universal consciousness

by Alekos Karpouzos

  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.