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Word Gems exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity
Quantum Mechanics
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A discussion of the principle of “quantum of action” is extremely important, but, again, one of those topics that might require years of investigation. This page can provide at best only the briefest of introductions. I include it here in the roster of “quantum” articles primarily as a reminder to myself that this is an area I’ll want to know more about in the future but merely make note of it at present. With caveats in place, I will offer a beginning sketch. as we begin, the metaparadigm has to be correct, or all that follows will be askew Let’s recall that quantum mechanics, like every other aspect of knowledge in the world, suffers under a materialistic interpretation. This means that most knowledge-workers in this area still believe in “upward causation” of reality, that sub-atomic “hard little bee-bee” particles gather themselves together into increasingly more complex entities, from quarks and electrons, to atoms, to simple structures of the world, all the way up the line to finally reveal humans and galaxies. But this is incorrect. Instead, reality is more properly viewed as “downward causation,” Universal Consciousness as the Source and underlying matrix of all that is giving rise to matter, in all of its forms. Matter and energy are but forms, derivations, of the elemental Consciousness. Dr. Amit Goswami, Creative Evolution: “[Scientific materialism asserts:] Elementary particles make atoms, atoms make molecules, molecules make living cells with those all-powerful genes, some of the living cells (guided by the genes) make the brain, and the brain makes all subjective experiences, such as consciousness, thoughts, feelings, and so on. Cause rises upward from the elementary particles, and all causation is upward causation… Can you really believe that all your thoughts and meanings, your feelings and struggles with values, and indeed your consciousness itself, are the results of a random dance of elementary particles of genetic determinism? that you are a purely ornamental epiphenomenon, a secondary consequence of the random movement of matter in your brain cells? Even the scientific proponents of purely upward causation don’t really believe that! If they themselves are merely causally impotent epiphenomena, why do they take themselves and their ideas so seriously?” If you get this foundational metaparadigm wrong, then nothing that follows will be exactly right. “Quantum Of Action” (QOA) cannot be properly understood until we accept Consciousness, not matter, as the ground of reality. Peter Russell is among those who get the existential hierarchy in the correct order. The reader is strongly recommended to see Peter’s lecture on this topic. Here are some highlights of his discourse. QOA is related to the nature of light. Russell helps us to understand with this diagram.
Look at the top row. For the stationary observer, that is, with a velocity of zero, the space-time continuum unfolds or stretches out what we consider to be “normal” perceptions of space and time; that is, for the stationary observer, light seems to be traveling 186,000 miles for every second that passes. Drop down a row. The observer is now traveling at 87% the speed of light. (Peter said that at 87% the numbers were easier to work with, “that’s just how the math worked out,” meaning, he could have chosen any percentage.) At 87% of the speed of light, the observer will experience, it will seem like, distance and time in the universe are shrinking. Compared to what the stationary observer would perceive, distances now seem to be half, and time, too, seems to be half of what it was. We see where this is going. In the next lower row, distances and time seem to have shortened even more when the observer is traveling at 99.5% the speed of light. from light's point of view, there is no distance and there is no time And now the bottom row. What would happen if we could travel at the speed of light? In other words, we’ve now entered the realm of light’s point of view of the universe. For light, all distance and all time collapse to zero. From light’s point of view, there is no distance and there is no time. Editor's note: Some of this is confusing on many levels. For example, concerning Peter’s chart, let’s look at the “87%” example again. If you were riding in a car that had accelerated to 87% the speed of light, everything inside the car would seem normal. Your heart would beat at a normal rate, your process of aging would be unchanged, and if you looked at your wristwatch the time would seem to be flowing normally. Things do seem normal within what Einstein called an “inertial frame of reference” – just as, inside a jet airplane, if you bounce a rubber ball on the floor, it doesn’t shoot to the back of the plane at 700 mph, but bounces normally, just the way it does at home. But if the jet hits some turbulence, then the ball will not cleanly bounce because it's now being measured against forces outside the "inertial frame of reference."
the space-time continuum and the interval In Einstein's physics there’s something called "the space-time continuum" and “the interval.”
Peter said that the space-time continuum is not space, it’s not time, it’s not a mixture of the two, it’s something we don’t have a clear definition of, but, in any case, the space-time continuum impacts our five senses with certain precise amounts of space and time. And these amounts vary with the speed of the observer. Editor's note: The space-time continuum seems to be the matrix or primal metaphysical nursery out of which our perceptions of space and time are created. Kant spoke of the "noumenon," a deeper reality behind and subsuming what the brain apprehends; as opposed to "phenomenon" which meets our senses at the surface of life, and we take it to be reality, but, in fact, it's merely a veneer-shadow of "the thing in itself." the interval Einstein said that there’s something in the space-time continuum, which he called “the interval,” which is related to distance and time. And this, the interval, turns out to be a constant, and never changes, although what we experience as space and time seems to change. Different observers will perceive different amounts of space and time.
the interval is always zero
From our day-to-day common-sensical perspective, light travels from a source to an object; or, from emission to absorption. We understand light to be traveling, for example, from the Sun to the Earth. We think of it traversing space as a wave or a particle. coincident However, from light’s point of view, emission and absorption are coincident, occur in the same timeless present moment. From light’s viewpoint, emission at the Big Bang, all the way to today, is one seamless timeless cosmic moment of now. And when we say that “the interval is always zero,” we mean to express that what we call the “speed of light” always presents itself as a constant; or, maybe, better stated, from light's point of view, the interval between emission and absorption is always zero - because, for light, there is no distance. From the observer's point of view, if the observer moves faster, then the elastic space-time continuum will “unfold” distance and time at a slower rate, thereby maintaining the constant speed of light. something's gotta give If the speed of light is constant, then other factors have to be flexible and elastic - something has to give; that would be space and time. Peter said, if the light from the back of the room is shining toward me, it races at 186,000 mps, and the space-time continuum will “stretch out” at a rate of 186,000 miles for each passing second. In essence, from our point of view, space and time are created. But if I’m in motion, then the amount of space and time unfolded will be less, and if I’m moving faster, then even less space and time will manifest. The result is always an “interval” of “zero.” Does light really have a speed? Probably most shocking of all was Peter’s assertion that, from light’s point of view, light has no speed. It doesn’t go anywhere. It is omnipresent in the universe, inhabiting a timeless realm of eternal present moment.
notes from Russell's lecture:
In any process nature always does it in a way that the action is a minimum (called "the principle of least action")Planck’s constant is called a quantum of actionPlanck’s constant is not energy as such (it’s a rate, this per that, joules per sec)Every photon of light is an identical quantum of actionRussell: “whatever the underlying field is, unified field, field of consciousness, the first manifestation is actually action, manifestation is action, activity, which then begins to appear as mass and energy, related by e=mc2
the speed of light (c) is the ratio of manifestation of space and time"what does the speed of light have to do with the manifestation of energy and mass, if we take c to be the ratio of manifestation of space and time, it makes more sense”
From light’s point of view, it does not cross space and time, the point of emission and absorption is coincident – space and time collapse, there is the exchange of an action, we stretch out the interval (always zero) and ask did light travel as wave or particle, and try to answer from that frame of reference, but it didn’t travel anywhere – the only real way to look at light is from light’s own point of view, not from our material point of view, wave or particle are just models of the mind which we mistakenly assume to apply to the external world, as Whitehead said, are qualities in the mind which we ascribe to the external world – out there we just have “perturbations of the absolute” which Consciousness congeals into the external world. We think in a causal way but this doesn’t mean that the external world has to behave in a causal way. We think in terms of locality but it’s a nonlocal world. It’s only “weird” when we insist that the way we experience it is the way it is. In between the two we have light, it isn’t part of spacetime. Light seems to be the first manifestation of the Absolute, whether in the external world or in our minds, is light. (What is called) the “hard question” is not “how does insentient matter give rise to experience?” but “how does Consciousness manifest in all these diverse forms?” Consciousness is fundamental (not matter, and so the basic question is not matter-based).
Matter doesn’t exist as such, nothing is a “thing” but only Consciousness is real.
What is action? It relates to the most fundamental process of the world, that of Consciousness manifesting in the physical realm, with the relative manifestations of spacetime, it is reality from light’s point of view.
a brief summary to this point What is "action"? It relates to the most fundamental process of the world, that of Consciousness manifesting in the physical realm. Consciousness manifesting as energy and matter is the most fundamental process in the universe. And it appears that Planck’s Constant speaks to this manifestation. A "quantum of action" seems to be the smallest unit of manifestation. Planck’s Constant is not energy per se but a “rate,” like “miles per hour.” Planck’s Constant is given as joules per second, that is, a quantity of energy per second. See this online discussion of Planck’s Constant and related items: https://www.quora.com/Why-is-the-unit-of-Plancks-constant-joules-multiplied-by-seconds?share=1 https://www.quora.com/What-determines-Planck-time-and-Planck-length?q=what%20is%20planck%20len
discrete packets When Consciousness manifests as energy/matter, it does so in specific amounts. It’s not like a garden hose with an unbroken stream but more like a drip-drip-drip process.
The “drip” is a discrete packet of energy. Planck’s Constant quantifies that “smallest unit” of energy manifested. In math equations, Planck’s Constant is represented by “h”. When this amount of energy is manifested, it can come into the world as 1 times h, or 2 times h, or 3 times h – or some whole-number multiple – but “h” never comes as 1.5h, or 2.75h, or 3.45h. Energy never comes to us in a fraction of “h” but is always some whole-number multiple of “h”. This “discrete packet of energy” is the essential meaning of quantum mechanics. Energy comes into the world, and is managed, regulated, in discrete packets. It was this understanding of “discrete packet of energy” that allowed Niels Bohr to realize that electrons orbit an atom not just anywhere but in specific energy-planes or shells of orbit. This “discrete” quality also gives rise to what’s called the “Planck length”, which is the smallest unit of distance in the universe. And now we will ask, why can’t we just divide this unit in half and have a smaller unit? The answer is – see the above discussion on the two websites – if the unit is smaller, a black hole is created, thereby changing what we consider to be “normal” physics. This happens because, when a vibrational frequency of energy becomes smaller and smaller, its quantity of energy rises and rises. We see this in low-energy radio waves which have a frequency, possibly, of miles in length, versus the frequency of high-energy gamma radiation which might be measured in billionths of a meter. Zeno’s paradox Anciently, Zeno postulated that an arrow or a tortoise would never reach its goal because of dividing, dividing again, and further dividing the remaining distance. This puzzle stumped mathematicians for over two thousand years. But the answer is, reality is not infinitely divisible. There is a limit to divisions. It’s called the “Planck length.”
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