October 15, 1989

IS GOD DEAD? I’m eager to read a yet-unpublished book by Doris Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, the esteemed material scientist from the University of Virginia who recently won a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Society of Women Engineers.

Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf is noted for her widely accepted theory of the plastic deformation of metals — which details why and how, for a tiny example, a paper clip once straightened will not bend back to its original shape.

Her book, however, is about a much bigger subject: the relationship of science to religion.
“On the basis of what we now know in science, it is more logical to believe in the world’s religions than not,” says Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf, who holds a Ph.D. in material science, a masters degree in physics and a Doctor of Science from the British Commonwealth, a kind of superdoctorate for internationally recognized research. “Of course, I always say that you don’t have to believe in God or religion, but it’s not logical.”

She claims that for the past two or three centuries, the science establishment found more and more fault with the view that a higher power, or God, was a kind of all-pervasive, governing force in the universe. It said such naturalistic theories as Newton’s Law superseded the existence of God. “This caused a great reduction in religious beliefs in many scientists and educated people,” she says.

But she claims that modern quantum physics, which says that everything we see is simply a modification of energy, interrelated and transmutable, is “much more compatible” with spiritual belief than the atheistic belief.

“The (philosophical) turnaround began around 1930, has been going on consistently and steadily since then, and people have not paid attention,” says Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf. “To point this out has been the basic point of my work.”

So far, she’s written 17 chapters on such topics as comparative religions and biological evolution, all of which have been checked for accuracy by experts in respective fields.

Kuhlmann-Wilsdorf says she’ll finish the book in about three months. Today it has only a tentative title. “My husband favors ‘Science and Religion,’ but I had the name as, ‘If God Had Wanted Man to Think and Love: Science and Religion,’” she says. “I mean to convey that our whole existence on earth was deliberately planned to create intelligent beings who would think and love. We are called to do both.”

BABY IT’S FOR REAL: If multimedia — the merger of computers, video, graphics and sound — isn’t real, as some computer industry pundits insist, it’s sure going to prove a rude awakening to people like Daniel Garric. Garric, a journalist for the French paper Le Point, is opening a private university in Paris on Nov. 15, expressly for the study of multimedia and hypermedia.

Garric, who’s written about computers and high technology at least since the days of the Apple II, is calling his school “CRECH,” or Centre de Recherche European de Creation Hypermedia. (Rough translation: European Research Center for the Creation of Hypermedia.) He has 15 students already, as well as the cooperation of such multimedia supporters as Apple Computer and IBM.

“It’s hypermedia for smart people,” says Garric, himself a hypermedia programmer. He and his partner in CRECH, Claire Vercken, a former philosophy professor, are accepting no one with less than four years of university-level study. Courses will be divided into general culture as it relates to multimedia, cognitive science, the study of multimedia technology and hands-on creation of hypermedia projects.

CRECH’s financing is in part from vendors, who in exchange for donations of about $15,000 U.S., get the opportunity to reap the fruits of an individual student’s labor on a project of their choosing. “The student will spend time in the company for a couple of months,” says Garric, and will draw up a plan for a hypermedia project, which the company can refuse if they don’t like it.

Instructors will also come from companies in the industry, who will teach CDROM courses, one of the school’s emphases, as well as hardware, software and database technology. If you’d like more information on the school, write to: CRECH, 6 rue St. Severin, 75005 Paris, France.

WHERE YOU AT? In a recent column about repetitive stress injuries, I mentioned that Caroline Rose at Next Inc. wants to start a support group for people with tendinitis. She can be reached at rose@next.com which is her Internet electronic mail address. If you aren’t on Internet and want to reach Rose, CompuServe, MCI Mail, Portal (in Cupertino) and The Well (in Sausalito) can tell you how to access their Internet gateways.