Works By Australian Authors
Science Wish List by Rodney Bartlett
Video
(contribution # 1 - written March 27 1994)
Perhaps one of the most beneficial discoveries civilisation
could make is one which:
a) convinces the average person that scientific theory is
not divorced from his or her life but is intimately
connected with that life, and
b) causes men and women to believe science (knowledge based
on deductions from observations and measurements) and
mysticism (knowledge which is based on the immediate
intuition of truth) are complementary.
Did you know that whenever you watch a videotape - any tape
you may be acting out the nature of the entire universe: all
space and all time, too. How can this be?
Mathematical equations developed by the great scientist
Albert Einstein say a maximum of 3 'subuniverses' could
exist in our cosmos:
1 finite (space as we know it ie having the 3 spatial
dimensions of length, width and height) and
2 infinite (the 4th and 5th dimensions).
Since those equations say time is infinite and Stephen
Hawking (sometimes called the world's greatest living
physicist) and his colleagues inform us that time can be
thought of as another spatial dimension, travel through the
4th dimension would be equivalent to time travel (other
dimensions would also, via the theory of cosmic wormholes
worked out by Californian physicist Kip Thorne and his
colleagues, be shortcuts through the curvature of space and
may, though it sounds like pure science fiction, enable
flights to be completed in mere seconds when they would take
billions of years if we travelled the long and winding road
of space's many curves). Thus, travelling in space can be
compared to watching a videotape - just as you can view any
frame on a tape by fast forwarding and rewinding, you can
arrive wherever you wish in space and time by journeying
interdimensionally.
Many scientists think the universe is the ultimate computer
(as physicist Paul Davies of Adelaide University correctly
points out, the never ending decimal places of pi - the
ratio of a circle's circumference to its diameter,
approximately equalling 3.14 - could not be calculated by a
finite computation). Therefore, if the universe is a
computer, it must be an infinite one and include 4th/5th
dimensional space. In this case, the distortions which occur
with more than 3 space dimensions (distorted gravitational
and electrical forces, brain waves and other travelling
waves) could be overcome by reprogramming or
self-reprogramming.
Einstein concluded space and time cannot exist separately
but form an indissoluble union called space-time. So if the
3 dimensions of space are a videotape, the 4th dimension of
time must correspond to the VCR and TV. As the VCR plays a
tape and the TV displays/broadcasts the story, they give the
perception of movement to the tape's individual frames.
Similarly, time imparts change and motion to a cosmos which
would otherwise be an unchanging 'snapshot'.
Finally, VCRs and TVs must of course be connected to a power
source. In 1921, physicist Theodor Kaluza proposed that the
force of electromagnetism (electromagnetic waves consist of
oscillating electric go and magnetic fields and include
radio waves, visible light, ultraviolet light and X-rays) is
produced by disturbances in an unseen 5th dimension. To
complete our video analogy; space-time must necessarily be
connected to the source of electromagnetic power (the 5th
space dimension).
Because they're related to the above, I'd like to include
here two letters I wrote to TIME AUSTRALIA magazine. The
first refers to scientific thought and mystical thought both
being necessary in order to reach an ultimate explanation of
things and to understand cosmic mysteries - the second
concludes that the universe (of which humans are a part) has
infinite energy content and infinite intelligence, and
equates this infinite universe with God. Therefore, humans
are part of God and achieving knowledge of the Supreme Being
through direct awareness (in other words, mysticism) seems
perfectly plausible.
Feb. 20, 1996
TIME AUSTRALIA Letters
GPO Box 3873
Sydney, NSW 2001
Dear Editor,
Regarding 'Is Anybody Out There?' (Feb. 19) -
As inspiring as the question of the existence of other
intelligences in the universe is (I personally believe space
and time must abound with ETs), there seems to be an even
bigger question: Is the universe truly 'under a death
sentence from the second law of thermodynamics'?
The 2nd law states 'heat will not pass spontaneously from a
cold body to a hotter one' therefore scientists believe that
the energy the universe contains will eventually be
dissipated evenly and irrecoverably throughout the coldness
of space. ('Reader's Digest Book of Facts' - 1985, p. 233)
Albert Einstein's 1917 equations state that the cosmos could
have 3 parts or subuniverses (finite space with its 3
dimensions, infinite time which is called the 4th dimension
and an infinite hyperspace [space of more than three
dimensions] which may be called the 5th dimension). (see the
1973 book ALBERT EINSTEIN: CREATOR AND REBEL by Banesh
Hoffman and Helen Dukas)
TIME suggests the two instincts of the brain (scientist and
mystic) need to fit together in order to understand cosmic
mysteries - THE MIND OF GOD (a 1992 book by Paul Davies,
published by Simon & Schuster) states that rational thought
cannot lead to an ultimate explanation of things without
mysticism (p. 230). Thus, in this case we need to consider
the 1958 out-of-body experiences of American businessman
Robert Monroe. He claims to have visited dimensions he calls
Locales I and III ('I' is the 3-D world we know, 'III' would
be 5-D hyperspace). According to Monroe, Locale III is
'bonded together . . . by a force beyond our present
comprehension.' ('Psychic Voyages' by Time-Life Books: 1987,
pp. 27-32)
Could this force be related to a hyperspatial energy source
which renews and refreshes space-time, thereby rescuing the
universe from death caused by thermodynamics' 2nd law? By
itself, this energy could not renew space-time (because it,
too, would 'eventually be dissipated evenly and
irrecoverably throughout space') but would be there when, at
some unknown point in the future, intelligent beings
mathematically and technologically manipulate hyperspace to
produce a renewed cosmos (it seems that an unidentified
adaptation of this manipulation could produce the original
cosmos). This eventuality would, as THE MIND OF GOD puts it,
'explain the origin of the universe within the framework of
physics' (p. 40).
Feb 27, 1996
TIME AUSTRALIA Letters
GPO Box 3873
Sydney, NSW 2001
Dear Editor.
'What's Hiding In the Quarks?' (Feb. 26) gave me plenty of
mental exercise - TIME is a great magazine if your brain is
in the mood for aerobics! Pardon my lack of knowledge, but I
was under the impression that there probably is structure
within quarks (I was obviously wrong, since scientists find
this possibility startling).
What about Einstein's famous equation E = mc2 (energy equals
mass times the velocity of light squared)? This 'unifies the
concepts of energy and matter and relates both to the
velocity of light' and means 'mass and energy are
interchangeable' ('Coming of Age in the Milky Way' by
Timothy Ferris - published by The Bodley Head, London: 1989,
p. 194). Doesn't this naturally suggest that particles of
matter may possibly be composed of 'bits' of energy?
What about the facts that masses of subatomic particles are
measured in electronvolts (eg p. 298 of 'Coming of Age in
the Milky Way' says the proton's mass is 938.3 MeV [Million
electron volts equalsan infinitesimal fraction (1.60219 x 10
-19) of the unit of work and energy called a joule? (The
Hutchinson Encyclopedia, Guild Publishing London, 8th [1988]
edition, p. 653)
But to return to quarks: the top quark's mass 'is almost 200
times that of the proton' ('Strange Quark Matter' by Carl B.
Dover, 'Science Spectra' magazine - issue 3, 1995, p. 50).
Quarks are 'confined in individual three-quark clusters such
as neutrons, protons, lambdas and other strange objects'
('Strange Quark Matter', p. 52). But the immensely massive
top quark could not, if it obeys common sense, be confined
to a less massive hyperon (the lambda and other nuclear
particles containing the strange quark - like the xi and
sigma -are hyperons, and are less massive than a deuteron or
deuterium nucleus which is made up of one proton plus one
neutron [neutron mass = 939.6 MeV, slightly more than a
proton's]).
(information in previous sentence compiled from: the
'Strange Quark Matter' article mentioned above, the 'Teach
Yourself GREEK Book' by F. Kinchin smith and T.W. Melluish,
The English Universities Press Ltd. [1966], the article
'Atom' in 'The WORLD BOOK Enclyopedia' by Field Enterprises
Educational Corporation, Chicago [1967] Chambers Science and
Technology Dictionary, edited by Prof. Peter M. B. Walker
[1992], pp. 447 & 241, and the 'Coming of Age in the Milky
Way' book mentioned above, p. 404)
We are thus led to the strange world of quantum mechanics
where common sense seems to be most uncommon. Quantum
mechanics says 'for some purposes it is helpful to think of
particles as waves' ('A Brief History of Time' by Stephen
Hawking - Bantam Press, 1988, p. 56). As particles can be
thought of as waves, we owe it to ourselves to consider the
possibility that they consist of individual units (if energy
and matter are unified by E = mc2, maybe these units are
Planck-scale [10 -33 cm., or a centimetre divided by one
with thirty three zeros after it] energy pulses) which,
reminiscent of superstring theory as well as of
wave-particle duality, travel in waves or currents
('Workings of the Universe' by Time-Life Books, 1991, pp. 53
& 84).
Referring back to the 2nd paragraph's belief that Einstein's
work suggests 'particles of matter may possibly be composed
of "bits" of energy': it becomes hard to see how, if the
structures within subatomic particles turn out to be real
and if those structures really do travel in waves, particles
of matter could not be composed of Binary digits. Just as
pulses of electrical energy correspond to 'ones' and 'zeros'
(binary digits) in earthly computers, pulses of
electromagnetic energy within the cosmos could be termed
'space-time bits'. When their travel brings them to a
specified space-time coordinate, they might be regarded as
corresponding to one binary digit before they reach, and
after they pass, that coordinate; they'd be regarded as the
second binary digit. Above sentences have concluded the 'top
quark could not . . . be confined' and 'we are thus led to
the strange world of quantum mechanics'.
Now we are led to the strange world of superstring theory as
portrayed on p.89 of 'Workings of the Universe'. For the
'specified space-time coordinate' mentioned above could lie
inside a certain subatomic particle - while there, a
space-time bit 1s one binary digit; assuming the laws of
nature apply equally to top quarks and space-time bits, the
bit 'could not be confined' and may correspond to the other
binary digit when it is outside the subatomic particle. This
chaotic trade of space-time bits between particles and
space-time itself reminds us of p. 89 of 'Workings of the
Universe' where it says 'The interplay causes fingers to
materialize and disappear, an activity that describes, among
other things, the ceaseless appearance and disappearance of
gravitons, the quantum particles of gravity.'
So if space-time has its equivalent of computers' binary
digits, we'd find ourselves living in a 'cosmic computer' -
since the universe as a whole is obviously much more
advanced than the parts of it which we call our computers,
the 'cosmic computer' must possess a universal AI
(artificial intelligence). And if Einstein's 1917 equations
are correct (the ones that suggest the universe incorporates
infinity, as well as finiteness - for a fuller explanation
of this point, see the letter I wrote to TIME on Feb. 20,
1996), we'd find ourselves living in a cosmic computer with
infinite energy content and infinite intelligence. I don't
know if Paul Davies and Stephen Hawking would agree, but
knowing an infinitely intelligent and energetic universe
sounds suspiciously like knowing the mind of God.
'VIDEO' ENDS