Part 2 discussed matter as set of interconnections. A possible metaphor for this idea is found the basic two-note chord consisting of the root note and its third harmonic. Hearing the two together conveys a blended sound and a certain feeling that is not inherent in the individual notes. Therefore, the essence of the chord is in the relationship between the two notes. It follows that the essence of melody is the relationship between time and pitch (the two notes played separately with a time gap in between). Just as music is a set of relationships, so is matter, in the subatomic world. Relationships make music and matter.
Our words meter and matter come from the Sanskrit term maya which means illusion, magic, and measure. When subatomic physicists measure a particle, it shows up as matter. Wow! Those East Indian philosophers were onto something way back in 700 BCE.
The notion of the universe as a symphony of vibratory relationships and interconnections goes back to Pythagoras in about the 6th century BCE in the West, and to Hindu philosophy at a similar time the East. Quantum physics has proved that what we call an object or an atom or a molecule is only an approximation, a metaphor for reality. At the subatomic level, matter dissolves into a series of interconnections, like chords of music.
In this regard, there are no clear boundaries between apparently separate objects, but at best, leaky membranes. Even between two people in close proximity, there is a real, physical exchange of matter and energy, a real exchange of photons and electrons. Whether we like it or not, we are all part of one big inseparable web of relationships.
Light is even stranger than matter. It travels as both particles and waves that quantum physicists call wavicles. Light needs no medium in which to exist. It is made of photons which never slow down or speed up, but always travel at the speed of light. Light waves are not ordinary waves like water waves, but abstract probability patterns traveling in the form of waves. Light waves are patterns of relationships, like everything else.
Visible light and other particle waves in the electromagnetic spectrum (ultraviolet, infrared, x-rays, etc.) continually bombard the earth, colliding with the air and other materials, creating more wave patterns which in turn create and destroy more particle waves. And we are participating in the middle of all this, an endless creative/destructive dance of energy, mythically expressed by Shiva Nantaraj the Hindu God whose dance sustains the universe, whose dance is the universe. At a fundamental level, all existence is a ceaseless flow of energy going through a multiplicity of patterns, all dissolving into one another.
In Part 4, I wrap things up with a Systems Theory view of the world. All four Parts of this series were inspired by the movie Mindwalk.
Our words meter and matter come from the Sanskrit term maya which means illusion, magic, and measure. When subatomic physicists measure a particle, it shows up as matter. Wow! Those East Indian philosophers were onto something way back in 700 BCE.
The notion of the universe as a symphony of vibratory relationships and interconnections goes back to Pythagoras in about the 6th century BCE in the West, and to Hindu philosophy at a similar time the East. Quantum physics has proved that what we call an object or an atom or a molecule is only an approximation, a metaphor for reality. At the subatomic level, matter dissolves into a series of interconnections, like chords of music.
In this regard, there are no clear boundaries between apparently separate objects, but at best, leaky membranes. Even between two people in close proximity, there is a real, physical exchange of matter and energy, a real exchange of photons and electrons. Whether we like it or not, we are all part of one big inseparable web of relationships.
Light is even stranger than matter. It travels as both particles and waves that quantum physicists call wavicles. Light needs no medium in which to exist. It is made of photons which never slow down or speed up, but always travel at the speed of light. Light waves are not ordinary waves like water waves, but abstract probability patterns traveling in the form of waves. Light waves are patterns of relationships, like everything else.
Visible light and other particle waves in the electromagnetic spectrum (ultraviolet, infrared, x-rays, etc.) continually bombard the earth, colliding with the air and other materials, creating more wave patterns which in turn create and destroy more particle waves. And we are participating in the middle of all this, an endless creative/destructive dance of energy, mythically expressed by Shiva Nantaraj the Hindu God whose dance sustains the universe, whose dance is the universe. At a fundamental level, all existence is a ceaseless flow of energy going through a multiplicity of patterns, all dissolving into one another.
In Part 4, I wrap things up with a Systems Theory view of the world. All four Parts of this series were inspired by the movie Mindwalk.
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