimism - Intimations of Our Transhuman Future," may provoke many quizzical looks but so
be it.
I'm also excited about going to a conference in Madrid this
summer.
Here are some quotations, events, and sayings that have made a lasting impression on my life:
"Seek first the Kingdom of God..., and all these things
shall be added unto you." (Matthew 6:21)
"Is it not written in your laws 'I said, "You are gods"?
(John 10:34)
"Who knows, but that the universe is not one vast sea of
compassion?" (Jack Kerouac)
"Let me sleep all night in your soul kitchen" (The Doors)
"There was a great visitation of energy in 1965" (Jim
Morrison)
2/4/67 Debutante Ball, San Pedro, CA
9/5/70 Adams Blvd.
3/29 Jackie at Kona Lanes;
Kicia, decorate!
"I'm semi-bilingual"
"I do not see a hump at this time"
"Snow? What's snow?"
"God does not forgive because He Has never condemned"
(A Course in Miracles)
12/05 signal: Ring...Ring...Ring...Ring Ring Ring
Included in the photos are two covers of books I wrote with Franklin Potter. MAD ABOUT PHYSICS and MAD ABOUT MODERN PHYSICS provide entertaining, challenging fun that will captivate the curious. With detailed answers to hundreds of questions these books are a treasure trove of intriguing and challenging science conundrums, like "Could
we find a portal in space and travel back in time?" and many others. Both books have an extensive set of marginalia.
I edited my profile with Thomas' Myspace Editor V4.4
