:: postulations on quantum theory ::

What is Quantum Theory?

Briefly, Quantum Theory is the set of ideas and findings based on the smallest of all studies: the atom. I've been interested in this field since my science teacher in high school jumped on and off a chair, trying to explain energy levels. I'm presently reading a book, one of many I've looked at, called "In Search of Schrodinger's Cat: Quantum Physics and Reality" by John Gribbin. I bought the follow up, "Schrodinger's Kittens and the Search for Reality", but I'm not half-way through the first one yet!

So here you have a bored IT person who is dabbling in ideas that Planck, Einstein, Bohr, Heisenberg and many more scientists came up with in the early years of the 20th century.

Why?

I guess it's because I'm a bored IT person, and also because of my teacher trying to explain energy levels. He really liked atomic theory, and that came across in his classroom. Unfortunately I was not too interested in other parts of chemistry and some physics, so my Grade 12 results were never sparkling.

Is that why you called your website Quantum Resonance?

Yes and no. I always wanted a short .com URL, and something in my head said "xQRx". I then looked on Google for any words beginning with the initials Q and R, and then an inspired thought of "Quantum Resonance" sealed it for me. You could call it fate, or deterministic, or whatever you want. I call it interesting.

Who Gives A Crap Anyway?

Well, for starters, I do. And since this is my website, I'm entitled to waffle as much as I like about it :-).

So What's Your Big Theory, For Those Of Us Who Have Read This Far?

That's a good question. I'm still working on it. But look at the lots of writing now below :-).

From what I've figured out so far, I'm not very original in my ideas. After all, I'm almost a century too late. I've been considering what people are saying and have written and postulated, and spoken with some esteemed brains in my home town, and I'm utterly convinced (and I've been wanting to say this for years) Stephen Hawking is wrong! Ok, so I'm not the first, and only about one thing, but I am sure in my little brain about it. I'll get back to Mr Hawking.

The universe and the atom are inextricably linked. You cannot take an electron out of the universe, and you can't put one in, otherwise it would crumble. Now what has been baffling scientists for many years is that no one knows exactly what an atom looks like, and why it works the way it does. Everyone has noticed cycles in the universe. The earth itself goes through many cycles in the course of a year, including the seasons, its rotation around the sun, and its own axial rotation. Everything eventually repeats itself in a set way. The Nile River floods every year at the same time. All people are born and then die. Species rise up and then get squashed. But this goes against what experiments have shown in quantum theory. Electrons do not behave in a regular manner. Light itself is a weightless particle which can be generated from a random release of energy when electrons drop from a higher to a lower level. Experiments on light have shown that it behaves like a particle and a wave. The same goes for electrons and their the energy levels - wave and particle. What gives? Heck, we can't even *look* at atoms properly because the photons screw up what we're trying to look at.

It's a little bit funny, when you think about it, that we can build complete electronic circuits out of carbon nanotubes, but we don't have a clue what a carbon atom looks like. We can only guess to a degree of certainty - or probability, to use a familiar word. Douglas Forbes wrote in his book "666" that the carbon atom is what the number 666 really represents, being 6 protons, 6 neutrons and 6 electrons. Scientists have long established that carbon is the building block of the universe. So what does that have to do with anything? Well, I reckon that the answer has been under our noses for around 2000 years. A human god is an arrogant assumption. Perhaps we should be more open with our beliefs and accept that we are a tiny, but necessary part, to the entire universe. We in turn are made up of tiny, but necessary parts too. If we can crack exactly why atoms work, we could release (literally and figuratively) an amazing and powerful force which could allow us to achieve anything we want. That I think is what organised religion is scared of.

For instance, it has been proven experimentally that all atoms have an unknown force that, if you fire off two electrons away from each other, should you tweak one, the other one will react in the same way. No one knows why, just that it happens. Who can't find something like that interesting? Imagine being able to harness, with the use of a quantum machine of course, the energy inherent in an atom. We can already create light. We also know that light can affect the positions of electrons ... I'll leave that thought right there for now.

Back to Mr Hawking, esteemed physicist. I mean that, by the way. He's a clever man, but I do have a problem with his theories on time being related to space. I guess that makes me opposed to Einstein in some respects too, but again, it's not necessarily my idea - I've come to this conclusion based on a number of readings, thoughts, conversations, and personal observations. So here it is: time is an invention, space is real. Time travel is therefore impossible. I'm a huge fan of "Quantum Leap" and the "Terminator" and "Back To The Future" movies, but I know deep down that it's impossible to travel through something that does not exist. Consider: according to popular time travel theory, you get a machine that transports your atoms in the shape of your body, backwards (or forwards) in "time", so that you can participate (as we've discovered in atomic theory, even the act of observation can change an outcome) in another time. The problem with this theory is that, like organised religion, it is a human-centric notion. We go through time *on earth*. So then Gene Roddenberry invented something called "Star Trek", which had warp drive, and suddenly we could travel through time in space as well. I'm sorry, I have a problem with that.

The problem that I have is simple. You cannot make atoms disappear and reappear. You might as well reconstitute the entire universe every time you want to travel through time. But then you start having philosophical and religious problems with that too - no man can play God. If humans, the tiny species on a tiny planet in a tiny system in a tiny galaxy in the massive universe could change everything, then what's the point of believing in a god? I digress, but in a way I am saying that this *is* possible. Understanding why an atom works can allow the development of a machine that can copy this on a larger scale. You can build your own universe. You can reconstitute this one by resetting all the atoms as they were in the time that you wish to recreate. But as soon as you do, you disappear. Why? Because you can never separate yourself from the universe. Then you have what is the age-old question: where is your soul? Oh, and you don't know the exact position of the atoms of the universe because you can't look at them ... Uncertainty Principle.

In time travel theory (i.e. science fiction books and movies), the traveller manages to change the world around him, and in some respects changes himself, but for artistic reasons, he (or she) always retains his own memories (and even clothing!). I'm saying that if you do manage to rebuild the universe according to your own design as I suggested before, you will cease to exist in your present form. Philosophical debate then arises because you no longer exist. Your machine may manage to recreate your body and mind, but it's no longer you. Why would any person want to do that? You can't even say you want to do it to see what happens, because you already know what will happen. There's nowhere to "upload" your memories or thoughts either, because you're rebuilding everything.

Like I said, I'm still working on my theory, but I think I've made some interesting points. It is within our power to do amazing things once we figure out why atoms work, but we destroy ourselves by figuring it out. Tough call. Ironically, no one would ever know that it's been done, because as soon as you change the rules, the game restarts. Oh yes, and for Albert and Stephen, time is not real, so you can't relate it to the universe. We're all in a cycle. The Big Bang cycles into the Singularity, which cycles into the Big Bang. You catch my drift. Heck, if you do manage to build that machine, perhaps the laws of the universe state that we will automatically form the Singularity as a result. Who knows? One thing that will definitely be answered very quickly (well, over a couple of billion years) is whether there is life after death. My opinion is that we are simply emitted as photons when the body dies and the electrons jump down to their lowest energy levels, hence "the light at the end of the tunnel". I'm changing my name to Boson.

Copyright © 12/11/2003 Randolph Potter

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