Last month we explored the recent experiments which
appear to have succeeded in the "teleportation" of subatomic particles,
suggestive of the "Beam-me-up-Scotty" episodes from the popular Star
Trek
TV
series. These phenomena shatter our traditional conceptions of the
material universe and what we perceive as reality.
Dual Nature of
Particles
In 1906, J. J. Thomson received the Nobel Prize for
proving that electrons are particles. In 1937 he saw his son awarded the Nobel
Prize for proving that electrons were waves. Both father and son were
correct. From then on, the evidence for the wave/particle duality has become
overwhelming. This chameleon-like ability is common to all subatomic particles -
called quanta, they can manifest themselves either as particles or
waves. What makes them even more astonishing is that there is compelling
evidence that the only time quanta ever manifest as particles are when we
are looking at them
.
The Danish physicist Niels Bohr pointed out that if
subatomic particles only come into existence in the presence of an observer,
then it is meaningless to speak of a particle's properties and characteristics
as existing before they are observed. But if the act of observation
actually helped create such properties, what did that imply about the future of
science?
Anyone who isn't shocked by quantum physics has not
understood it.
-Niels Bohr
It gets worse. Some subatomic processes result in
the creation of a pair of particles with identical or closely related
properties. Quantum physics predicts that attempts to measure
complementary characteristics of the pair - even when traveling in opposite
directions - would always be frustrated. Such strange behavior would imply
that they would have to be interconnected
in some way so as to be
instantaneously in communication with each other.
One physicist who was deeply troubled by Bohr's
assertions was Albert Einstein. Despite the role Einstein had played in
the founding of quantum theory, he was not pleased with the course the fledgling
science had taken. In 1935 Einstein and his colleagues Boris Podolsky and Nathan
Rosen published their now-famous paper, "Can Quantum-Mechanical Description of
Physical Reality Be Considered Complete?"1
The problem, according to Einstein's Special Theory of
Relativity, is that nothing can travel faster than the speed of light. The
instantaneous communication implied by the view of quantum physics would be
tantamount to breaking the time barrier and would open the door to all kinds of
unacceptable paradoxes. Einstein and his colleagues were convinced that no
"reasonable definition" of reality would permit such faster-than-light
interconnections to exist and therefore Bohr had to be wrong. Their
argument is now known as the Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen paradox, or EPR paradox for
short.
Bohr remained unperturbed by Einstein's argument.
Rather than believing that some kind of faster-than-light communication was
taking place, he offered another explanation. If subatomic particles do
not exist until they are observed, then one could no longer think of them as
independent "things." Thus Einstein was basing his argument on an error when he
viewed twin particles as separate. They were part of an
indivisible
system, and it was meaningless to think of them otherwise. In time, most
physicists sided with Bohr and became content that his interpretation was
correct.
One factor that contributed to Bohr's following was that
quantum physics had proved so spectacularly successful in predicting phenomena,
few physicists were willing to even consider the possibility that it might be
faulty in some way. The entire industries of lasers, microelectronics, and
computers have emerged on the reliability of the predictions of quantum physics.
The popular CalTech physicist Richard Feynman has summed it up well:
I think it is safe to say that no one understands
quantum mechanics... In fact, it is often stated that of all the theories
proposed in this century, the silliest is quantum theory. Some say that
the only thing that quantum theory has going for it, in fact, is that it is
unquestionably correct.
The Cosmos as a
Hyper-Hologram?
There seems to be evidence to suggest that our world and
everything in it are only ghostly images, projections from a level of reality so
beyond our own that the real
reality is literally beyond both space and time.
The main architect of this astonishing idea includes one of the world's most
eminent thinkers: University of London physicist David Bohm, a protégé of
Einstein's and one of the world's most respected quantum physicists.
Bohm's work in plasma physics in the 1950s is considered
a landmark. Earlier, at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, he noticed that
in plasmas (gases composed of high-density electrons and positive ions) the
particles stopped behaving like individuals and started behaving as if they were
part of a larger and interconnected whole. Moving to Princeton University
in 1947, there too he continued his work in the behavior of oceans of particles,
noting their highly organized overall effects and their behavior, as if they
knew what each of the untold trillions of individual particles was doing.
One of the implications of Bohm's view has to do with
the nature of location. Bohm's interpretation of quantum physics indicated
that at the subquantum level location ceased to exist
. All points in space
become equal to all other points in space, and it was meaningless to speak of
anything as being separate from anything else. Physicists call this
property "nonlocality."
The web of subatomic particles that compose our physical universe - the very
fabric of "reality" itself - possesses what appears to be an
undeniable "holographic" property. Paul Davis of the University of
Newcastle upon Tyne, England, observed that since all particles are continually
interacting and separating, "the nonlocal aspects of quantum systems is
therefore a general property of nature."2
The Nature of Reality
One of Bohm's most startling suggestions is that the
tangible reality of our everyday lives is really a kind of illusion, like a
holographic image. Underlying it is a deeper order of existence, a vast
and more primary level of reality that gives birth to all the objects and
appearances of our physical world in much the same way that a piece of
holographic film gives birth to a hologram. Bohm calls this deeper level
of reality the implicate ("enfolded") order and he refers to our level
of existence the explicate
(unfolded) order.3
This view is not inconsistent with the Biblical
presentation of the physical ("explicate") world as being subordinate to the
spiritual ("implicate") world as the superior reality.
4
The holographic paradigm is still a developing concept
and riddled with controversies. For decades, science has chosen to ignore
evidences that do not fit the standard theories. However, the volume of evidence
has now reached the point that denial is no longer a viable option.
The Bible is, of course, unique in that it has always
presented a universe of more than three dimensions,5
and revealed a Creator that is transcendent over His creation.
6 It is the only "holy book" that demonstrates these
contemporary insights.
Paul Davis has summarized it provocatively:
"It is as if the entire universe was nothing more than a thought in the mind of
God."
* * *
This article was excerpted from Chuck's book, Cosmic
Codes - Hidden Messages From the Edge of Eternity, Chapter 23.
