0 The essays on this book are the notes from the e – learning courses that were given by the thinker Alexis Karpouzos during the winter of 2014. Students studying in London, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris took part in the courses, which were held by the educational and cultural center “Think Lab”, located in Athens. Published by Think.Lab, Athens, Greece 2015 ergastirio-skepsis.tumblr.com think-lab.tumblr.com anoixti-skepsi.tumblr.com open-thought-blog.tumblr.com Translation: Georgia Pirounaki THINK LAB 1 Contents Chapter 1 The adventure of modern physics...........................................................................4 The united and timeless universe............................................................................6 The nature of light, uncertainty and teleportation....................................................7 Chapter 2 About the nature of subatomic physics...................................................................10 Vacuum and Material..............................................................................................12 Key elements and principles | Material = Energy....................................................13 Chapter 3 Quantum Vacuum or Zero Point Field and consciousness......................................16 Quantum Information...............................................................................................17 Quantum Logic........................................................................................................18 Imaginary Numbers and Quantum Information Theory...........................................18 Chapter 4 The String Theory (1)..............................................................................................21 The String Theory (2)..............................................................................................23 Chapter 5 The fate of the universe | The concept of matter in relation to the curved space-time and its geometry......................................................................................................25 Chapter 6 The Geometry of the Universe.................................................................................27 The Dimensions.......................................................................................................27 The Non Perceptible Universe.................................................................................28 The space - time Continuum....................................................................................28 How can material be defined?.................................................................................29 The Elusive Concept of Time...................................................................................30 2 Time, Entropy, Brain..................................................................................................31 Mathematics of Imagination.......................................................................................33 Chapter 7 The End of Certainty - From Being To Becoming complexity and self-organized systems.....................................................................36 Prigogine‟s first challenge concerns the phenomenon of irreversibility. The second challenge has to do with the sense of simplicity........................................................37 The role of the dispersing structures and of the Bifurcations....................................39 Examples of dissipative structures............................................................................41 Bifurcation: Window of divided routes.......................................................................42 The role of the Bifurcations in the evolution of life....................................................44 Self - organising and life...........................................................................................45 Creative chaos..........................................................................................................46 Is time ahead of the being? The pre – universe.......................................................47 Chapter 8 The paths of knowledge - Ancient knowledge and contemporary physics | The universal nature of soul.............................................................................................52 Chapter 9 The metaphysical and the epistemological question...............................................56 Basic scientific assumptions....................................................................................58 3 The Adventure Of Modern Physics The indeterminacy of the quantum universe constituted a radical transformation of the thought about the natural world. Before the formulation of the quantum theory, the physicists believed in a universe that worked with the principle of causality. Laplace, at the “Philosophical Essay on Probabilities” summed up his thesis: “we owe to consider the present situation of the universe as the result of its former situation and as a cause of the one which will follow. If only could we imagine a genius that would understand all the forces of nature and the relative state of affairs that constitute it, then for that genius nothing would be uncertain. The future, as well as the past, would be present in our eyes.” However, the particles of quanta present the principle of complementarity, since they present the properties of a particle and of a wave at the same time. The physicist Erwin Schrodinger developed a mathematical equation that describes the dual behavior of particles. Yet a reason to justify the behavior of the particle can be found neither in the formulas nor by observation. The consequences of the indeterminacy are better depicted at the thought experiment designed by the physicist Erwin Schrodinger, which was known by the name Schrodinger‟s cat. At the famous Schrodinger‟s thought experiment we cannot determine with certainty whether the cat inside the box is dead or alive before the observation. Before the observation the cat is dead and alive in equal proportions (50% - 50%), as is a particle that performs an infinite number of possible behaviors at the same time. Which is, however, the point of Schrodinger‟s wave function ψ? The conventional interpretation that is accepted by most quantum physicists about the thought paradox of Schrodinger‟s cat is known as the “Copenhagen Interpretation”. M. Born supported that the square of the wave function ψ2 gives the probability that the electron is found in a particular position. This interpretation that relates the wave to the material substance of a wave particle introduced a probabilistic state, displacing the classical causality. According to the above, when the equation is divided into two, then one of its representatives at the schematic area, just collapses. Instead of the equation leading to a plethora of results, it is reduced to a single result. A schematic 4 space is a pictorial diagram in which an object is illustrated in the three dimensions of space depending on the time. At the “Copenhagen Interpretation” the equation does not depict reality; the equation is simply an algorithm, a mathematical method for creating statistical forecasts. For example, the result of the experiment with the cat will be a dead cat or a living cat. John Wheeler, a physicist from Princeton University considered that the term “observer” should be replaced by the term “participant”. A participant is someone who does not only observe one event, but he transforms it by the simple act of his observation. “Maybe the universe comes to a state of existence, in a weird manner, by the participation of those who participate. The vital act is that of the participation.” For Wheeler “subject” and “object” create one another. Sir James Jeans supported that the creator of the matter is, probably, the mind. Jack Sarfatti expressed the hypothesis that the “structure of matter, may not be independent of the consciousness”. For Eugene Wigner, the paradox of Schrodinger‟s cat takes place the very moment of the experiment when the human observation intervenes. He supported that the consciousness is the hidden variable that decides on the outcome of any event. During the 1950s, Hugh Everett expressed the theory of multiple universes. His interpretation supports that the universe is continuously divided into a surprising number of parallel realities. In such a universe, not only do we exist in an undetermined number of worlds, but also at the same universe all the possible outcomes of any incident are inherent. According to the theory of multiple universes, the universe is divided into an infinite number of universes, which come from the interactions of the thousands of its components. In that universe every quantum transformation that takes place in whichever star, of whichever galaxy or at whichever position at the universe, divides our earthy world into a myriad of imperfect copies of itself, which, however, ignore one another. In Schrodinger‟s experiment, the moment of the selection, when the observer opens the box, the universe is divided into two identical copies, identical in all details, apart from the fact that at the one the cat is dead and at the other it is alive. Both probabilities (cat dead and cat alive) are equally real but exist in different universes. Every cat that survives in our universe dies in another universe or vice versa. Everett‟s interpretation about 5 a cat that is simultaneously dad and alive, in equal proportions, proves and disproves itself at the same time. This way, the solution to the dilemma of the indeterminacy is possibly at a universe in which all the probable results of the experiment coexist. The theory of multiple universes supports that every time we decide between two alternative solutions, the act of observing cuts the thread connecting the two alternate realities and in that way, it leaves each one to follow its own path through space and time. In other words, in space - time landscape all events coexist. Our choices are those who define which events will become “real” for us and which we are never going to learn about. The physicist John Gribin mentions: “Everything is possible and we in our actions choose our paths through the worlds of quantum”. In the language of the theory of multiple universes, the choices created by ego, separate the quantum worlds, which increasingly go away. On the contrary, the choices that restrict the ego, act as attractors that connect separate universes, communicate with nodes, which get information from multiple sources simultaneously. The emergence of the universal consciousness is the deep knowledge that develops when the Ego of the consciousness collapses. The United and Timeless Universe The Ego of consciousness makes an incision at the architecture of the four dimensional space – time universe and distinguishes the man from the world and the beings. In that way, the conscious subject is created on one side, and the object is created on the other one. According to the cosmologist Lide, the Universe and all the physical laws appear as a quantum fluctuation and are represented by a wave function which does not depend on time. The observers have a feeling that the cosmic events evolve as a function of time. This happens due to the fact that the consciousness of Ego separates the united universal world into two beings, the “observer” and the “Universe”, the “Ego” and the “Nature”. The wave functions of the two separate beings depend on time. If, however, these two entities are amalgamated, time stops affecting their mutual function, and as a result their being. In that sense the United Universe is Timeless. 6 The fact that the ego of the consciousness makes an incision at the united universal world and separates the world into “ego” and “nature”, and introduces in that way the “Arrow of time” (Arthur Eddington), namely, it produces entropy, does not mean that the human is no more a being of the universal and timeless world. It is the ego of the consciousness, according to the special theory of relativity, that always realizes the time and the world compared to its reference frame. This way, the ego separates itself from the other egos – selves, namely, it separates the time into past, present and future. This, however, is a mythological construction of the world, an illusion. The quantum space – time universe is united and timeless and its beings are four dimensional and have got quantum properties, namely they are carriers of the holistic information of the universe. The whole universal information that existed in the past, exists in the present and will exist in the future, is in the man. Every being of the four dimensional space – time is not simply a part of the universe, it is the universe itself! The fact that the humans believe that they think individually constitutes a self - illusion and leads humanity to suffering and disasters. The thought is a process of the united and four dimensional universe. Its expression, however, depends on the level of the cognitive and consciousness development of every human being. The Nature of Light, Uncertainty and Teleportation In order to comprehend the science of teleportation, we have to study the nature of light. Quantum physics opened new horizons in human perception and created a series of new principles that assist the knowledge of the universe. In 1900, Max Planck, in his attempt to explain the black body radiation based on the laws of thermodynamics, was obliged to separate energy into tiny parts, the quanta, by introducing a new principle, h=6,6/10-27 erg.second which is called Planck principle. That is how the biggest crisis in the history of physics took place, since for the first time after Newton‟s era it was supported that the energy is not continuous, but divided into finite measurable parts. The above is considered as the principle of quantum theory. 7 From the new theory the following paradox emerged: the light behaved once as a wave and the other as a particle. To be more precise, it was verified that when we are looking for photons, the behavior of the light is clearly that of a wave. However, when we want to observe a photon, its behavior is that of a particle. The first signs that the material world is a lot different than the impression it leaves, were found when the researchers Geiger and Marsden discovered that the a particles (helium nuclei) present quantum properties. Some years later, Bohr discovered that the electrons in the atoms of the matter can take only specific energy values, proving that the matter is constituted of quanta. The next big step was made by Heisenberg, with the new quantum theory, known as well as quantum mechanics, according to which it is impossible to measure in absolute accuracy the position and the momentum of a particle. According to the “uncertainty principle”, the more accurate we are on one measurement, the less accurate we are on the other. This theory proved determinism wrong. Since then, the “uncertainty principle” is being verified continuously in physics laboratories, introducing that the behavior of the matter depends on the measurement we make. In that way, a special relationship between the observer and the object being observed is displayed. This relationship proves the infinite possibilities of the quantum world that take place every single moment. The “uncertainty principle” means that we cannot fully decipher the structure of an object, so that we teleport it. This happens because it is impossible to measure its position and its velocity or its momentum at the same time. That way, namely, the measurement of the specific situation of an object is impossible. However, such a measurement would be necessary in order to obtain all the information needed for the creation of a similar object. The scientific solution was given in 1993, when scientists discovered a way of using quantum mechanics for teleportation in which Heisenberg‟s uncertainty principle is not abolished. This property is called entanglement. Common logic regards the objects as independent to one another. In the quantum world, if a particle interacts with another body or particle, then these two are very strongly connected. In a way, they stop acting independently of one another and can be described only when they are associated to one another, as if they were connected by a natural bond. The quantum correlation phenomenon (entanglement) applies whether the distance between the particles is one millimeter or 10000000 8 years of light and seems to happen instantaneously, i. e. outside space and time. This paradox is known as ΕPR paradox, named by the three scientists (Einstein, Pontoski, Rozen) who analyzed the consequences of the entanglement on great distances. ΕPR paradox as was proved experimentally as well, constitutes the base of teleportation and of quantum computers as well. John Bell replied to this paradox. Bell proved a theorem, according to which the correlation phenomenon can be detected only if we do not know the characteristics of the objects we wish to measure in advance. Otherwise the measurement results do not obey the laws of quantum mechanics. Bell‟s observation introduces philosophical questions about the objectivity of science, namely, what we observe is the result of the measurement. In other words, the observer affects and alters the observed and vice versa. The “subject” that observes and the “object” that is being observed form one another. One of the most interesting conclusions that arise from the correlation phenomenon (entanglement) is that the whole universe is connected in subatomic level since 14 billion years ago the whole matter in the universe was concentrated in a tiny spot. This means that whichever transformation takes place in nature, it instantaneously affects the whole universe. 9