Parts and Wholes...

Scientists note that some events in particle physics do not lend themselves to a definitive cause. Some physicists continue to strive for "local" determinants. Others accept that "non-local" connections exist throughout the whole. Here, it is the dynamics of the whole that influence the probabilities and the actions of the parts. I see this in my own life. Like it, cause I do, I am influenced by the breadth of the environment I find myself in.

The scientific method expounds upon approximate answers yielded by isolated entities. Each building off the next. Yet, given the true scope of what science is trying to grasp, could this be an endless cycle? Could Fritjof Capra be right...

"We believe that while the properties of the parts certainly contribute to our understanding of the whole, at the same time the properties of the parts can only be understood through the dynamics of the whole."

Ancient Chinese observed the cyclic nature of events. The dynamic interplay became a principle characteristic of the Taoist perspective. For them, change was not a consequence of some outside force, but was an innate tendency of the parts and the whole. Though it wouldn't be until a year ago that I could put my finger on it as such, it had always been present within, had been an unknown guide.

The resulting attraction to the Tao Te Ching led me to Fritjof Capra's book, which has been woven into several of the physics posts. Too, Capra has moved on to Deep Ecology, which has been a part of my journey as well, and which I intend to turn back to in the near future. For the curious however, at heart I am a systems nut, having successfully built a career on it. That is likely why you will gather an effort on my part to take disjointed pieces and arrive at some form of context and meaning. Though I am learning that this application at differing scales may be forced. Yet I do see parallels.

With all that, this blog is going to morph. The subtitle "Physics meets Philosophy" has already given way to "Of Parts and Wholes". I hope you stick with me. I enjoy your company.

"The Master views the parts with compassion, because he understands the whole."
- Tao Te Ching

Law and Order...

Having met the First Law of Thermodynamics, the Conservation of Energy, we can address the Second Law, which deals with increasing Entropy. Here, physics reaches its limitations. For this law states that the path the universe is on is towards the disordered, towards the dispersal of energy.

However, something stands out in the dynamic web of inseparable energy patterns, and that is Life. Life orders and brings context and meaning to the interconnectedness of energy patterns. Life works in the opposite direction of entropy.

The universe as a whole requires self-consistency. The study of how the universe came to be ordered in the first place though is "beyond physics", and is aptly named Metaphysics. Since it is life that orders, it is the nature of life we can turn to next for insights.

The first insight...to be sensible, events in nature must harmoniously interrelate. And it is this consistency that constrains individual choice, our free will.

"For every force there is a counterforce. Violence, even well intentioned, always rebounds upon oneself."
- Tao Te Ching

Law of Energy Conservation...

In his book, The God Delusion, Richard Dawkins artfully articulates an atheist perspective. I have traversed a number of his points along life's path. He drew a chuckle from me regarding his statement that pantheism is sexed up atheism, considering that I float between pantheism and panentheism.

Anyway, this caught my attention…

"David Mills, in Atheist Universe, transcribes a radio interview of himself by a religious spokesman, who invoked the Law of Conservation of Mass-Energy in a weirdly ineffectual attempt to blind with science. 'Since we're all composed of matter and energy, doesn't that scientific principle lend credibility to the belief in eternal life?' Mills replied more patiently and politely than I would have, for what the interviewer was saying, translated to English, was no more than: 'When we die, none of the atoms of our body (and none of the energy) are lost. Therefore we are immortal.' Even I, with my long experience, have never encountered wishful thinking as silly as that."

Richard Dawkins, The God Delusion (New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 2006), pp. 84-85.

I was to close to the silly, for I had to read this a couple of times to understand the point. Is Dawkins amused in the case that if the body is energy, and energy is indestructible, then the body can never die, which is ridiculous in light of the fact that the body does die?

I have to admit to finding a degree of immortal comfort in this law of physics that states that energy cannot be created or destroyed. In regards to our quantum nature, I have tried to be careful in posts and refer to awareness rather than consciousness. The difference may be subtle. Awareness is the explicit understanding that one exists. It is this that persists. Consciousness is credited with the development of an identity. It is this that is transient. Extending this to the manifest world of energy, this too at its root is non-descript. Gasoline and water are both made of elementary particles, both forms of energy. Yet, the properties of gasoline have the ability to animate a car, the properties of water do not. Likewise, with the body, not all energy contained within has the property to animate, but some form of it obviously does. It is this that I embrace.

"Every being in the universe is an expression of the Tao. It springs into existence, unconscious, perfect, free, takes on a physical body, lets circumstances complete it. That is why every being spontaneously honors the Tao."
- Tao Te Ching

Message...

Science does not need to be deterministic. And free will does not require magic. We've explored physics, and found structure in the form of interpenetration, interconnectedness, and complementarity. From this we can perceive a message of oneness, interdependence, and continuity.

There is no philosophy without an underlying world view. My chosen path is to learn from the breadth of nature. Nature which I find cannot be approached in its expansiveness, nor withdrawn from in its inclusiveness. My hope is to draw focus away from the individualistic, materialistic, the shallow, and towards a way that is holistic, organic, and ultimately authentic. The Tao Te Ching speaks of our treasures as being compassion, patience, and simplicity.
How fitting.

"Just realize where you come from: this is the essence of wisdom."
- Tao Te Ching

Connections...

Our intellect, in order to make sense of what it perceives, functions by discriminating, dividing, comparing, measuring and categorizing. We see things, not as they are (connections), but as we've come to "know" them (objects).

"[In modern physics], one has now divided the world not into different groups of objects but into different groups of connections ... What can be distinguished is the kind of connection which is primarily important in a certain phenomenon ... The world thus appears as a complicated tissue of events, in which connections of different kinds alternate or overlap or combine and thereby determine the texture of the whole."

Werner Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy, p. 107

These concepts we've been exploring therefore have their limits. They are representations for our mind; parts of a map, not the territory.

Given the vastness of possible connections between events, can we expect to comprehend all that is? No. But we can open our perspective, see nature's ways, and adapt to them.

"You can't know it, but you can be it, at ease in your own life."
-Tao Te Ching

Inseverably Linked...

This notion of interrelation extends beyond the microscopic world in physics. And we don't have to grapple with curved space-time resulting from massive objects either. We are influenced daily by something as simple as inertia, an object's ability to remain constant in velocity unless acted upon. No, I'm not talking about dragging your spouse out of bed. More like lifting a bag of groceries, pushing a car, or moving furniture.

Ernst Mach described the principle where "mass there influences inertia here". This broad statement has found its way into many theories. In essence, the difficulty in moving a object is not an innate property of the object itself, but a result of its interaction with the rest of the universe. Without other mass, there would be no inertia.

So, we see again that attributes associated with discrete entities are inseverably linked to their place within the environment as a whole.

"Approach it and there is no beginning; follow it and there is no end."
- Tao Te Ching

Interrelation...

In dealing with experiments at the quantum level, preparation and measurement are key to obtaining coherent results. The effect of relativity on particles is greater than what we perceive in the observed world, given the "relative" implication when things near the speed of light. It's basically as if each object has its own clock and will perceive the occurrence of events differently. Also, restrictions resulting from the uncertainty principle will constrain the properties that can be measured.

Tolerances are so fine that the object of observation is viewed as an intermediate system connecting the processes of preparation and measurement. Between the two...

"the solid material objects of classical physics dissolve into wave-like patterns of probabilities, and these patterns, ultimately, do not represent probabilities of things, but rather probabilities of interconnections."

Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics (Boston: Shambhala, 2000), p. 68

Thus energy is non-descript, short of its interrelation with others.

"Form that includes all forms, image without an image, subtle, beyond all conception."
- Tao Te Ching

Force...

Collision experiments have demonstrated how the energy contained in two colliding particles is redistributed in exchanges that form new patterns, even new particles. The whole classical concept of a force is now believed to be the visible effect of multiple energy exchanges mediated through particles, such as the photon for electromagnetic interactions and the theoretical graviton for gravity.

Field theory would advance further if individual gravitons were detectible. But the ability to verify their existence experimentally is beyond the horizon given the relative weakness of gravity at the quantum level.

Yet, even in the absence of this, field theory's ability to accurately model particle interactions is quite compelling. Consider this... if the kinetic energy associated with the "force" of a collision is high enough, new particles manifest from this pure energy.

So it appears force is an energy ripple that propagates through an energy continuum.

"Seamless, unnamable, it returns to the realm of nothing."
- Tao Te Ching

The Quantum Field...

Matter's slip towards an amorphous state progressed significantly in the 1920's when Paul Dirac drew from relativity theory and quantum mechanics to formulate rules applicable to the quantization of energy. These rules theorized the existence of anti-particles, such as the positron, which were "observed" just a couple years later.

The quantum field theory that Dirac helped advance deals with situations where particles change in a dance of creation and annihilation. Radioactive decay is an example of the former. The redistribution occurring in particle collision experiments is an example of the later.

"According to the [field theory of matter] a material particle such as an electron is merely a small domain of the electrical field within which the field strength assumes enormously high values, indicating that a comparatively high field energy is concentrated in a very small space. Such an energy knot, which by no means is clearly delineated against the remaining field, propagates through empty space like a water wave across the surface of a lake; there is no such thing as one and the same substance of which the electron consists at all times."

Hermann Weyl, Philosophy of Mathematics and Natural Science, p.171

With the concept of the quantum field, mass is simply a distinguishable structure of energy in an otherwise normal continuum spread throughout space.

The Indivisible Atom...

The word atom comes from the Greek "atomos", meaning "indivisible". It was once thought to be the indestructible building block of material things. Before that, it was "fire", "water", "earth", and "air". After it came the quantum, the "indivisible" unit of energy. Some day that too will likely fall.

The atom is roughly associated with where the micro world ends and the macro world begins. It's where the properties of the modern chemical elements, such as carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and iron take form.

In time, the atom was penetrated when it became apparent that it was comprised of a proton-neutron nucleus surrounded by an accompaniment of electrons. Its form revolves around electromagnetic attraction which draws the negatively charged electron to the positively charged nucleus. But the electron reacts to this confinement by whirling, the tighter, the faster. It is estimated to achieve speeds of 600 miles per second. The great centrifugal forces created tend to pull it away from the nucleus. The nuclear force, which is strongly attractive at a distance, becomes strongly repulsive with proximity.

The atom, once considered a solid structure, is mostly "empty" space. If an atom where the size of a stadium, the nucleus would be the size of a pea on pitcher's mound, with electrons the size of dust buzzing the outside edge. It's the propeller effect that gives it its rigid appearance.

Thus, the macro world of mass, of form, once had its beginning.

But things change.