Mar 15 2007
Where Science And Faith May Actually Intersect
Allow me to start off with this caveat — although most of what I discuss in this post is based on empirical data and historical treatises, I haven't provided links to outside sources confirming most of that data, simply because, well … this is only a fucking blog, for Christ-sake.
That being said, let's move on.
Science and Religion — A Brief History
For anyone who reads this blog, it's fairly common knowledge that, although I was raised Jewish (and yes, we do own everything), I have long been a staunch atheist. I have admittedly wandered from time to time among other belief systems — mostly Eastern — in an effort to make sense of things, as does everyone. As a partial result of that quest, I have come to the point in my life where I beleive that religion, in general, is nothing more than a means for people to stop that same endless hunger everyone owns — the search for meaning and a way to explain the universe.
In general, I try not to be too judgmental when faced with the various religions now dominating the peoples of the world, knowing, as did General George Patton, that "all glory is fleeting." Everyone wants to beleive that theirs is the right choice, the right decision. To dictate otherwise would be an admission that they have lived in vain, chasing a "holy ghost" (pun intended) that does not otherwise exist.
However, every human culture dating back through the Turks, Visigoths, Romans, Greeks, Carthaginians, Egyptians, Macedonians, and other ancients all thought their religion was the true one; and the only one. Yet even today's evangelicals will most likely admit that, although such ancient religions were nothing more than Pagan idolatry, they were also similarly established to explain the workings of the world and the meaning of their existence.
Yet I doubt those evangelicals would agree with the truths that 100, 1000, 2000, or maybe 5000 years from now, our progeny (if any remain) will realize that today's psychopathic religions bear the same resemblance to logic, common sense, and absolute truth as did the long-dead religions of our forefathers — virtually none.
For just as our universe changes every time we make a new discovery — whether it be the spherical nature of the planet, the theorem of gravity, the rotation of the Earth around the Sun, the finite age of the universe, evolution, electromagnetism, sub-atomic particles, or quantum mechanics — our underlying belief structures must also, by necessity, change to encompass these new discoveries.
Such has been proven true over the millennia, time and time again.
That underlying paradigm has not been significantly altered for some time. This explains the death grip (pun intended, yet again) in which the peoples of the world have been squeezed as captives, both voluntary and involuntary, by the same organized religions for hundreds of years.
Although technology has made considerable leaps during such times, none have been vast enough to weaken the power of the current organized religions. Moreover, today's dominant religions have managed to integrate, often through utter Machiavellian means, such new information into their underlying belief systems — by necessity. Indeed, after decades of repression and persecution, the Catholic Church (among others) was eventually forced to acknowledge these truths — the spherical nature of the planet, the Earth's lack of singularity in the universe, evolution as science … err, let's hold off on that last one for the sake of any Alabamians who may still be reading.
Albeit many of these truths were perverted by such dominant religions of the day so they could maintain their hegemony, such actions were taken only out of necessity, to stem the tide of dissent. Otherwise such religions would have lost completely their sway over the ignorant masses.
This same paradigm remains in place today.
However, the rate of acceleration by which the human race has developed its technology has exploded towards a critical mass, potentially beyond the grasp of current mono-theologistic religions to adapt and otherwise maintain their control of the seething masses.
Technological Trends
In an effort to move away from my love of all things history, lately I've been reading up on current science and technology trends. One of the most coherent sources has been from "Hthth" at inkblot earth, an Icelander computer scientist specializing in artificial intelligence. H has got some fairly advanced, yet very accessible, material floating around his site. He has also been a particularly beneficial gateway to other scientists in the field of A.I. and developing computer technologies.
For the most part, I have little to no clue as to the specifics of what he does, or the advances being made in this particular branch of the scientific community. However, I find the underlying concept fascinating, in general (I promised Hthth that I would make no "Terminator" jokes or references in the future, so feel free to add your own sophomoric A.I. joke here - but no Haley Joel Osmond, I fucking hate that kid).
In this regard, I had posted a story from inkblot last month in connection with the latest in Quantum-computer technology and the continuing development and application of "Moore's Law" in the coming decades (if you're unfamiliar, Moore's Law is the empirical observation made in 1965 by Gordon E. Moore - a co-founder of Intel - that the number of transistors on an integrated circuit for minimum component cost doubles every 18 months).
Raymond Kurzweil, a leading scientist in the areas of A.I., transhumanism, and technological singularity, projects that a continuation of Moore's Law until 2019 will result in transistor features just a few atoms in width. Although this means that the strategy of ever finer photolithography will have run its course, he speculates that this does not mean the end of Moore's Law:
“Moore's Law of Integrated Circuits was not the first, but the fifth paradigm to provide accelerating price-performance. Computing devices have been consistently multiplying in power (per unit of time) from the mechanical calculating devices used in the 1890 US Census, to Turing's relay-based "Robinson" machine that cracked the German Enigma code, to the CBS vacuum tube computer that predicted the election of Eisenhower, to the transistor-based machines used in the first space launches, to the integrated-circuit-based personal.”
Thus, Kurzweil conjectures that it is likely that some new type of technology will replace current integrated-circuit technology, and that Moore's Law will hold true long after 2020. He believes that the exponential growth of Moore's Law will continue beyond the use of integrated circuits into technologies that will lead to the technological singularity.
In apparent furtherance of that conjecture, Hthth's article discussed a privately held Canadian company that just unveiled and demonstrated the world's first commercially viable quantum computer. He also included the below schematic showing that, pursuant to an adaptive reading of Moore's Law, by 2013, technology may exist that will allow humans to perform full functional simulation of the human brain; and by 2025, we will be able to accomplish full human brain "neural simulation" sufficient for computer uploading.
At this point, you're saying: "well, this is all quite fascinating, but what the fuck does it have to do with religion?"
Well…
New Paradigms
Andrew Sullivan recently included on his site a letter from one of his readers discussing the latest scientific theories on supra-normal human experience, for an article in a future issue of Discover. Taking directly from that post:
[The author researched] Near Death Experiences (NDEs), out-of-body experiences (OBEs), reincarnation - nothing [was] off-limits as long as there's been some kind of serious scientific inquiry into the phenomenon. The most fascinating stuff I've come across in my research, by a long shot, is in the area of quantum mechanics, as presented in the work of the Oxford mathematician/physicist Roger Penrose and his colleague Stuart Hameroff, an anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona.
Together, Penrose and Hameroff have developed a theory of consciousness called ORCH OR (Orchestrated Objective Eduction of Quantum Coherence in Brain Microtubules) which posits that consciousness "occurs" not at the neuronal level in the brain, and not in algorithmic processes mimicking on a grand scale the way computers work, but at the sub-neuronal level, in the microtubles (crystal-like lattice structures that help organize cell structures and enable information processing) in which quantum processing interacts with classical physics. It's that intersect, between classical and quantum physics, to drastically over-simplify the Penrose/Hameroff model, that "provides the global binding necessary to consciousness."
Why is this interesting? Two reasons: because it suggests that the brain functions not like a computer but in a non-computable (i.e. non-reproducible by artificial means) way, and because Penrose goes further, and theorizes a stable set of Platonic ideal structures residing at the very lowest energy level of the Planck scale (where quantum gravity, whatever that is, would be strongest), which inform and influence at least our unconscious minds. Because quantum mechanics allows for non-local patterns, and because these non-local patterns repeat everywhere, the implication is that the universe is in some way conscious, and that we are part of that consciousness.
The Italian physicist Paola Zizzi, taking the Penrose/Hameroff model a logical step forward, has developed the theory that in the moment of the Big Bang, the universe also acquired consciousness (in the sense of these Platonic ideal structures), which she calls the Big Wow. The immediate implications of this theory are profound, and echo some of the basic tenets (though certainly not much in the way of dogma) of our major religions: that we are all connected; that consciousness exists apart from the purely mechanistic or biological workings of our temporal bodies; that consciousness exists outside of classical space/time; and that when we die, or when our brain activity ceases, to be precise, the quantum information that has accreted through a lifetime of experience does not disappear. It may decohere, in the sense that the individual information is no longer organized the way your brain organized it, or it may remain semi-coherent in what Hameroff suggests as some kind "hologram," (he is after all still a scientist); it may even float around and reconstitute itself in some other form, that's to say as some other person. No one knows.
What Penrose/Hameroff do claim to know, or at least strongly suggest, is that individual consciousness does remain, after death, in some form (perhaps outside the ken of current science, or even philosophy, though certainly not religion). I'm probably doing grave injustice to Penrose and Hameroff by summarizing their theory with such radical simplicity. Penrose's two books: "The Emperor's New Mind" (written before he'd come into contact with Hameroff's research into microtubules) and especially "Shadows Of The Mind: A Search For The Missing Science Of Consciousness," are undoubtedly better resources if you're interested.
I am with Sullivan to the extent that we both have no expertise in this area, and pass on this information in good faith (pun intended, yet again). Wiki's entry on Penrose argues that no one doubts his brilliance, but that some of his theories are not accepted by many in the scientific community.
Conclusions
If the aforementioned quantum theories can be in any way substantiated, they would clearly throw a huge monkey-wrench into the underlying belief structures of many of the world's currently dominant religions (mostly western). It would also throw a curve ball (and potentially, a rational basis for showing "faith") to those of us the atheistic camps, as well.
However, there is obviously also sufficient wiggle room to allow such religions — most notably, Buddhism and Shintoism — to "amend" their faiths to incorporate this new information while still maintaining a lions share of the faithful to fill the coffers (and the courtrooms).
More importantly, if it could indeed be scientifically proven that "consciousness exists apart from the purely mechanistic or biological workings of our temporal bodies," what kind of ramifications, if any, would such a revelation have in the area of Artificial Intelligence? Or, for that matter, cybernetics. Especially given the recent advances in quantum computing which may theoretically allow humans to "upload" themselves into computers within the next 50 years.
Indeed, based on this new "quantum consciousness" theory, if we may someday have the technology to upload a complete human brain neural simulation, would we still be limited to retaining only data, with no way of retaining a person's underlying "consciousness?" Would the person remain, or just the memories? And what does that even mean?
Is there indeed scientific and empirical proof of something at leastresembling a soul?
Interesting questions — to all of which I absolutely no answers, and little clue if I'm even presenting valid questions. All I can say is that a scientifically quantified, quantum based, universal consciousness sure sounds like a drastically different paradigm than what is currently in place.
UPDATE: After reading Hthth's insightful comment to this post, I realized that I inadvertently forgot to state something that had been implied throughout, but not expressly stated:
This new paradigm to which I was referring, in large part, is that science would thereby become a source of religious faith / proof in and of itself (i.e., science as religion). In this regard, science and religion may appear to be reaching an intersection.
In other words, whereas religion has historically struggled to reinvent itself to fit within the confines of new sciences as they are learned, it appears the pendulum has swung to the point where science has become so revered (especially among those of my atheistic ilk) that it may soon take the place of religious "faiths" — thus becoming a religion unto itself (and no, I don't mean Xenu).
By doing so, we would be shifting from the underlying tenant of all religions — "faith in sights unseen" — to the equally disturbing belief that humans will eventually have the capacity to explain everything through the use of scientific methods.
Wow Matt. Awesome post — even though I totally disagree with the Science/Religion intersection. Now, while admittedly I’m not very savvy on quantum physics, I’ll touch briefly on why:
Quantum physics are very new and on the edge of humanities scientific knowledge. We don’t understand it yet, there are things we can’t explain. As such, quantum physics are a common victim of religious pseudoscientific reasoning (e.g. pointing to things we can’t prove and claiming it counts as proof of god).
So basically, what this article is saying is that because we don’t understand quantum physics, there’s something non-computable or non-investigable about it. Which is absurd to make assumptions about from a scientific perspective.
Sure, maybe — but this all depends on your definition and explanation of consciousness. So throwing these words around without sufficient definition is really a bit meaningless. Keep in mind that there isn’t even a consensus on the definition of intelligence yet.
Finally, these are not common grounds of science and religion because science and religion are opposites. Religion is when we believe something that can’t be investigated, proven or refuted. Science deals with the tangible, physical reality; so a scientific belief is based on something that can be investigated, proven or refuted.
So you see, if we explore theories of universal connectivity/consciousness based on the physical reality and using scientific methods, then it isn’t religion anymore — it’s science
Great post man.
I came across a different take on this that has many parallels to what you are theorizing. thought you (and your folks) might be interested in it. The ‘meat’ of the story is the main link to the story I’m talking about. Here’s the link: http://blogtopicz.com/item/2007/03/future-perfect-2 … it got reposted to the top of my blog due to some dumb thing (but that’s cool, it’s not date sensitive and I’m going thru some transfer servers stuff (ugh!) … there ya go! enjoy! (i enjoyed urs!)
—The point here is at any given moment in our existence, time is both finite and infinite. Always in motion and always with infinite possibilities. Yet, nonetheless finite when we realize that everything has a beginning and everything has an end. —-
Here are more of the esoteric ramblings the hopelessly inquisitive. Albeit, I am no philosopher, no theologian, nor am I a physicist, yet the pursuit of finding some ultimate explanation which lays open all the shadows of our existence seems to have indeed become an all-consuming obsession for me. This is yet another blog in which I attempt to probe the depth of reality.( Lol ) I guess I keep doing this because from my perspective, I believe that there is a reality out there that exists beyond our knowledge of time……… and what happens here and now is only a small part of it. In that sense, I can’t help but try to comprehend things that are incomprehensible. I would attempt to see the unsee-able if it were only possible. So, this makes me a very restless sort of person.
But I am not alone. From what I understand, Concepts such as Life, Death, Heaven, Earth, Time, and Space continue to plague many people. To most these are amorphous and ambiguous issues, and by the end of one’s life, most come to think of each issue on a different level than everyone else. As a result, we all seem to arrive at a different end point in spite of all the discussion that has gone into these topics since the beginning of recorded history. What we think we are. What we really are. What we know. What we don’t. How science has begun to spin itself up into a little ball of circular questions regarding the origin and function of our universe.–the reality and purpose of mankind existence: what is perceived vs. what is real. My question is what is the endpoint of man’s capacity to understand his own existence? And what can really be known, through science, speculation or otherwise? ……… In my heart I am like a child who is impatient to learn things which he or she does not yet have the ability to understand. And yet I stand here still relentlessly asking ‘why’….much to the exasperation of everyone else.
On last thing, it is one thing is to live life by one’s faith while searching for understanding of Truth along the way, but quite another thing to walk through life only searching for Truths that uphold preconceived notions all the while ignoring everything else. It is not that I am looking only for certain answers to validate my own belief system, but rather I approach this search in the light of the fact that I realize I know very few things. I wish to learn as much as I can during my time here on this planet so that if it would be at all possible, I could bring light into someone else’s existence and make their life’s journey a bit more rational.
Existence is s a work in progress…..Like this blog. Lol I will make revisions according to comments I receive.
Overview/ Introduction There is a universal consensus that time is that it is linear: that there is one point in which all things began, let’s call it Time Zero, and from that point until now, all events continue in one direction moving forward to the other end of a continuum, that we refer to as the future. Interesting to note, though this one-dimensional continuum is very long, many people of varying spirituality, philosophy, religious belief agree that it will somehow one day come to an end. It is amazing how common this belief is, even among those that profess no religious affiliation what so ever! For some it is judgement day, for others it is just the end of the world due to whatever natural phenomenon or man-made cause. However, the real issue here is not the end of the world, but time itself.
This notion of time is easy to grasp and readily observable to our naked eyes and hence, we take it for granted as reality. Time is an assumption that forms the basis of Newtonian physics which postulates that our three-dimensional reality is separate from, and moves forward in, a one-dimensional linear version of time. Yet there is another side: Einstein, with his theory of relativity, proved that our reality is actually four-dimensional; he added time as the fourth dimension. He attempted to show that space and time are woven together to form a closed circuit space-time continuum that is spherical, or otherwise eternally one sided.
Time, then, according to Einstein, has no beginning and no end. In the Newtonian view of space and time, events develop with the passage of time, but Einstein’s special theory of relativity says that it is more accurate to think in terms of a static, non-moving picture of space and time; all that is, happens at once and is only perceived as having a definite sequence. In this static picture of space/time, events do not develop, they just are.
Ah, so the question is: what is the nature of time?
Below are a few of theories that I have found here and there regarding time continuum– All are rather interesting. I hope that my posting these will not bore the stuffing out of people, but rather open up some type of discussion. I realize that there is a really good possibility that no one myspace could care less about space/time theories. Lol ha, oh well, I think it is at least was worth a try. Maybe some could share their thoughts with me. I am no scientist, nor do I expect any really profound answers. As such, there are no dumb comments. ….. Feel free to add to this list of theories, or offer proofs to discredit anything or everything. Any thoughts at all would be appreciated.
Theory Space/Time is curved: ….what does it mean to be curved? Well, as I understand, this is due to the influence of mass against movement in time. Recently, scientists say that it is now possible to detect this curvature. –I really don’t know how this is done, actually….so please, don’t ask me to explain.
For example, if an object’s existence in time was really linear, then that object’s existence might appear to a fourth-dimensional being as a sphere. However, to the third-dimensional being, time seems like a straight line going on forever. Make any sense? Essentially, both perspectives are correct from their individual points of reference. A fourth-dimensional being could transcend this time continuum simply by going from point A to point B, because that being can perceive that dimension. The third-dimensional being cannot. For them, there is only now, the memory of a past, and an expectation that there will be a future.
Moving on, as three-dimensional beings, we perceive time only as a result of memory. We remember what was as separate from what is now. Furthermore, just think what would happen if we had zero memory, …..How could we detect time at all - we would exist only for the moment. Therefore, because of memory, the result is our apparent perception of time as a linear line, always going forward. This is similar to primitive peoples perceiving the Earth as flat. It could be infinite - the horizon always kept bringing something new no matter how far they traveled; or, it could be finite, in which case there was the risk of falling off the edge.
Important: a dimension does not need to be detected to exist. If we had no memory of the interval we label as “time,” our existence in space/time would still occur.
According to elementary geometry, a curve, extended infinitely, becomes a circle (or, better yet, a sphere.) A sphere, when looked at without the aid of light that allows for the existence of dimensional shadows–”indicators of dimensionality”, would appear as a flat surface, just like primitive people perceived the Earth. Only when enough of the Earth was explored could the true form of Earth be determined. The same holds true for three-dimensional beings trying to grasp the dimension of time. And for that matter, how three dimensional beings view space as well.
Without the ability to perceive “existence” macroscopically, we are yet no more than cave men in our ability. We are likened unto those individuals in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, in which certain hypothetical individuals are trapped in a cave from the moment of the conception until the moment of their death. They are unable to leave or know of anything that exists outside the cave. They are prisoners chained inside. Their perception of reality is all about themselves as they are able to see each other and the shadows that reflect inside the walls of the cave from the outside. These shadows are in fact the images of things that exist only on the outside. However, to these captives, those shadows are interpreted as being entities in of themselves. They are not secondary, but primary realities. As such, they are perceived as truth. Because we are like these captives and can not get out of our “cave” in order to gain a more complete view of existence, we are perplexed by our own existence. For now we are bound to speculation about our universe based solely upon the indefinite things we are able to see. At least until we discover some clue that allows us to turn around and come out of our intellectual entrapment, we will remain here spinning in the midst of endless circular questions.
2nd Theory: Einstein stated that space is finite but time is infinite. The problem is that infinite is not calculable. Have we found the ending point of space yet? Where? I am no physics major, but isn’t the ability to calculate the finite properties of space based on a mathematical assumption? However, I would assume that some people must make one known idea finite while taking another idea and leaving it rather ambiguously infinite because of a lack of information. Is this what we have done for time? How concrete is this relativity theory? So, you see, I am having trouble with this thought.
On the one hand, for any given object (such as a particle, an atom, a molecule, a person, a planet, a star, a galaxy, or even an entire universe), it is thought that time begins from that object’s coming into existence and ends when that object ceases to exist in that form. Yet on the other hand, some scientists say that nothing is ever created or destroyed, that all is made up of energy which merely continues to change in form and evolve from one particle to the next through out “life” and ” death” of the material. What does this mean as far as the finiteness of space? —- Is there only a set amount of energy in the universe with which to recombine elements and form new structures? Is there a point in which new things cannot exist because there is not enough material for their existence? Is anyone capable of numbering every proton, electron, neutron? How then is space finite? How was this determined? Are both time and space infinite, or are both finite? Does Einstein have it backwards? Didn’t he disprove his own theory eventually? I don’t know…Ha; I need to do some more reading.
3rd Theory: string theory……the universe is composed of vibrating strings.
String theory is a model of physics where one-dimensional extended objects called strings, replace the previously accepted zero-dimensional point particles that were formerly seen as building blocks of the universe. According to this theory, string-like elements vibrate in different notes (just as a violin string), with every note appearing as a different paticle (electron, photon et.). These strings move through space and time whereby the mass of each particle, and the fashion with which it can interact with other strings, are determined by the way the strings vibrate.
String theory is supposed to be able to describe the building blocks of matter, and incorporate super symmetry, a hypothesized symmetry of nature. The problem is that scientists have come up with way too many versions of string theory, each one being so enormously complicated and improvable that finally one comprehensive model had to be constructed before the theory could ever be used to explain anything. This new theory is called M- theory.
M-theory presents a new picture whereby, given enough energy, a string could stretch to become an extremely large floating membrane, called brane fro short. Branes can have different dimensional properties and grow as large as a universe. In fact, according to the theory, our entire universe exists on a floating brane– just one of several floating branes that each support their own parallel universe. Each brane represents one slice of a higher dimensional space.
The theory predicts strings can be open or closed. Open strings, or strings that resemble little wiggling hairs have at least one endpoint “attached” to the membrane like a trolley car is attached by a top cable to an electric line. Strings can move through the brane but cannot leave it, explaining why we can’t physically see out of, or reach out of our dimension. The atoms that make up our bodies are composed of open strings that have attached endpoints to our 3-D membrane. Another way to look at it is to consider a movie screen. People on a screen appear to be three-dimensional, but they cannot actually reach off the screen into our 3-D world. They are stuck in their 2-D world, just as we are stuck in our 3-D world and cannot reach into neighboring dimensions. Scientists refer to this as degrees of freedom.
I see God existing as an important aspect in all of this drama. I se Him as an extra dimensional figure, and the great cohesive factor that binds time, space, matter reality into a whole functioning unit. I believe God would be at the highest dimension, or the prime manipulator of these strings, and since we were given the breath of life, our individuality and free will is therefore tied to God, the Creator.
But because of our limited reality, we are therefore unable to see God. He is outside our point of reference, i.e. outside our Platonic “cave”. Yet, He has the ability to show himself to us in these “shadows” that flicker against the walls that bind our concept of existence. We can not see Him directly, but He can still manipulate our environment in such a way as to reveal Himself. For example, God has left physical evidence, i.e. mathematically and harmonically perfect natural phenomenon. He has also left written evidence, i.e. the Bible. It too is highly mathematical any concise. Referring to the example about 2D vs. 3D earlier, here is another analogy: As 3 dimensional beings, we can manipulate and do almost anything to a 2 dimensional plane. That is a fact. For example, if I took a pencil and drew a stick figure onto a paper, I can make that stick figure do anything. I can even animate that figure on a 2 dimensional plane with the help of a computer. Unlike God I cannot manipulate the 2 dimensional figures or their environments in such a way as to make them any more aware of my presence.
If there are 11 dimensions, according to this string theory, then that would make this added ability of God’s seem even more likely. He simply has more to work with! Rather than manipulating us to do His will, He chooses to communicate with us. Because we can choose to communicate with Him through prayers, actions, lifestyle, we have the possibility to enjoy a type of reciprocal relationship with Him. Additionally, if God is the head of an 11 dimensional universe, do you think it could be possible to take a three dimensional object and transform it into, let’s say, a 9 or 10 dimensional object? -To create a higher being from a lesser one? Just has we can put and idea into two dimensions and then create it again in three. Or that maybe He could move anything up or down this dimensional scale indefinitely?
Unfortunately there is still a very big lack of proof that the theory of strings, superstrings, and M-theory really exists. So far, science has spent a lot of time coming up with a bunch of pretty mathematical equations. How does one actually prove that other dimensions exist? — floating branes and parallel universes, etc.
Nevertheless, I am eager to find out whether this has any element of truth to it. In the end, if successful, from 11 dimensions to parallel universes, from the swirling galaxies to quantum soup, superstrings might just truly be a way to peer out of our cave and into a great expanse of existence in which we may be able to see more fully the great vastness of God.
3rd Theory Space/time reality is holographic:
This is a new theory that I am currently reading about and am very interested in. At this point, I don’t understand well enough yet to comment on it here but it goes something like this: Change the position of the universe slightly and change what is seen completely-i.e. change the whole of reality. There are multiple dimensions that exist around us, but we cannot see them….unless something shifted a degree or two. —If man could really see the things that existed along side him, he would ultimately die of fright.
Alright, well, I think this as gone on long enough. If ANYONE at all has actually read down to this point, you have my deepest admiration and respect. Also, then if you have the mind to comment, by all means share your thoughts with me.
Posted by Ramie2983 at 5:46 AM
1 comments:
Ramie2983 said…
In light of my last blog Time Continuum and all the interesting points that were made, I have decided to post this essay by Dr. Fonarev as well as a link below for anyone interested in his work. I found this essay by chance when looking for information on the relationship between electromagnetic force, dimensions, space/time relationship. I do not know much about him other than the fact that he is a reasearcher, but I thought he has done a superb job blending together all of the previous questions that I have posted
This holographic theory, on the other hand, is one that I have read some about but am not really that familiar with. It sounds interesting, but I have been skeptical. This essay explains the whole issue in a better way and manages to tie its key points in with the other Reality theories.
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Holographic Universe and Intelligence – Consciousness
By Dr. Fonarev
The model of our universe constantly changes as people explore deeper and deeper into physics and the laws of nature. For 200 years physics stood on the foundation of Newtonian mechanics. Albert Einstein’s theory of relativity changed the view of time and space. No longer viewed as distinct and absolute, they were “relative” to each other. Einstein’s famous equation, E=mc2, stated that matter and energy are not strictly separable. According to Einstein, all mass has energy and may be translated into energy. Later Max Planck introduced the concepts of “energy packets” or “quanta.” These energy packets or quanta are now called “photons.” It was discovered that photons acted unpredictably. Now people believe that the subatomic world, instead of being a mosaic of hard bits of matter, exhibits a strange murkiness that appears to change based upon the perception of the observer.
About twenty years ago scientists moved further in terms of understanding the fundamentals of our world. They created and developed new theories, such as quantum gravity, string, and M-theories. All of these modern theories include the Holographic principle, which is the subject of our discussion.
First, I want to remind you what holography is. A hologram is a three-dimensional photograph, which is made with the aid of a laser. In holography, there are two basic waves that come together to create the interference pattern. To have wave interference you have to deal with at least two waves. The first wave that bounces off the object, thereby taking its shape, is called the object wave. The second wave of light that has not bounced off the object is used to perform interference and is called the reference wave.
When an object wave meets a reference wave, they create a standing wave pattern of interference and it is photographed (captured on film). This photograph is called a 2 hologram. After the film is developed and you look at the hologram, you will see a meaningless swirl of light and dark lines. However, if such a hologram is exposed to a laser light beam, you can observe a three-dimensional (3-D) image of the object.
The three-dimensionality of such images, which is recorded on two-dimensional (2-D) film, is not the only remarkable characteristic of holograms. The hologram can be observed from any position, even from the back of the image. If the quality of the hologram is perfect, it is impossible to distinguish whether you are observing the image or the original object itself. If a hologram of an object is cut in half and then illuminated by a laser, each half will still contain the entire image of the object. If you will cut the hologram into ten pieces, each part will be able to restore, the same 3 –D image, but the image will be less distinct.
Unlike normal photographs, every part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by the whole. The principle that says, “all of an object is in every part” is called the Holographic Principle. In other words, if we take something apart, which is constructed of a hologram, we will not get the pieces of which it is made, but we are getting a smaller version of the whole. It turns out that this principle becomes a very fruitful idea. It provides us with an entirely new perspective and understanding of how our Universe is organized.
Let us start with a review of the Holographic Principle in Physics and see how this idea explains the structure and evolution of our Universe. According to the Holographic Principle, the Universe is like a hologram: just as a trick of light allows a fully three-dimensional image to be recorded on a flat piece of film. Our seemingly spatial three-dimensional universe could be completely equivalent to an alternative Universe with a quantum fields and physical laws “painted” on a distant, vast surface.
In other words, our Universe with
• four space–time dimensions, three dimensions of space and one dimension of time and
• existing gravity around us, according to the Holographic Principle, could have an equivalent description of nature:
• In three space–time dimensions, two dimension of space and one dimension of time.
• without gravity.(Equivalent means that the two descriptions agree on the outcome of any experiment.)
At first glance this assumption seems like a completely crazy idea because it contradicts our intuition, which tells us that there should be many more degrees of freedom (each dimension has one degree of freedom) in four space–time dimensions as compared to three.
Nevertheless, the physics of black holes (immensely dense concentrations of mass) as well as the string theory both of which use the Holographic Principle, show that it could be true. Because we live in 4-D world we can expect the 3-D world with the corresponding physics laws and theory could exist. Unfortunately physicists have not discovered such a theory yet. But one significant step toward supporting these ideas already has been done.
A concrete example of the Holographic Principle at work involves so-called anti-de Sitter space-times. The original de Sitter space-time is a model of the universe first obtained by Dutch astronomer Willem de Sitter as a solution to Einstein’s equations, including the repulsive force known as the cosmological constant. De Sitter’s space-time is empty. It expands at an accelerating rate and is very highly symmetrical. In 1997 astronomers and physicists studying distant supernova explosions concluded that our universe now expands in an accelerated fashion and will probably become increasingly like de Sitter space-time in the future. Now, if the repulsion in Einstein’s equations is changed to attraction, de Sitter’s solution turns into the anti-de Sitter space-time. More importantly for the holographic concept, it possesses a boundary, which is located “at infinity” and in this case our everyday space-time becomes such a boundary. The further scenario of evolution of our Universe depends on the mass of the Universe. This is why physicists are so preoccupied with the calculation of this mass.
Using anti-de Sitter space-time, theorists have devised a concrete example of the Holographic Principle at work. They have shown that the universe described by superstring theory functioning in an anti-de Sitter space-time is completely equivalent to a quantum field theory operating on the boundary of that space-time. Thus, the full majesty of superstring theory in an anti-de Sitter universe is painted on the boundary of our 4-D universe.
This result means that two clearly very different theories–not even acting in spaces of the same dimension–are equivalent. It means that creatures living in one of these universes would be incapable of determining whether they live in a 5-D universe (of course, the structures of their brains might give them an overwhelming “common sense,” causing prejudice in favor of one description over another).
The experiment conducted by French physicists Alan Aspect provides more “food” for thoughts about the world fundamentals. The actual physical experiment involved quantum mechanics and has been described elsewhere. In the world of quantum physics, particles leap through impenetrable barriers or exist in two places at once, electrical current pass through wires without resistance etc. About twenty years ago Aspect and his team made a remarkable discovery that many physicists consider being one of more important events of the 20th century. Aspect determined that under certain circumstances subatomic particles, such as electrons, are able to instantaneously communicate with each other regardless of the distance separating them. This fact, as we know, violates Einstein’s postulate that no signal can travel faster than the speed of light. Scientists continue to discuss the reliability of Aspect’s experiment, but no one has found loophole yet.
British physicist David Bohm provides a very interesting explanation for observing this phenomenon. To understand his idea he proposes the following imaginary experiment. Imagine you are observing an aquarium containing a fish. You sit in another room and watch two television screens connected to two television cameras directed at the aquarium from different angles: one camera points to the front, and the other points to the side of aquarium. At the beginning you are thinking that you are observing two different fish. When you watch the television screens you can see that when one fish turns, the other fish also turns. Eventually you will figure out that there is a certain correlation in their behavior and when one fish turns in one direction, the other will almost instantaneously move in other. It gives an illusion of instant communication. Ultimately you will come to conclude that your different 2-D images of the fish are the images of one fish, which lives in 3-D space.
The situation with subatomic particles in Aspect’s experiment is exactly the same. He suggests that two different electrons as well as instant communication between them is an “illusion.” According to Bohm, such a faster-than-light connection between subatomic particles is really telling us that there is a deeper level of reality about which we do not know. It probably exists in a dimension beyond our own and when we view objects such as subatomic particles as separate from one another, it is because we are seeing only a portion of their reality. It follows then from this holographic metaphor, that the particles are not separate “parts,” but parts of a deeper and more underlying unity. At the same time, if the apparent separateness of subatomic particles is illusory, it means that at a deeper level of reality all things in the universe are infinitely interconnected. The past, present, and future all exist simultaneously. Everything interpenetrates everything. Bohm says that in this case the electrons in a carbon atom in the human brain are connected to the subatomic particles that comprise every salmon that swims, every heart that beats, and every star that shimmers in the sky.
The other scientists who independently came to the same Holographic model of the world were neuropsychologist Karl Pribram, neurobiologist Ochao Pacheko, psychologist K.G.Young, and others. They conclude that the highest brain functions, such as intelligence, consciousness, and memory, do not have specific anatomic locations for their function. Instead, they are localized “everywhere” within the brain. Pribram believes that memories are encoded not in brain cells (neurons) but in patterns of nerve impulses that crisscross the entire brain in the same way that patterns of laser light interference crisscross the entire area of a piece of film containing a holographic image. Grof, while conducting research with LSD as a psychotherapeutic tool, described very unusual observations of his patients. One woman, who never before had any knowledge in zoology, described during her hallucination her feelings on being a reptile. She provides a rich, detailed description of her feelings and her visions. She even described unique information related to the appearance of a male reptile. When Grof later discussed this fact with the zoologists, the zoologists were very surprised because very few people in the world knew about such intricate details. This experience was not unique. Many patients described their feelings about being animals. Some of them can give a detailed description of the Zaratustrian funerals (an ancient religion) and other ancient rituals. Grof found that people experienced the same transpersonal feelings during different kinds
of therapy sessions without drug inducements.
The Holographic Paradigm also has implications for so-called hard sciences like biology. Keith Floyd, a psychologist at Virginia Interment College, has pointed out that if the concreteness of reality were but a holographic illusion, it would no longer be true to say that the brain produces consciousness. Rather, it is consciousness that creates the appearance of the brain as well as the body and everything else around us we interpret as Physical. It looks that idea of movie “Matrix” is a result of speculations with all these theories. The holographic model of the brain allows us to explain a lot of puzzling phenomenon related to how the brain functions. This model describes how the human brain can store a huge volume of memories in a very small space. Similar to the holographic process, when changing the angle at which laser strikes the film, the hologram can store different Images located in the same area- the memory can store different kinds of information that relate to different senses (vision, hearing, teaching, smell, etc.). It also provides the explanation of our ability to quickly retrieve whatever information we need from the enormous storage of our memories. If someone asks you to tell him what comes to your mind when he says the word “zebra,” you do not have to sort back through gigantic and cerebral alphabetic file to arrive with an answer. Instead, associations like “striped,” “horse-like,” and “animal native to Africa” all pop into your head instantly.
The other brain puzzle is how the brain is able to translate the avalanche of frequencies it receives via the senses (light frequencies, sound frequencies, and so on) into the concrete world of our perceptions. The holographic model is the best method by which we can describe how the encoding and decoding of frequencies process is happening. Scientists believe that our brain mathematically converts the frequencies it receives through the 6 senses into the inner world of our perceptions and mathematically constructs “hard” reality.The famous psychologist K.Young established the holographic metaphor that is basic to the branch of science called analytical psychology. In particular, Young states that personal unconsciousness, which is part of the collective unconsciousness, is a hologram. This personal hologram contains an extensive content that every one gets from their ancestors. This process saves our history as a species, as a tribe, as a family, and as a biological individual. From a standpoint of the holographic metaphor, the collective unconsciousness is a “hologram” of the whole human community, which continuously has been recorded in each of us through the ages, from one generation to the other.
Each person alone, as a small part of such a “hologram,” contains in himself a holistic but non-defined symbolic image of all the people who lived before him and is living in the present. A full hologram consists of the coherent ensemble of all people that live at the same time. As long as the process has some history and continues constantly, it may be an explanation of how some people’s phenomenological ability “to peek in the future.”
In a universe in which individual brains are actually indivisible portions of a greater hologram and everything is infinitely interconnected, telepathy, different meditation practices, and other paranormal events may be the accessing of this information at the holographic level.
Today every student who is taking Physics knows that the world is made of “matter and energy.” But the existence of matter and energy is not enough to run the world according to the universal laws of nature. The information about how the processes evolve is just as crucial an ingredient to the final explanation. Can we conclude that world evolution is ultimately predetermined? It is clear that the robot line at the automobile factory, which is supplied with all parts and energy cannot create something useful without instructions how to proceed. The situation is the same with a synthesis of proteins in a cell. Even the presence of amino acid building blocks, ribosome and “machines” which release the energy by the conversion of ATP to ADP synthesis will not take place without the information emanating from the DNA. Likewise, the information for the world evolution is a crucial player in physical systems and processes.
To shine light on this side of the problem and to answer the question of what runs the Universe, The Integrated Theory of Intelligence was developed in 1984. It introduced the following key concepts such as Intelligence -Consciousness, Universal Mind, Collective Unconsciousness, and variations of these themes. Science since then had made significant progress and there is now more scientific evidence accumulated to support the theory. Nowadays, new theories state that in space-time mater-energy is ruled by Intelligence- Consciousness or the Universal Mind.
The space and time itself did not exist before. Initially it was a huge concentration of energy and chaos prevailed over order. The universe’s basic fabric was in a homogeneous undifferentiated state. Immediately thereafter it began to manifest the properties of matter-energy and intelligence-consciousness in space-time. One theory, The Ultimate Theory of Everything, predicted that this universal mind permeated the entire cosmos and directed the evolutionary process ever since. As matter-energy began to condense into elementary particles (later into the “hard world”), intelligence-consciousness also started the process of fractionation. Today we are a witness to the division of the universal mind into ourselves as a human with our individual self-awareness. This characteristic is found in mammals and other higher animals. There are also researchers who are beginning to recognize purposeful behavior in even lower life forms such as single-cell organisms and plants. The conscious human mind that we each experience on a daily basis is an extension of a universal consciousness. Natural selection has also been shaping this evolutionary process but more in the role of an editor.
By having our individual minds, we are nevertheless part of the whole Intelligence - Consciousness. We are all contributing to the universal mind, thus forming the collective mind. At the same time, according to the Ultimate Theory of Everything, we have access to the Universe Memory Storage.
According to the discussing theory both collective mind and collective memory are parts of a huge hologram, which comprises the whole history of our Universe. If the mass, according to Einstein, warps the space-time, then memory may do the same thing, but in microscopic volume.
Today we believe those electrons and other elementary particles are not solid structures, but highly compressed energy. Currently only string theory works with tiny spaces (10-33 centimeters long) where the memory could be described. The string theory suggests that nature is ultimately composed of tiny strings. The elementary particles are considered to be not points but wriggling strings. The theory has made it possible to explain all the forces of nature in a single unified theory. Although we think we live in a fourdimensional world, string theorists contend there are six more dimensions that we simply do not notice. In a distance a straw looks like a line, but up close it has other dimensions.
Einstein showed with his theory of general relativity that space-time could be stretched and warped by mass, which produce the effect we call gravity. String theorists have found that space-time can also changes shape, or topology, and even can be ripped and tired. Finally, string theory states that Nature is a hologram. If elementary particles during the world’s evolution formed atoms, then molecules, then objects, and finally cells and organisms, then by analogy we can suggest that the individual’s mind probably could be combined into a local collective mind of groups of individuals or even into the collective mind of nations and humanities.
Finally the most mind-boggling question of all of this information is: Is our universe a primary or secondary reality? What if we what we observe “there” is actually nothing more than a holographic blur of frequencies, and if the brain is also a hologram and only selects some of the frequencies out of this blur and mathematically transforms them into sensory perceptions, what becomes of the objective reality?
Are we really “receivers” floating through a kaleidoscopic sea of frequencies? (Did you watch movie “Matrix”?) Is what we extract from this sea of frequencies a physical reality, or is this only one channel from many frequencies that are extracted out of the Super-hologram?
Of course many scientists accept this new picture of reality based on holographic paradigm with skepticism. At the same time it has galvanized others into expanding the theory. A small but growing number of researchers believe it may be the most accurate model of reality that science has achieved thus far.
All of this looks pretty strange and weird, but we have to remember that new ideas and theories in science almost always looked unreal. It took a long time for physicists to accept the Einstein Theory of Relativity. New conclusions from his theories are very difficult to understand; they usually contradict our intuition. When scientists discovered the electromagnetic fields and electromagnetic waves, nobody seriously believed in such discoveries. No one could see nor touch these fields. No one could believe that it would be used in our daily life. We know now that televisions, computers, radio, and cellular phones cannot work without transmitting electromagnetic waves.
Another impressive example of inability to understand a new theory involves the question of why stars shine. Theoretical physicists have solved this problem and have explained the process through thermo-nuclear fusion. Non-believers have asked: Who knows what is happening in the distance stars? Later, however, this process was implemented here onEarth when scientist created the hydrogen bomb. All crazy theories about different kinds of “grandfather paradoxes” or “twin’s paradoxes” as well as the Holographic Paradigm and the Theory of Everything will one day open for us unpredictable horizons and opportunities.
P.S. I am currently working on problems of neural memory with my colleagues. Our latest publications explain the principles of associative memory, and other brain’s functions. The model that we use based on the Holographic Principle. We are working on problem of developing artificial memory elements for restoring the brain functions and the creation of interface devices for coupling neurons to electronic systems. The objective of our work is how to improve the brain’s capacity and its effectiveness during learning and memorization. We are definitely in the very beginning of a new field of science, but we believe that a breakthrough is on its way.
Who was that Anonymous Masked Man? Lol.
@zenny: hahaha.