METAPHORS OF REALITY
by Jorge Aveleira
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3. QUANTUM REALITY
"One thing is for sure: the quantum world has plenty of problems and paradoxes. [...] According to this theory, a cat may be alive and dead and an object can be anywhere and nowhere simultaneously. [...] This theory is so mysterious that several scientists who helped to invent it, including Einstein, tried to deny it later." (Coveney and Highfield, 1990)
The relativistic knowledge about how the universe worked was incomplete since its earliest formulation. The decay of available energy, known as universal entropy, and the passage of time are both inescapable, one-way phenomena and they remain unsatisfactorily accounted for by Physics. The mathematics of relativity theory is symmetrical in relation to time, that is, it allows for events to happen ahead and backwards in time. There are no records of palpable events going backwards in time. In addition, quantum mechanics already presented other unexplainable issues. Max Planck, in his studies about the radiation of black bodies, had introduced the notion that energy is not available in continuously divisible portions, but only in minimum packs called quanta. That conception and other developments of quantum theory, accompanied by experimental evidence that may be reproduced at will in laboratories, ultimately indicate that the notion of a fully objective reality may not be feasible anymore.
The uncertainty principle demonstrated by Werner Heisenberg establishes that it is not possible to know simultaneously the position and momentum of a quantum particle. Indeed, it is not possible to know those parameters with absolute precision for any portion of matter. To know exactly and concurrently where a portion of matter is placed, what is its mass and speed at a given time is an impossibility, that is based upon experimental and also theoretical evidence; it just cannot be done.
The relativistic metaphor of physical reality implies the existence of identifiable objects in physical contact or separated by a length of space. Interactions between objects should obey cause-effect constraints. Effects produced across a length of space must follow their causes within a definite amount of time, and the speed of light is a limiting factor for those cause-effect interactions. That limitation is known as the causality principle. There are experimental phenomena involving paired photons that happen at speeds greater than that of light, according to proofs of the Bell theorem. They are called non-local events and are detested by those who would like to negate quantum reality. The faster than light quantum experiments introduce the notion of simultaneous interactions without material support, and that simultaneity contradicts the relativistic principle of causality .
Experiments like the widely known two-slit interference show that quantum particles like the electron possess simultaneously particle and wave attributes. It was demonstrated by the physicist Louis de Broglie that portions of matter of whatever size show particle attributes as well as wave attributes. Macroscopic bodies exhibit such minute wavelengths that their wave-like characteristics may go unnoticed in most situations. Definite wavelengths, however, are present for all the fragments that successively compose the larger bodies. That includes particles, atoms, molecules, human bodies, planets and stars. Quantum theory appraises electrons and other particles as probabilistic wave packets that will appear as particles or waves at their discretion, or according to the making or not of a conscious observation, or the settings of some experiments. That notion cannot be adequately grasped, and the existence of particle-wave packets that can change their nature instantaneously does not sound like a practicable model of reality.
Some questions should arise: Are our bodies made of waves or of particles? And what about the other material bodies of the universe? Do particles of matter really exist? Are different forms of energy all that exists? Is there a statistically insignificant, however real possibility, that tiny or even sizeable objects may briefly disappear sometimes? Especially when nobody is making an observation of their material properties? Did the universe as we know it exist before we started observing it? Are we bunches of probability waves? Do you and I really and completely exist at any moment in time? What does 'real' and 'exist' mean? Can we know anything for sure? There are presently no satisfactory answers to those questions, and no accepted and intelligible metaphors that may adapt to quantum reality.
4. PROSPECT OF A NEW METAPHOR
"The history of Physics, and science in general, shows that the traditional pursuit of a deep objective truth is not just an idle ivory tower game. [...] when we understand the way things are at a deep invisible level, we are better able to understand, control, and predict the visible world in which we live." (Pine, 2001)
When we stretch our notion of objectively observed facts to its quantum limits, tangible reality disappears. Nothing seems to exist anymore, except statistical previsions of possibilities of being. Quantum theory offers no explanations about the reality that it implies. A fully objective notion of reality may seem to have become an untenable prospect. The building of metaphors connecting reality to our expectations about it is being pursued in some circles, and researchers have attempted to develop models that may accommodate the consciousness of the observer as an intervening factor in some experiments.
Human consciousness as we know it developed amidst an impartial, objective interaction with reality, and those characteristics remained untouched, even after several changes in the way to figure reality. Our conceptual link with reality has evolved to show the relativity of former metaphors. What could be the shape of a new metaphor? Following the historical trend, absolute issues in current Physics could perhaps be made relative by a metaphor of a higher order. We should then make an effort to identify attributes of reality that we could assess in a more detached and more inclusive way, from a position more removed from our everyday experience. The answer to that riddle should require finding where might their relativity reside.
About one century ago, Faraday and Maxwell showed that electricity and magnetism are interconvertible and share a common electro-magnetic basis. Afterwards, an unforeseen interdependence between space and time was demonstrated by Einstein; one who accepts relativistic Physics does not conceive space and time as independent entities, but as different aspects of a space-time continuum instead. The following paragraphs convey a few speculative conceptions, guessing at further relativity in our current notions.
The convertibility between matter and energy, the uncertainty principle by Heisenberg, the two-slit quantum experiments, the measurable wavelength of material bodies, the wave-packets of quantum theory, all those phenomena and approaches seem to indicate that there is an intrinsic interdependence between matter and energy -gravity field included-, an interdependence that invites us to speak about matter and energy as one single entity. Possibly science has gathered already enough evidence to foster the investigation of a matter-energy continuum. When we make measurements of space or time, we use either scales or clocks to gauge approximately the value of one single aspect of a segment of the already proven space-time continuum. In a corresponding fashion, and depending on the experimental assessment and precision of our devices, it seems conceivable that we should detect only either matter-like or energy-like properties when examining portions of that conjectured matter-energy continuum.
The breaking of the causality principle through the Bell theorem and the faster than light experiments should persuade us to reconsider our notions of particle, matter, energy, phenomena, space, time and speed. Universal entropy may invite us here to conjecture about a connection between that speculative matter-energy continuum from the former paragraph and the space-time continuum. Maybe there is some elusive, directional, one-way transference between physical existence that is structured by the declining matter-energy and the background where that existence takes place, which is established by ever-growing space-time. Perhaps there is a role for electro-magnetism amidst that still unpictured arrangement. A still undetected exchange between those three would-be paired-components could be more plausible than the abominable non-locality paradox and the appearing-disappearing of quantum particles at unpredictable locations. Possibly the absolute existence of distinct bodies and amounts of energy subject to independent space-time constraints is an approximation, a relative illusion, required by the currently inadequate and confined level of consciousness of macroscopic entities like ourselves.
I feel inclined to adopt the premise that reality -whatever it may be- exists independently of our observation, and that it remains approximately the same as it appeared for the first humanoids, and eons before that. History may very well repeat itself once more, and a few years from now our present worries about reality may seem irrelevant. It seems likely that we shall be able again to picture reality in a fully objective way, by means of a new metaphor, to realize once more some presently unbelievable way to appraise reality.
The previous narration about old paradigms served to enumerate some stages in the history of human thought when radical changes became necessary in the way to appraise reality. Attributes of former metaphors, and the circumstances under which they were introduced, allow us to make some inferences about the looks of a prospective new metaphor, that shall likely:
- Be amazingly simple, intelligible, graceful, and intuitively attractive.
- Be inspiring for its meaning, which should be very deep.
- Be assembled from plain and easily understandable concepts that we already know.
- Demand expansion and ascent on the limits of our consciousness, and suggest a currently unbelievable way to figure reality.
- Promote awareness of an increase in relativity, that is, a further departure from our present notion of immediate reality.
- Show an integrative and versatile quality, to open a way for an objective and comprehensive appraisal of several facts that we already know. More specifically, it should foster advances for an inclusive understanding of relativistic physics and quantum theory.
- Cast some light ahead and offer guidance for new discoveries.
- Be replaced someday by a new and even more encompassing metaphor.
It may seem that the notion of a fully objective reality is not entirely applicable under the present state of affairs. This article attempted to show that, in spite of all difficulties, objective metaphors of reality are both philosophically desirable and a background that was repeatedly attained along History. The historical trend has been always from subjective, less objective metaphors to more observer-independent, more objective ones. Not the other way around. New metaphors of reality may sound preposterous when they come into view, but they are conceived, they are perfected, and when one of them is finally confirmed, it helps us for a while to attain a better understanding of the universe where we exist.
February 2003
REFERENCES
- Aveleira, Jorge (2001) - Consciousness and Reality: A stable-dynamic model based on Jungian psychology, The C.G.Jung Page, http://www.cgjungpage.org/articles/javconsciousness.html
- Aveleira, Jorge (2000) - The Blue Egg: A subtle encounter with reality, Xlibris, USA, 2000, http://www.xlibris.com/TheBlueEgg.html
- Chardin, Pierre Teilhard de (1955) - Le Phenomene Humain, Editions du Seuil, France. O fenomeno humano, p.188, Ed.Cultrix, Brasil, 1995, translated to English from the Brazilian edition.
- Coveney, Peter and Highfield, Roger (1990) - The Arrow of Time, USA. A flecha do tempo, p.95, Ed. Siciliano, Brasil, 1993, translated to English from the Brazilian edition.
- Herbert, Nick (1985) - Quantum Reality, USA. A realidade quantica, p.1, Livraria Francisco Alves Ed., Brasil, 1989, translated to English from the Brazilian edition.
- Pine, Ronald C. (2001)- Science and the Human Prospect, USA. Chapter 8 - Quantum Physics & Reality, http://www.hcc.hawaii.edu/~pine/Book2.htm
© 2003 Jorge Aveleira