by Dr. David Fialkoff, Editor / Publisher

Elon Musk said, "Physics is the law, everything else is a recommendation. Anyone can break laws created by people, but I have yet to see anyone break the laws of physics."

However, the law of physics has two very different interpretations.

One of them, classical physics, gives us a vision of a materialistic world, of separate, physical particles each with a set of properties: mass, charge, position, velocity, spin... Whereas, the other, quantum physics gives us a world without particles, without even space or time. The quantum world, although very small, is a holistic, infinite realm of energy and potential.

This quantum infinity allows, for example, one photon, one bit of light two places at the same time, something which is impossible according to the laws of classical, materialistic physics. In the Double Slit Experiment one bit of light can perform the trick of simultaneously passing through each of two slits in a partition on its way to a screen behind that partition.

Quantum infinity also accounts for how two "particles" each moving at the speed of light away from the other can still be in communication. They are moving apart at twice the speed of light, and, according to the laws of classical physics, communication cannot happen faster than the speed of light, and yet they affect each other when they are measured; wiggle this one and that one responds. We call this Entanglement. Einstein called it Spooky Action at a Distance.

Classical physics, Newton's physics, got us to the moon. It's an excellent approximation, a great model of how things work, but it is not how things work. It is not absolutely true.

Quantum physics, Einstein's and Niels Bohr's physics, is a more accurate model, more to the point, accounting better for the holistic, integrated subatomic world that scientists observe, Entanglement and things being in two places at once.

Quantum physics is a better model; the question as to whether the basic bits of reality are particles (classical) or waves (quantum), has been resolved; they are waves.

Here's why we should care about such scientific concepts; why they matter most intimately to you and me; how they affect the price of beans.

The revolution of thought that is quantum physics changes our worldview. It forces us to look at everything differently. Contrary to the still dominant physicalist view of a material world made up of separate, individual particles, in the quantum worldview, existence, the world's and our own, is shown to be beyond time and space, beyond limitation and division. The deepest, most essential reality is whole, holistic, integrated, infinite.

We know, from the laboratory, that the infinite potential of the quantum state, the state that underlies everything, collapses when we observe it. When we apply our classical, materialistic laboratory measures we create a particle with classical properties (mass, velocity, position, etc.). When we observe it, the complete, holistic unity of the quantum state resolves down to a single bit of information (mass or velocity or position...)

(Now, computers deal with single bits of information, juggling millions or billions of them, but still all only single bits of information. Quantum computers will deal with an infinity of bits, which is infinitely more than even a billion.)

Meditating on the atomic bomb, Einstein worried if our morality could keep up with our scientific advances. But, with apologies to Herr Professor, it's not a question of morality "keeping up," but of morality reconnecting.

Over the ages, the mystics have insisted that our psyche, our consciousness and our soul, is not limited to the body; that it is part of the greater whole, immortal, not destined to be erased when the body expires.

Using the terminology of modern physics, we could say that just as the infinite potential of the quantum state seems to collapse into an individual particle when we interact with it, so does our infinity of spirit seem to collapse into a material individual when viewed through our body, our ego.

The quantum worldview overthrows the worldview of classical physics, setting us free from the reductionistic error that each thing is separate and only for itself. In the most real sense, all is in association with all else. Life, existence itself, is a community. Society, not isolated individuality, is the rule.

Isolation is sickness. Belonging is the cure. Being part of a whole, a "part-whole" as Frederico Faggin puts it, is our deepest, most satisfying truth. The Oneness of God, of you and me and the whole shebang, is the ultimate mystical experience. It's good to see that science has finally gotten around to proving religion.

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Dr. David Fialkoff presents Lokkal, our local social network, the community online and off. Please do contribute content, or your hard-earned pesos to support Lokkal, SMA's Voice; Atención robustly reborn for the digital f you can, please donate using the orange button below. Thank you.age. If you can, please donate using the Paypal button below. Thank you.

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