development was paralleled by a growing interest in mathematics, it finally led to the
formulation of proper scientific theories, based on experiment and expressed in
mathematical language. Galileo was the first to combine empirical knowledge with
mathematics and is therefore seen as the father of modern science.
The birth of modern science was preceded and accompanied by a development of
philosophical thought which led to an extreme formulation of the spirit/matter dualism.
This formulation appeared in the seventeenth century in the philosophy of René Descartes
who based his view of nature on a fundamental division into two separate and independent
realms; that of mind (res cogitans), and that of matter (res extensa). The 'Cartesian' division
allowed scientists to treat matter as dead and completely separate from themselves, and to
see the material world as a multitude of different objects assembled into a huge machine.
Such a mechanistic world view was held by Isaac Newton who constructed his mechanics on
its basis and made it the foundation of classical physics. From the second half of the
seventeenth to the end of the nineteenth century, the mechanistic Newtonian model .of the
universe dominated all scientific thought It was paralleled by the image of a monarchical
God who ruled the world from above by imposing his divine law on it. The fundamental laws
of nature searched for by the scientists were thus seen as the laws of God, invariable and
eternal, to which the world was subjected.
The philosophy of Descartes was not only important for the development of classical
physics, but also had a tremendous influence on the general Western way of thinking up to
the present day. Descartes' famous sentence 'Cogito ergo sum'-'I think, therefore I exist'-has
led Western man to equate his identity with his mind, instead of with his whole organism. As
a consequence of the Cartesian division , most individuals are aware of themselves as
isolated egos existing inside' their bodies. The mind has been separated from the body and
given the futile task of controlling it, thus causing an apparent conflict between the
conscious will and the involuntary instincts .
Each individual has been split up further into a large number of separate compartments,
according to his or her activities, talents, feelings, beliefs, etc, which are engaged in endless
conflicts generating continuous metaphysical confusion and frustration.
This inner fragmentation of man mirrors his view of the world 'outside' which is seen as a
multitude of separate objects and events. The natural environment is treated as if it
consisted of separate parts to be exploited by different interest groups. The fragmented
view is further extended to society which is split, into different nations, races, religious and
political groups . The belief that all these fragments-in ourselves, in our environment and in our society-are really separate can be seen as the essential reason for the present series of
social, ecological and cultural crises. It has alienated us from nature and from our fellow
human beings. It has brought a grossly unjust distribution of natural resources creating
economic and political disorder; an ever rising wave of violence, both spontaneous and
institutionalized,and an ugly, polluted environment in which life has often become physically
and mentally unhealthy.
The Cartesian division and the mechanistic world view have thus been beneficial and
detrimental at the same time. They were extremely successful in the development of
classical physics and technology, but had many adverse consequences for our civilization. It
is fascinating to see that twentieth-century science, which originated in the Cartesian split
and in the mechanistic world view, and which indeed only became possible because of such
a view, now overcomes this fragmentation and leads back to the idea of unity expressed in
the early Greek and Eastern philosophies.
THE NEWTONIAN MECHANICS
The Newtonian mechanics was the model of classical science. In the classical science all the
natural laws had an absolutely deterministic and descriptive character and defined the
course and development of every phenomenon. The knowledge of these laws assured the
human – observer the ability to understand not only the present but also the past and the
future. In a deterministic and timeless universe, the arrow of time is nothing but a human
illusion. Only the vision of the universe from the perspective of eternity ensures the truth of
physical theories.
In the deterministic universe of the classical science, the order always creates disorder and
never vice versa! The scientific dream of a united (applying on the microcosm as well as on
the macrocosm) and objective (i.e. independent of the observer) description of the natural
world, would become the nightmare of the contemporary physics in the beginning of the
20th century. The quantum description and interpretation of the microcosm, which is
regarded as the fundamental level in which all the natural phenomena are raised and
explained, requires a radical review of not only the classical description but also of the
metaphysical preconditions of classical science.
The classical ideal in physics was to be able to predict with certainty the future development
of a physical system. Newton’s mechanics led to the triumph of the deterministic vision of
the natural processes: if we know the initial conditions of a dynamical system, then the
solution of the differential motion equations would allow us to know in certainty not only
the past but also the future of that system.
This, however, is not feasible for two reasons: a) it is not possible to have the initial
conditions of the system in absolute accuracy and b) the analytical solution is not feasible for
the great majority of the systems. As far as the first reason is concerned, we have to
mention that after the discovery of the unstable systems, it became clear that very
neighboring orbits (which, namely correspond to initial conditions and whose values may
differ slightly) after a certain period of time are removed exponentially. In this notion, the
orbit is actually an idealization, since it is never possible to know the initial conditions in
“infinite” accuracy.
According to Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle and Bohr’s principle of correspondence, the
neutral and deterministic description of the microcosm is impossible: discontinuity and
indeterminacy are inherent characteristics of microphysical phenomena and in order to
describe them we have to integrate the observer within his own observations!
BEYOND THE SEPARATION: THE NEW COSOMOLOGICAL PARADIGM
Science evolves through alternating phases of 'normal' science and radical shifts that create
scientific revolutions. We saw this at the turn of the 20th century, when science shifted from
a Newtonian worldview to Einstein's relativity paradigm, and again with the shift to the
quantum paradigm. Now, as we recognize the non-local interconnection of all things in
space and time, we find our scientific worldview shifting once again. The insight now
emerging in the physical sciences, especially but not exclusively in quantum physics,
highlights the role of interaction and interconnection in the diverse spheres of observation
and ex
periment. He insight now emerging in the physical sciences, especially but not
exclusively in quantum physics, highlights the role of interaction and interconnection in the
diverse spheres of observation and experiment. The quantum theory holds that we live in a
participatory universe - which is what we consider as an independent, external reality is
linked to the way we observe. When making observations and measurements, the quanta
which are everything in the universe, changing. It makes no sense to talk about the
properties of quanta without an observer. The universe is connected by conscious
observation instruments from the most elementary particles up to huge galaxies. Moreover,
quantum theory gives prominence to the quantum vacuum, the vacuum that is prior to
observable phenomena, such as atoms and molecules. Unlike the common sense notion of
empty space, the quantum vacuum is full of potential prospects. The quantum vacuum is
essential in all aspects of physics, the quantum vacuum is an infinite set of "space-time
foam" beyond which time, space - and physical - come to an end itself. Quantum theory has
reached the point where the source of all matter and energy is a vacuum, a nothingness that
contains all the possibilities of everything that has ever existed or could exist.
These possibilities then emerge as probabilities before “collapsing” into localized quanta,
manifesting as the particles in space and time that are the building blocks of atoms and
molecules. The transcendental field of Cosmos is the total of all the possibilities that can
occur in any part of the universal space-time.
The quantum vacuum underlies the level of quanta and is a virtual-energy filled substrate
rather than empty space) is the cosmic matrix in which the particles and systems that
constitute the materials of the world arise. The quantum vacuum is an integration of what
we used to think of as energy and information. It is a field of informed energy.
The particles that appear as the material of the universe are entangled excitations of the
ground state of this cosmic matrix. The systems that appear as objects composed of material
particles are locally manifest yet intrinsically entangled configurations of excitations in that
matrix. The particles and systems we observe emerged in the course of evolution in the
cosmos. Following the Big Bang (which appears to have been a Big Bounce, a phase-change
in the sequence of local universes in the multiverse) the first entities to emerge were
photons, protons, neutrons and electrons, and other, more short-lived exchange particles. In
processes of galactic and stellar evolution the higher-order configurations we know as the
atoms of the elements had emerged.
The current material of spacetime are superordinate configurations of the excitations of the
cosmic matrix. Galaxies are composed of stars and stellar systems, and stars are composed
of atoms and particles. All these systems are composed of particles, and particles are
entangled excitations of the matrix. Atoms, molecules, cells, organisms—and on the
macroscale planets, stars, stellar systems and galaxies—are in the final count superordinate
quantum systems: various-level configurations of informed energy.
On suitable planetary surfaces higher-order configurations of informed energy made their
appearance. We call the self-maintaining and self-reproducing variety of these
configurations living organisms. Life is not accidental or extraneous phenomena in the
universe: the latest observations in astrophysics show that the basic building elements of
life, including glycine (which is an amino acid), and ethylene gycol (a compound associated
with the formation of sugars in organisms) are synthesized in the course of the physico-
chemical evolution of stars. The surface of planets associated with active stars are templates
for the further complexification of these elements, building sequentially higher order
configurations of informed-energy.
Information is a paramount factor in the emergence and persistence of informed-energy
configurations. In the absence of information the energies present in the universe would be
a random concourse of excitations of its ground state. Information structures the energy-sea
of the cosmic matrix, and coordinates interaction among the structures.
QUANTUM THEORY
Quantum theory arose from the scientific attempt to describe the behavior of atoms and
their components. Therefore, it concerns primarily the microcosm. Physicists have long
known that certain procedures, such as radioactivity, seemed random and unpredictable.
While a large number of radioactive atoms obey the laws of statistics, it is impossible to
predict the exact time at which a specific atomic nucleus will split. This fundamental
uncertainty is extended to all individual and subatomic phenomena.
The word "quantum" by itself means a small energy package, i.e a very small package (from
the Latin word quandum). Thus, quantum mechanics, as quantum theory is called, has to do
with the basic keystones of matter. These are the basic elementary particles which build up
everything in nature. These particles include atoms, molecules, neutrons, protons, electrons,
quark, and also photons (the basic light units). All these objects - if we can really describe
them as such - are much-much smaller than anything that can be seen and observed by the
human eye.
In the dreamy quantum world: the particles are waves and the waves are particles. That is, a
beam light is both an electromagnetic wave propagating in the universe, and a flow of tiny
particles directed with speed towards the observer. This arises from the fact that some
quantum experiments or phenomena reveal the wave nature of light, whereas others reveal
the particulate nature the same light. Note though that never both aspects of light are
revealed simultaneously. Nevertheless, we suggest that before we observe a beam of light it
is both a wave and a particle flow at the same time.
In the realm of quantum physics everything is ambiguous: a feature of uncertainty
dominates on all its entities, whether it is light, electrons, atoms or quarks. This uncertainty
is known as the uncertainty principle and it states that we can only predict the most
probable position of a particle and not the exact location. Moreover, we are never able to
determine with exact precision nor the position or the momentum of a particle. Therefore,
the scientific predictions on the results have a statistical and probabilistic nature. Moreover,
there are no "hidden variables" (as Einstein would like), which, if were made known, would
dispel the fog that surrounds the quantum world. Therefore, the magical, the obscure, and
the hidden, are the integral features of the quantum structure of the universe.
For the interpretation of quantum mechanics there is a need for an ontological investigation
and reflection: Because what explanation can be given for the mysterious superposition of
the states of the quantum systems?
A photon (a quantum of light) or an electron (a negatively charged elementary particle) can
be found in a superposition of two or more states. We can no longer talk about "here" OR
"there". In the strange quantum world we can talk about "here" AND "there." A photon, a
part of a flow of light, that falls on a film
screen with two holes, instead of choosing one or
the other hole as normally expected, can pass through both of the two holes at the same
time. An electron that follows a curved path around a nucleus can be possibly located in
multiple positions simultaneously.
The phenomenon that creates the greatest wonder in the dreamy world of quanta is the
phenomenon called Quantum Entanglement. Two particles that may be too far away from
each other, even millions or billions of kilometers away, are strangely linked. The slightest
variation that may occur in one of them immediately causes a change in the other.
The quantum theory is primarily a practical field of physics. The quantum theory helped to
achieve brilliant technological developments such as nuclear power, transistors, electron
microscopy, lasers, and superconductors. Also, it explained the structure of atoms and
nuclei, the chemical bonds, the mechanical and thermal properties of solids, the electrical
conductivity, the iciness of collapsed stars, and many other important natural phenomena.
The quantum theory has been proven by a vast majority of evidences that arise not only by
the relevant devices found in trade, but also by carefully designed scientific experiment.
Thus, most of the theoretical physicists simply perform their tasks without reflecting on the
bizarre philosophical implications of quantum theory. This is proof that the ideology of
common sense and positivism dominates on the western civilization’s "cosmic theory of
knowledge."
On the other hand, the mathematical theory of Hilbert space, the abstract algebra, and the
probability theory – which are the mathematical tools used for the explanation of quantum
phenomena - allow the prediction of highly-precise results from the experiments, although
they do not make us understand the processes behind this phenomenon.
It looks like that the mysterious box of a quantum system is beyond the human limits of
genuine understanding. According to one of the interpretations of quantum mechanics, we
can only use the box to predict results, which are simply statistical in nature.
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