Physics
“The task of physics is to find out what we can say about Nature.” ~ Danish physicist Niels Bohr
Because we must know how the world works to get what we want, we are born physicists. But physics is more than mere mechanics. Physics reveals what is really going on.
The word physics derived from the ancient Greek, meaning “knowledge of Nature.” This natural science focuses on the movement of matter, which is an expression of energy.
The word energy is also from ancient Greek. Into modern times, energy meant motion of all kinds. The meaning of energy deepened in the 20th century.
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The chemical elements are species of atoms. In the late 19th century, physicists recognized that atoms were not the smallest unit of matter. Subatomic particles were called quanta, plural for quantum.
The first quantum discovered was the electron. Electrons are responsible for electricity and chemistry. From a physical point of view, electrons are the workhorses of the everyday world. Like proteins are to cells.
A quantum of light is a photon. Besides shedding light, physicists theorize that photons are the source of electromagnetism (electricity and magnetism). Photons power electrons.
The science of how quanta go about their business is called quantum mechanics. Because quanta come from a field, quantum mechanics is also called quantum field theory.
A field is a region of coherent energy. Quantum particles emerge from local fields. Fields, not particles, are the source of Nature.
“Particles are epiphenomena arising from fields. Unbounded fields, not bounded particles, are fundamental.” ~ American theoretical physicist Art Hobson
Matter & Energy
The march of modern physics led to the discovery in the early 20th century that matter is made of energy. This revelation disproved matterism and laid the foundation of energyism as the proper scientific paradigm.
The expectable scientific revolution from this profound discovery never happened. Matterism retained its crown. Scientists either did not appreciate or refused to accept the implications of what they had discovered.
The most famous equation in physics was written in 1905 by German theoretical physicist Albert Einstein. It simply stated E = mc2. This equation meant that matter (m) and energy (E) were equivalent. And that matter held a tremendous amount of energy. E = mc2 specifically states that the energy which matter contains is however much mass matter has times the speed of light (c) squared. The speed of light is a huge number. Multiplying that number by itself is gigantic.
Atomic bombs explosively proved the point. A tiny amount of matter has terrible destructive power if unleashed.
On 7 August 1945, the US dropped an atomic bomb which exploded in the sky over Hiroshima, Japan. That single bomb destroyed the entire city. All the energy released by the bomb came from matter that weighed just 70% of a $US dollar bill. Less than what a small raisin or plain thumbtack weighs.
The lightest atom is hydrogen. It has a core of a single proton which is orbited by a single electron. Add more protons and electrons and heavier elements are made.
The Sun and other stars create light by consuming hydrogen in a fusion process. Light is pure energy.
Hydrogen is the simplest atom. There is so much energy in hydrogen that a star fusing hydrogen blazes blinding light for millions of miles. And yet the fused atoms remain intact.
Fusion builds the atomic bricks from which worlds are constructed. All of the chemical elements which occur in Nature except hydrogen come from fusion.
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We sense light by its interaction with matter, by light reflecting off objects. Besides letting us see by reflection, light energy also excites the matter it strikes, creating heat.
In diametric ways, stars and atomic bombs show that matter is made of energy. Stars by creating energy from matter: fusion. Atomic bombs by releasing the energy in matter: fission.
In 1909, Einstein discovered that a quantum behaved as a particle or as a wave, depending on how it was observed. This wave/particle duality is the core oddity of quantum physics. Wave/particle duality drove quantum field theory.
“There is no quantum world. There is only an abstract description.” ~ Danish physicist Niels Bohr
Pilot Wave Theory
In 1927, French physicist Louis de Broglie proposed a solution to the observational uncertainty of quantum wave/particle duality: pilot wave theory. Broglie figured that “all particles must be transported by a wave into which it is incorporated.”
Each particle is guided by a background energy wave, which Broglie called a pilot wave. The pilot wave is a local field of cöherence that imparts the character that a quantum has. The pilot wave decides the appearance of the particle it is responsible for.
In being consistent with all other physics theories supported by evidence, pilot wave theory is the best explanation of how matter comes to be.
Energy
“Energy is an abstract concept introduced by physicists to better understand how Nature operates. Since it is an abstract idea, we cannot form a concrete picture of it in our minds. We find it very difficult to define energy in simple terms.” ~ American physicist Carlos Calle
Matter is made of energy. Energy is only an idea. That means matter is a mirage.
Physics proves that energyism is the proper paradigm. Consider how energy is sensed.
Sensation is an impression of matter. All that you sense is material. This is the story your mind insists upon.
Any sense of energy is made using memory. Energy is a noticed change. Change is a comparison made by recalling a previous state from what exists now. Motion is woven by memory.
Energy is created in the mind. But so too matter.
As matter is made of energy, matter is an artifact created by the mind from data provided by cöherence.
Conventional thinking is that perception is a capture of a material world in the mind. A turning of matter into symbols.
The opposite is true. Perception converts symbols into the appearance of matter.
Nature is an intricate, coherent realm of symbolic representations. The world emanates from a data plane fabricated by fields of cöherence. What this means is that energy is essentially data from which existence emerges every moment.
Principles
Modern physicists discovered the principles by which existence is manufactured. They did so by pondering the extremes of Nature: the quantum and cosmic perspectives.
Process
“Nothing happens until something moves.” ~ Albert Einstein
The original idea of energy was matter in motion. 20th-century physicists discovered that matter is made of energy. Which means that all of Nature is always in motion.
Matter is made of atoms and subatomic quanta which are never at rest. Only constant movement.
All is process. Change is the only constant. Moment by moment, existence coherently emerges from the quantum level on up.
Universality
English physicist Peter Higgs advanced quantum field theory in 1964 with the idea that the character of quanta ultimately come from a universal field. The data for the elements of existence are distributed from a solitary source.
The core principle of a monism is universality. Monism begets dualism.
Reality begets actuality via universal fields. Given that energy is just a concept, a field is a bundle of data at work.
Cönsciousness is the universal field of consciousness. The fundamental force of awareness. The ability to witness what cöherence creates.
Cöherence is the universal field which manufactures minds and the contents they consume. The creative force of order. The ö in Cönsciousness and cöherence signifies from unity diversity emerges (a circle to dots).
Cönsciousness and cöherence are spoken of as if they are separate. That is just a way of speaking to facilitate understanding. An artificial distinction. Cönsciousness and cöherence are a unity. The monism from which dualism arises.
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“The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is comprehensible.” ~ German physicist Albert Einstein
Universality is the means by which Nature is comprehensible. Because cöherence is unified, it can portray existence as a consistent process.
Consistency is partly attained via incremental changes. If the moving picture of actuality were jumpy, it would be incomprehensible. Continuity creates comprehensibility.
Evolution can be appreciated because it appears an incremental process. Saltation surprised evolutionary biologists, many of whom remain skeptical of a sudden jump in clever design. This surprise is unwarranted considering the vast diversity of life showing an obvious flare for wild creativity time and again.
Incrementalism is only one aspect of comprehensibility. Another facet is recognizability.
Being able to identify something requires having some reference. References are the outcome of classification. The craft of classification is creating categories. Categorization is necessary for the mind to make sense of things.
A category is of likeness. Likeness is somewhat arbitrary. A mental artifice. There are many criteria by which something may be categorized, as books or music in a library illustrate.
Because cöherence creates minds as well as their contents, each life form has innate inclinations to classification depending upon their situation. The symbols of Nature and their sensation are such a natural fit that we seldom think of how the world so often appears so effortlessly comprehensible.
Everything is unique. To perceive is to simplify. This reduction is also an act of creation. Though, in doing so, it is a robbery of richness.
Light & Sight
Pure energy travels faster than matter could ever dream of. Light is the spectrum of energy by which we can see.
Animal eyes evolved to take advantage of the richest range of energy that the Sun radiates from its fusion. If we saw any other spectrum Nature would look very dull indeed.
How light behaves illustrates all energetic radiation.
Light bounces off objects. Reflection. This how we supposedly see. Via reflected light. Light captures the appearance of objects and transports it to your eyes is the conventional explanation, which follows.
Light travels as a wave. Radiation. A coherent propagation.
A wave of light breaks when it hits your eye. Individual quanta of light – photons – are absorbed by cells in the eye.
Each photon has a story to tell about the object it last encountered before it went into the eye. No one can say how the story of sight is told at the atomic level.
How your mind manages to create the images that it does from cells excited from disparate photons is a mystery. The cells themselves are not neatly arranged. And those cells are at the back of your eye. By the time a photon has reached a receptive cell, it has already banged into other cells in the eye. Yet the photon supposedly maintains its story of what’s out there. A story that is supposedly consistent with other photons being absorbed by nerve cells.
Vision is not like taking a photograph, which is an orderly stamping of light on a flat sheet. A photo plate soaks up the photons in the same arrangement in which they arrived.
Eyes don’t do that. The receptor cells in eyes are not so orderly.
The common physical explanation of vision is a ridiculous simplification that falls apart if you look at the details. As a biological mechanism, vision is impossible.
Intelligent Energy Travel
The speed of light depends upon the medium through which it travels. Outer space differs from air. Air from water. Outer space, air, water: distinct media.
Radiation responds to the environment in which it travels. Light bouncing off objects is reflection. Light changing direction when going into a different medium is refraction.
Light moves as quickly as possible through whatever medium it traverses: optimal propagation of radiation.
Imagine a beam of light traveling first through air and then through water, as illustrated.
If light went in a straight line, it would split the difference between air and water. Half of the distance in the air, half in water.
Because light moves slower in water than air, the straight route is slower than traveling less through water and more through air.
Light takes the quickest path. It refracts when it hits the water. Changes direction to go straight down in the drink.
In order to travel less distance through water and more through air, a ray of light must know exactly where it is going and through what media. Light must know its destination. And decide how to get there.
It’s not that energy is smart, though it does move smartly. That light propagates optimally has been known for thousands of years. How is this feat accomplished?
For an energy wave to behave as it does, all the information it needs about actuality must be instantly incorporated. Calculation of the fastest path requires knowing everything about that route, and the alternatives. Somehow light behaves this way.
Optimal propagation clearly indicates a universal intelligence which works at every scale of existence. A unified field which shares all necessary information. This is the process of cöherence.
Localization & Quantization
To create Nature and its perception, Cönsciousness and cöherence localize. Unity spawns diversity.
Life is defined by consciousness. Awareness is given to all life, from molecules to cells to organisms. Localization of Cönsciousness into innumerable forms. These localized consciousnesses witness the creations of cöherence.
The creative force of cöherence localizes to create minds and the symbolic constructs they consume. Each local field of symbols is a bundle of data.
Minds access those symbolic data bundles according to the scheme which corresponds with how Nature is perceived subjectively. Rather than experiencing matter, a mind experiences symbols which it portrays as matter. This is the key deception of The Matrix.
That a unity manufactures duality is a most convenient architecture for producing consistency and inducing believability in watchers of the show called Nature.
Consciousness is necessary for a mind to put on a show. And a mind is necessary for consciousness to have a show to watch.
Viruses and proteins are mere molecules. But they must know what they are about. That requires awareness and perception.
To behave with intent requires making sense of the surrounding environment. That requires a mind and consciousness.
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Classical physics studied the motion of matter. Modern physics went further in studying the nature of matter.
Modern physics began at the turn of the 20th century. In 1894, German electric companies hired physicist Max Planck to find a way to make light bulbs more efficient.
In 1900, Planck had a theoretical answer. Light bulbs were no better for it. But Planck’s theory changed physics.
The centerpiece of Planck’s theory was quantization. Everything is discrete. Nature is always in bits. Particles. Quanta.
Nothing is continuous. Even radiant energy appears in pieces. Photons of light. The exhibition of existence – Nature – derives from quantization.
Waves of course do appear. But only as a pattern in the mind, as coherent congregations of particles. Perception is a perspective on symbols suggested by cöherence, which guides the mind’s constructions.
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The production of existence is a 2-step process. The unified field of cöherence localizes to create compact fields of data. Those fields responsible for forming or making an impression on matter quantize. The bits of Nature are born from a universal field localized and quantized.
In quantum physics terms, a local field which quantizes into matter is a fermion. Those quantum fields which act upon fermions are bosons.
In acting on matter, light is bosonic. Photons of light convey to matter both heat and potential appearance.
Light quantizes while still merrily acting as a group in waves: a coherent congregation.
Matter too acts of coherent congregation. Water is a fluid example analogous to light, in comprising individual molecules which readily stay together in waves.
At each scale, congregations of matter have their own behavior. Their own localized cöherences. A seamless dance at every scale. And between scales.
From the smallest scale to the largest, integration occurs. The paradox of localization is entanglement.
Entanglement
“Nature functions by integration.” ~ French biologist François Jacob
Entanglement connects universality and localization. All existence is entangled. Everything connected by degrees of separation. Distinct yet linked. Nothing exists in isolation.
“Subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities. They can only be understood as interconnections.” ~ Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger
The quanta which comprise the building blocks of Nature are never alone. Swarming each of them are a host of ‘virtual’ particles which flit in and out of existence. A quantumbiome. An entanglement at the elemental scale.
The emergence of Nature is an entanglement of spatial scales. Quanta coherently congregate to create atoms. Atoms to molecules. And so on. On out to star systems and galaxies. And beyond. Entanglement envelops every scale and threads among scales.
There is a physics paradigm for entangled entities. Gyres.
Gyres
“Systems in Nature are not in equilibrium. They exchange fluxes of matter or energy with their surroundings.” ~ French physicist Jacques Prost
A gyre is a localized coherent vortex that interacts with its environment. Contained yet interacting. And from that changing. A gyre is characterized by its structure and dynamic interactive patterns.
The idea the Nature comprises entangled gyres was first stated by ancient Greek philosopher Democritus in the 4th century before the common era.
Thinking in terms of gyres is an apt way to view the world. Localized processes forging dynamic environments. And, in turn, gyres being affected by their environment.
“Any cycle that exists in Nature – in physical, chemical, or biological systems – may be viewed as a gyre.” ~ American microbiologist Erik Andrulis
Relativity
In 1632, Italian astronomer and mathematician Galileo Galilei stated his principle of relativity: that the laws of physics are the same everywhere. Unchanging. Invariant. Consistent. Reliable. Absolute.
Galilean invariance underpinned classical physics, which was mathematically described by English physicist Isaac Newton in 1687. “Absolute space and time,” wrote Newton.
This sense of reliability led to the idea that Nature has laws which cannot be violated. Inviolable. Reliable. Absolute.
Classical physicists thought the cosmos was mechanical. Like clockwork.
That clock was taken apart by Einstein in the early 20th century. Einstein discovered that space and time are not absolute. Space and time are relative to the matter they contain.
Matter, space, and time are entangled. Matter warps spacetime. The result is gravity.
“Spacetime tells matter how to move. Matter tells spacetime how to curve.” ~ American theoretical physicist John Wheeler
The geometry of spacetime depends upon the matter within it.
Einstein’s theories of relativity indicated a unification behind the diversity of the physical world.
Einstein’s relativity theories also stated that the geometry of Nature depends upon its observation. Existence is relative to its perception. The production of Nature and its perception are entangled.
Subjectivism
“Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world.” ~ Albert Einstein
Is the world the same for everyone? Objective?
Of course not. You have your own perspective. Your own subjective frame of reference.
Einstein’s theories of relativity broke through the limits of classical physics by considering subjective perception.
Every observer has a unique perspective. A frame of reference. Like the frame of a picture affects how it looks. A view differs depending on where you are standing. Subjective perspective.
Einstein conceived his theories of relativity by thinking about different reference frames. All is relative. Subjective. Borne by each mind.
The theory of subjectivism which reveals how matter and spacetime are entangled also works in the quantum realm. The expression of quanta directly depends upon their observation. Particles express themselves as waves when observed a certain way. And vice versa. Frame of reference matters. This is the essence of quantum wave/particle duality.
The Mechanics of Existence
“Reality is merely an illusion. Albeit a very persistent one.” ~ Albert Einstein
Existence is constructed moment by moment from the quantum level up. Kept in order at every scale. All scales fitting together. An entangled cöherence.
Matter is made of energy, which is symbolic data. That means matter is merely symbolic representation. Tangible data which appears authentic. But only because your mind insists that the physical world is real.
Sensory data is transformed to symbolic representations in your mind. Even matterists do not deny that. They just deny the truth of it. Which is silly.
Matter is an imagined construction: a false front for the energy-data from which it appears.
Consider matter a fraud by the mind. Perception is a process of deception as much as revelation.
Sure, what is in your mind ‘exists’. But only because the word exists means you experience it. In your mind.
A fact is an experienced event. In your mind.
There are no objective facts. Only shared stories.
Actuality is solely in the mind. And it’s not going away as long as you are conscious. Persistent indeed.
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Physics reveals that Nature is an intricate illusion. The tangible is instead symbolic: a projection of the mind.
The quantized mirage of matter is maintained by localized cöherences which are part of a unified field. Duality from a unity. A unified diversity.
What this means is that existence is infinitely more elaborate than if Nature were constructed of substance holding itself together, as modern science teaches. Matterist science is myth. Fiction posing as fact under a false premise.
Behind every possible sensation is a symbolic construct which is woven from the quantum level on up to create a coherent fabric. An incredible deception exquisitely ordered.
Matter is merely an artifact made in the mind, at whatever scale a consciousness witnesses from. An everyday object to a virus is an atom. That’s their scale. For a virus, a cell is a city. An animal body is a continent.
The greatest deception we can suffer is to think that Nature is comprehensible, or that our perceptions represent reality. We fool ourselves if we miss the vast, unknowable intelligence imbued in all of Nature.
Nature is a wonder deserving awe – a respect found in some prehistoric cultures, now long lost to materialism. The everyday desecration of Nature in industrial societies is a profound statement of iğnorance.
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Is a thought real? No. Of course not. Just a thought. A fragment of imagination that popped up. Here and gone.
What happens in your mind is not real. Just a flow of data, some of which the mind esteems as information. Always changing. Process.
All that exists is in the present moment. The past is memory, the future imagined. That much everyone knows.
What is less appreciated is that even the present is a mental construction. Perception of space is a fabrication, relying upon both memory and imagination.
Every idea of change is a mental comparison. Time does not exist. Time is a product of memory.
Cöherence is the producer, the mind the consumer.
Cöherence also creates minds. Thereby the data that comprises the world fits the mind hand-in-glove.
Matter is made of energy. Energy is just data. The core lesson of physics: the physical world is not real.
So why does Nature seem so real? Why the grand deception? Why is The Matrix as it is?
