The
Mysteries of the Universe
Introduction to Epistemology
Higher Perspective is the Key to
Understanding
Herein,
the word “mystery” means something that was previously hidden or unknown, but
is now being revealed. This introductory chapter is a series of
narratives followed by a dialog between a curious “virtual reader” and the
author. Within each story are clues to one or more mysteries.
Each clue, like an inch sized piece to a puzzle; by itself, doesn’t mean
much. However, the series and sequence fit together in meaningful
ways. You will become aware of new distinctions and you will start
to recognize patterns. As you stand back, you’ll see a picture form, a
divine work of Art which will reveal more mysteries about this universe than
you might expect. For in every masterpiece the artist reveals a little something about
himself.
What
exactly is “The Holy Grail of Physics”?
First, the term “Holy Grail” refers to the chalice, or “cup”, that Jesus drank from at the Last Supper the night
before he would go to the cross. Over
time, folklore exalted this “cup” to “idol status” ascribing
miraculous powers to the Holy Grail.
In physics, all
attempts to achieve a single, selfconsistant, core understanding of physical
reality have failed. The two best
theoretical systems: Relativity Theory and Quantum Physics cannot be reconciled
with each other. The quest continues for
this allusive “Holy Grail of Physics” with a place in the history books
reserved for whoever succeds in revealing the true and complete explanation of
the very nature of physical reality. This
core understanding must exhibit almost miraculous explainitory powers. It must be able to explain everything from
the sub-microscopic quantum size-scale, even smaller than a single electron and
tiny time scales appoaching 10-44 of a second. And it must describe everything up to
scales of black holes, galaxies,
clusters of galaxies and it even reveal the true nature of the totality of
space-time geometry.
Einstein’s
contributions to this quest had already exalted him to “idol status” for
his papers on his Theory of Special Relativity (1905) , Theory of General
Relativity (1915), and again in 1921 being awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics "for his services to Theoretical Physics, and
especially for discovering the law of the photoelectric effect".[1] His intuitive
insights took him on a life long quest for his “Unified Field Theory” which was
hoped to be his final crowning acheivement.
Imagine if you could have met and
talked with Albert Einstein.
We walked onto the Schnitger
Family’s 6.5 acre property and proceeded towards an area behind his house. At first, all we saw were flashes of light,
but we were unable to see past the HUGE diesel generator atop a semi-trailer,
as we walked by the generator I could see his employees faces glowing orange-white
– mesmerized by what they saw. The roaring diesel engine, now at high
throttle, made talking difficult.
Craig
shouted one phrase with each breath, “They had to get this generator.” “Last week they tried this.” He points to a scorched power pole, “They
BLEW the power transformer!”
I
stepped out from behind the shadows into the center of the clearing. Wally was wearing some kind of protective
bulky thermal overalls, thick gloves that went past his elbows, and heavy
over-sized mask with a thick rectangular window, like something from a 50’s
Sci-Fi movie! From a HUGE induction
heater as tall the house, Wally, using a pair of tongs as long as I was tall
pulled out a glowing crucible that appeared to contain a sample of “liquid Sun”. The Heat radiated with such intensity that
from about 10-12 feet the little hairs on my hands started to melt, backing
away we watched. When he finished Wally
came toward us, removed his ominous mask revealing a whimsical smile.
Craig
said, “Wally I’ve got a friend I’d like you to meet. This is John.”
He
withdrew his arm from the glove and reached out to give me a warm welcoming
handshake.
That
handshake marked the transition of science being just a keen interest to become
an adventurous pursuit. Working for
Wally made science very real and fun. His
sense of humor was designed to get you to look at things in ways you hadn’t
thought of. On many occasions he kept
us captive for hours with stories about his scientific adventures. One, of those stories, which I’d like to
share, is of the day he met Albert Einstein.
For
a time Einstein worked at CalTech (Dec’1930 ~ Dec’1932). Wally, who had been interested in science
from his youth, he had an opportunity to visit CalTech. He had heard that Einstein would often take walks
to think while the wind would blow through his hair. Wally would say, “Now you know how his hair
got that way!” We spontaneously broke in
to laughter. He’d smile and continued
relating this story from when he was about 8 years old. He set out walking through a neighborhood
next to CalTech’s campus. He turned down one of the streets, and there was
Albert Einstein walking towards him.
Wally: “Hello Albert Einstein, sir, my name’s Wally.” He reaches out and they shake hands.
Albert: “Hello,… Wally.”
Wally: “Sure a nice day.”
Albert: “Relatively speaking!”
We spontaneously broke into laughter, Wally admitted he
didn’t actually say that.”
Albert: “Yes, it is, indeed.”
Wally: While
wondering what to say, he looks around and points out a few vines. “Isn’t that interesting, how the vines grow
and wrap around these trees?”
Albert: “I see,” he observes a little closer, “Hmm, notice
how some of the vines grow clockwise while the others grow counter-clockwise!”
Wally: “Yea! Oh,
Look! Do you see the inchworms on these vines!”
Albert: “What curious creatures! Look at how they climb with
their backs curled, an inch-at-a-time.”
They both stood there awhile and watched.
Wally: “Yeah!
Hey! Some of them are clockwise
inchworms”, and the others, counter-clockwise inchworms!” (quarks
right? No, spiral polarization of
light.)
They both laughed awhile.
Then continue on walking and talking a ways before parting.
For a time Wally served as a mentor to me. Looking back now I wonder if all those times
he was joking around, Did he know something profound? Did he have an intuition? Or was he Divinely inspired!
He would never just hand someone the answer and spoil the
joy of discovery.
I
sometimes wonder: when was it that Albert Einstein originally wrote the
following quotes:
The important thing
is not to stop questioning.
Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
One cannot help but be in awe
when he contemplates the mysteries of eternity,
of the marvelous structure of reality.
It is enough if one tries merely to comprehend
a little of this mystery every day.
Never lose a holy curiosity.
If I have seen farther than Newton,
it is because I have been standing on the shoulders of Giants.
Standing on the Shoulders of Giants?
Isaac Newton
Albert Einstein attributed part of his success to the fact that he built upon
the successes of Sir Isaac Newton[2].
Notwithstanding Isaac Newton’s scientific
fame, the Bible was Newton's greatest passion.
He devoted more time to the study of Scripture than to science saying,
"I have a fundamental belief [3]
in the Bible as the Word of God,
written by those who were inspired.
I study the Bible daily."
(Bolton,
Sarah K. Famous men of Science, NY Tomas Y. Crowell & Co, 1889)
In a 13th century stained glass of the south transept
of the Chartres Cathedral, the tall windows under the Rose Window show the four
major prophets of the Hebrew Bible (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) as
gigantic figures, and the four New Testament evangelists (Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John) as ordinary size folks sitting on their shoulders. The evangelists,
though smaller, "see more" than the huge prophets (they saw the
Messiah about whom the prophets spoke).
I have heard it suggested more than once that
Newton had attempted, unsuccessfully, to find hidden
messages within the Bible. Delving into
“The Mysteries” within the original Hebrew text will show that Newton looked
too deeply for “Biblical Codes”. The Lord cleverly hid the core
understanding of creation just below the surface text within the Hebrew root
word meanings.
Scientific
Inheritance
Past generations of scientists observed
physical reality and contemplated the very nature of existence, hoping to
discover its secrets. Occasionally these
scientists get a glimpse of understanding and describe their discoveries by
building mathematical toolboxes of formulae. (This
is plural for formula.)
Subsequent generations inherit and apply these tools to interpret their
own measurements and data, or use them to aid in designing a new
invention.
How many students, do you think,
question the perceptions of the previous generation? Not that there would be a mistake in the math
itself, but I mean to question the perceptions of reality that those
mathematical formulations intend to model.
Perceptions? But science deals with just facts and
knowledge!
Somewhere
along the generations, philosophers and scientists began to “think” of
humanity’s progress like “inchworms” climbing the tree of “Scientific
Knowledge”. Many people mistakenly equate
“knowledge” with “truth understanding.”
Not everything that we “think” we know is true. And not everything we know with certainty do
you really understand. A “fact” is what
actually happened. Until the
introduction of Relativity theories we thought we had an absolute reference
frame to directly perceive facts.
For
example on June 22, 1799 the French Academy of Sciences had researchers measure
the arc from Dunkirk, France to Barcelona, Spain. Dividing this distance by a factor they
recorded the resultant distance on a platinum-iridium bar, defining it as the
standard meter. In Boulder, Colorado at
the National Institute of Standards an atomic clock that counts out seconds
with an accuracy of about 60-millionths of a second per year! The scientists in charge of the clocks
accuracy have gone through great efforts to ensure this clock is ticking at a
constant rate.
They believe a meter remains a meter
and the second remains a second as long as they maintain a constant velocity
and elevation in Earth’s gravitational field.
But, it turns out; the 3rd Relativity theory would say that
the meter-bar and the clock rates both spread forth. The natural consequence of time IS that the
length of meter and the duration of a second continually grow in proportion to
each other. The rate of growth is the
reciprocal of the age of the volume of space the bar and the clock occupy.
So the scientist who think they
“know for a fact” the length of a meter and the duration of a second are
wrong! They only believe they know – but
they don’t know it’s only a belief! .
Humanity’s quest for knowledge is more like climbing a tree known as a Tree of
Epistemology.
“Tree of Epistemology?”
It’s
a tree with B-shaped leaves called B-liefs.
Epistemology trees grow in the land of Philosophy, in any “Field of Inquiry”. The inchworms that specialize in this “Field
of Inquiry” spend all of their time searching and cataloguing the branches of
the Epistemology trees, hoping to discover all that is knowable. These inchworms must not forget to ask the
really root-imentary[4]
questions. Like:
1.
What are
the limits of what we can know?
2.
How is it
that we have come to know that which we know?
3. Do we really know
what we think we know?
Occasionally
an adventurous inchworm dares to
break out of one particular mindset and can readily backtrack to the trunk to
explore another branch without fear.
They know they can come back to a familiar branch even after learning
from perspectives made possible by a new branch, or even another tree. (The
idea here is of discovering truth that already exists, but not yet known in our
minds.) Occasionally, one will
discover a branch or tree full of foundational truths and return to their old
familiar branch to invite other inchworms to share in their new discovery or
revelation.
Epistemology
trees have many branches that go to many different beliefs. Most of the wayward branches lead to dead
ends. Many inchworms are taught to
climb only with their group, and to follow the crowd, believing that just by
exploring further out along “their” branch will eventually discover the “Holy
Grail”. But only one epistemology tree
is the “Tree of Truth” and only one of its branches holds THE “Holy Grail”.
This very long, and coveted, branch
is the only way to cross the river to Paradise.
Attached near the end of this branch is a vine, with D-shaped
leaves. This D-vine bridges the gap
between the “Tree of Life” on the other side.
Once an inchworm reaches Paradise, all searching will be done, all
questions will be answered for, it is said, “Eternity is within view.”
Will scientists, philosophers and theologians ever
agree?
Now that’s a loaded question! Do any of these groups agree among
themselves? The answer will require
each group to be willing to consider each other’s viewpoints, clearly
communicating precise definitions for the words exchanged.
Isaac Newton was not the only
prominent intellectual who believed in the God of the Bible. There are many
other deep thinkers in history like Michael Faraday, James Clark Maxwell, Noah
Webster, and Benjamin Franklin to name a few.
Theologians have mainly focused
their efforts on (1) defining the attributes of God and (2) defining the highest
aspirations of being human and, with that lofty goal in mind, how to nurture
and minister to the human soul.
Many
secular scientists have lost respect for the Bible because they think it’s just
a mythical story. The Truth of the matter is that the
depth of God’s understanding is so far above that of mankind that it has taken
thousands of years of scientific discovery before we even grasped some of the
pieces to the Cosmic puzzle.
It’s only in this generation that the gap between the superficial adolescent
understanding of modern science and the true depth of understanding contained
within the Hebrew text of scripture could be bridged. Quantum Mechanics speaks of quantum
wave-functions. Starting in Genesis 1:2
scripture speaks of the Spirit of God “moving upon the waters” -- by recognizing patterns between this idea
of quantum wave-functions and interpreting the Heavens “Shamayim” as being
filled with this elastic fluidic medium (the “mayim”) waters – the rest of this
core understanding falls into place.
Simply by constructing this model, animating it in our minds or
mathematically with a computer we can then ask this model to explain
any of the following:
·
What the true nature
of space-time?
·
What are the
properties of the vacuum of space,
·
How are particles of
matter are created and how is it they persist,
·
What intrinsic
properties do they have the lend themselves well to the construction of atoms
and molecules?
·
How and why do the
forces of nature work?
It can easily
explain all these things at a level compressible to a bright grade schooler!
Consider
one of these epistemology trees: the scientist inchworms on this tree label it
“The Tree of Scientific Knowledge” though the philosophers would call it the
“Tree of Scientific Beliefs”, defining two perspectives of the same tree.
This “Tree
of Scientific Belief/Knowledge” has three major branches: the Newtonian Branch,
the Relativity Branch and the Quantum Branch. The Newtonian
inchworms with their toolboxes of Newtonian equations quietly calculated their
way along. But one day a very fast thinking inchworm, named Albert, who
came along with the idea of doing “thought experiments”. Racing ahead in his mind, approaching the speed of light, he
could see that the Newtonian branch could not reach as far out as his mind
wanted to go.
When major
breakthroughs have happened, like Albert Einstein’s Relativity Theories, it was
not about building upon the consensus of scientific BELIEFS, but by asking more
fundamental questions? The Newtonian and
Relativity branches start out almost parallel, but the further and faster you
go, the more they spread apart.
Until Einstein had come along, no
one had questioned the fallacy that time flows forward at one second per second
everywhere in the universe. This was
considered “fact” to everyone,
even among the most scientific minds.
This continued until Einstein postulated “more fundamental”
questions: Is space linear? Is time absolute? What is mass?
He was the first inchworm on the Newtonian branch to backtrack to the tree trunk and boldly venture
out to where no inchworm had gone before: the Relativity Branch.
The Quantum branch is the smallest,
lowest, and most shaky branch on the tree.
Only sub-microscopic inchworms called Quanta-worms can climb down
there and it’s a mystery, even to them,
how they manage at that size. At best
these Quanta-worms know which way they are going (momentum) –or– they know
their position (location), but not both at the same time! Although these Quanta-worms understand
statistical mathematics very well, but they are stuck in that mindset, and
can’t relate their probabilistic formulae to anything that is tangible nor can
they apply it to bigger problems. The inchworms on the Relativity branch face a
similar dilemma; their math doesn’t work on the Quantum branch.
How can we solve it?
We don’t, we simply resolve it! Part of the problem is to realize our
current attempts at partial solutions IS part the problem.
What’s the difference?
To seek a solution means to precede further
out on the branch and then proceeding along a twig in the general direction of
the solution will reach closer toward the answer, but there is still the gap
between the end of that twig and where the solution really is. The
resolution that leads to true understanding is found on an entirely different
branch. To resolve it means to realize a wrong turn had been taken
somewhere. Asking the “more fundamental” questions enables our thinking
to backtrack to a different branch, or possibly even a different tree!
What did Albert Einstein miss?