One philosophy that always gets my wheels turning is the idea that how we perceive reality is essentially an Illusion of the mind... Then what defines reality? I did some research on Einsteins Theory of Relativity to gain some knowledge, and thought I would share some insight I found on a helpful website.... ~Char Quantum physics tells us that reality is far beyond human perception and intuition. In other words, our rational mind and common sense are just not capable of understanding the true nature of reality. Einsteins theory of relativity introduced a new way of looking at the physical properties of the universe. The Newtonian constraints of absolute time and space were abandoned. Time and space were unified and made relative, it formed a continuum that curved and enfolded about itself. Gravity was a distortion of this continuum caused by the presence of mass. From this, the famous formula e=mc~ was derived. (e=energy, m=mass, c=the speed of light, the magical constant in the system, the absolute maximum speed that anything can travel.) So Einsteins famous theory has one absolute (speed of light) in a relative universe, and it forms a kind of boundary around all we can know. Even though this theory has been borne out by many experiments, its consequences appear very bizarre. Objects shrink when they are in motion, space time curves, light is bent by gravity etc. After formulating his theory of relativity, Einstein spent the rest of his life trying to find a unified field theory. In other words he was trying to tie together the workings of the physical world in one theory or formula, a theory of everything. To this day, scientists are still searching for a way of integrating the theories of quantum and relativity, for as far as scientists are aware at present these theories contradict one another. To the scientific imagination a contradiction cannot be built into nature, it must be in our minds. Even though Einstein had a deep sense of the mystical or spiritual, he refused to let go of his classical insistence that a rational explanation or theory could be found, i.e., the world was accessible to human reason. This dilemma for Einstein can be seen when he said that he believed in the possibility of expressing everything scientifically, but contradicted himself saying that such an expression would be meaningless when describing a Beethoven symphony as a variation of wave pressure. Of course the meaning and effect of the music would be missing. Chaos theory seems to fit into the picture at this point. It is in essence a reversal of the classical view that the physical laws are what count, and local disturbances are relatively trivial. In chaos theory local disturbances can be ultimately overwhelming and, just as important, we cannot tell when they are about to overwhelm us. A strange concealed order has been revealed by chaos theory. If we run large numbers of variations of simple equations on a computer, patterns emerge. The most famous of these patterns is the Mandelbrot set. Every magnification of the pattern reveals more elaborate layers made up of shapes like gingerbread men linked together in swirls, repeating in more and more complexity. These patterns seem to illustrate infinity, and the gingerbread men seem to represent the incredible creative and energetic complexity of reality. I hope I have sufficiently described these three theories (Relativity, Quantum, and Chaos) to give the reader some insights into how all is not what it seems. The world is indeed stranger than anything our rational mind can grasp. The more we explore these new science avenues, the more illusory our universe seems to be. I feel that we must again look at some Eastern concepts because they seem to be more and more relevant as we explore the mysteries of new science. The more I have reflected on the meaning of the new science of quantum, relativity and chaos, the more it has reminded me of the ancient Indian traditional concept of Maya. Maya is quite a difficult concept to define in simple terms. I envisage it as a multi- layered web of illusion. The deeper one goes into the web, the more intricate and tangled the illusion becomes. It applies, I feel, to the latest scientific exploration of the physical world. Until the new science, we have only been scratching around on the surface of this Maya. As we go deeper into it, the bizarre twists and turns seem to push the answers further from our grasp. When we confront this web of illusion, it takes us closer to the boundaries of human awareness. We realise even more that the explanations of the infinite cannot be attained using finite means. Source: sol.au/kor/11_01.htm
Posted on: Thu, 02 Oct 2014 16:39:50 +0000