I Question about discussions around quantum interpretations

[gentzen]

Oh, for goodness' sake. I'm sorry to sound blunt here, but if you feel cheated because you didn't think to look at the inside cover of the book before buying it, to me that's on you, not Feynman or Ralph Leighton.

I didn't buy the book, I read the copy from a public library. I don't remember whether I noticed that actually Leighton was the author. But I certainly remember that I was convinced that Leighton was a physicist and coauthor of the Feynman lectures. Maybe Preface and Acknowledgment of "QED: The Strange Theory of Light and Matter" were responsible for this:

If you are planning to study physics (or are already doing so), there is nothing in this book that has to be “unlearned”: it is a complete description, accurate in every detail, of a framework onto which more advanced concepts can be attached without modification. For those of you who have already studied physics, it is a revelation of what you were really doing when you were making all those complicated calculations!

This book purports to be a record of the lectures on quantum electrodynamics I gave at UCLA, transcribed and edited by my good friend Ralph Leighton. Actually, the manuscript has undergone considerable modification. Mr. Leighton’s experience in teaching and in writing was of considerable value in this attempt at presenting this central part of physics to a wider audience.

When I read those words again, your comment about the publishers came to my mind:

Not to mention that it couldn't have been just Leighton: the publishers of the book had to know how it was written, and they listed Feynman as an author.

At least for QED, listing Feynman as one of the author was certainly mandatory. And here too, listing Feynman as one of the author was probably mandatory. In fact, Angela Collier says in the video that there are tape recordings (they are even on the internet), and that according to James Gleick the stories in the book roughly correspond to those tapes, but heavily filtered. Not listing Ralph Leighton as author is the fishy part. Both books appeared 1985, QED is probably the one which appeared first. Maybe not being listed as author on the stories book was Ralph's revenge for being denied authorship of QED?

For a critique of her treatment of Feynman from someone who was in a much better position than she to know relevant facts, see this:

https://www.feynmanlectures.caltech...Baez_regarding_Angela_Colliers_sham_video.pdf

Michael Gottlieb is a friend of Ralph Leighton, and also has other conflicts of interest. Hence, it is unfortunate that he wrote: "In closing I will mention that Angela is making money from publishing this poisonous trash." Overall, my impression is that he is simply bad at coping with that stuff, but not acting in bad faith. I'm not convinced by his:

She gives false and misleading information about other books too, claiming, for example, that all the stories in Feynman’s autographical books are lies, without giving any basis for that claim, other than her speculations.

Angela did give evidence, for example from James Gleick and Murray Gell-Man. And his

the exercises were originally published in the 1960s, by Feynman and his coauthors

doesn't fact check either: Feynman was not listed as author when the excercises were originally published in the 1960s. But he is listed as author in Michael Gottlieb's publication. And of course, attacking John Baez before even trying to contact Angela Collier was not wise either:
John Baez (1/2):

... where Angela Collier will ruthlessly dissect the mythology he built around himself. You probably won't agree with everything she says, and you may hate some of it, but it will still be thought-provoking.

John Baez (2/2):

I was not implicitly endorsing all of @acollierastro's claims in my first post. I merely said what I wanted to say.

Nor am I implicitly endorsing Gottlieb's claims here. I hope Gottlieb and Collier can discuss this without using me as an intermediary.

Still, Michael Gottlieb somehow managed to convince me that Angela Collier guesses at the motivations of Ralph Leighton, Michael Gottlieb, and other "self appointed coauthors" of Feynman are off. What drove this home for me was
Blake C. Stacey

I'll go ahead and disagree with Collier's take on the *Feynman's Lost Lecture* book. The Goodsteins give *more* and *more accurate* credit than Feynman did.

(But her analysis of the stories in Leighton's book is not affected by this.)

 

[PeterDonis]

I was convinced that Leighton was a physicist and coauthor of the Feynman lectures.

Robert Leighton was a physicist and coauthor of the Feynman lectures. His son Ralph Leighton was not, nor did he ever claim to be. Again, this doesn't look to me like a case of anyone trying to deliberately mislead; it looks like a case of you not being very careful.

I'm not going to bother arguing any further about Angela Collier's claims. Both of us have given some references, and other readers can make up their own minds, and it's off topic for this thread anyway.