Dark Matters

Not sure if this normal, but it seems natural. I find myself looking at the world around us through the prism of the world I created in Evolved. Do other authors do this? Maybe it is my way of making subjective sense of recent events in France and the Middle East.

In Evolved there are extra dimensions, textured branes and dark matter in the universe. All of these aspects have an element of the possible based on current scientific theory. In such a rich world there are limitless ways to think about space travel and something greater.

Lately dark matter has been receiving more attention, as particle physicists like Dr. Lisa Randall publish new books on the subject. Dark matter should really be thought of as “transparent matter” since it does not interact with light and therefore we can not detect it directly. Instead scientists have observed its gravitational impact on the cosmos, resulting in fairly strong evidence of its existence.

What is most startling about dark matter is that it is all around us. In fact, about 85% of what surrounds us is likely dark matter. Billions of dark matter particles pass though us every second. Do other laws of physics exist for dark matter? Likely. Does this mean there could be life in the form of dark matter? Makes for fertile writing material, no?

So, getting back to my point. If there is dark matter all around us, in us, and there are likely extra dimensions around us, even in us – are we part of something greater that we do not recognize because our senses are limited?

The events in France had me pondering these questions as everyone was asking, why? Why would a religion willfully and deliberately kill innocent people? In some shallow respects I understand their “eye for an eye” argument. We have killed innocents by dropping imprecise bombs in the Middle East. War is nothing but the escalation of tit-for-tat.

But how does God play into this? Radical Islam seems to suggest a reward system for killing infidels who do not worship the proper God in the proper way, like God moves around and doles out specific prizes.

But, and this is where Evolved comes in, if God is everywhere and in every moment in time, it seems silly to think of God as moving closer. And how does targeted killing of a fellow person possibly get rewarded? I suppose I could turn the question around on the west and find our reasons wanting as well. Are we simply preserving our capitalistic society so we can accumulate more objects using Middle East energy sources? Our materialistic incentive structure drips with blood as well. Maybe we’ve just built up enough buffers (fighting happens overseas with a separate military, and multiple economic transactions exist between oil and our new car) to protect our moralistic compass from disturbance.

What I believe is that God is a constant. God is everywhere, all the time. It is up to us to open up to him, connect. The cardinal sins are simply telling us that these actions close us off from God, distract us from knowing. It really isn’t so complicated. No need to try to control the world around you. Just simply learn to control yourself, and whatever dark matter exists within you.

If science struggles to fully explain only 15% of the matter that surrounds us, all of us should maybe humble ourselves and open up to bigger possibilities.

Chance – Does Humanity Have Any?

Does chance exist in our reality?

Do we live in an indeterminate universe?

Two different questions, but closely related. The first asks whether anything is truly random. The second incorporates the first but also asks whether we can actively change how the future plays out. Is there room in our universe for free will?

You might be surprised that scientists and philosophers find it quite difficult to allow an opening for chance to exist in our reality. Time is asymmetric, but just because we can’t perceive the future doesn’t mean it is random in nature. Theoretically, the laws of physics should determine how the future unfolds.

Those probabilities in quantum mechanics? In the wrong place to allow for real chance. The probabilities reflect our inability to measure effectively at the quantum level. They do not allow for random wave functions, unless one incorporates the GRW theory into the model. GRW theory implies an inherent randomness within the quantum wave functions, allowing a wave function to randomly reset itself every billion years, or so. (It also implies many dimensions exist beyond what we perceive)

So, does humanity have any chance? It would appear the answer is no, or at least an extraordinarily small degree. Does that mean we have no free will? Let’s return to that idea of extra dimensions.

String theory implies ten, or even eleven dimensions if you include time. GRW theory implies more dimensions than that. Other theories suggest we live in a multi-universe, which requires multiple dimensions. Science, and math, consistently suggests something more is going on than we perceive with our limited senses.

Do extra dimensions open up the opportunity for free will? Does consciousness use extra dimensions to change the deterministic universe we perceive? Is consciousness simply a receiver of something from extra dimensions, manipulating this reality for some greater purpose? Is life’s ability to create order in a less organized environment a hint of its higher purpose? These are the questions explored in Evolved.

When I started writing Evolved I entered through a well-defined sturdy portal with a neon light blinking “Science” above it. When the writing was finished I had unexpectedly popped out of some twisted rabbit hole into a reality well beyond what we perceive today. It is something I hope to share with the world one day.

Present State

The challenge of Presence is a big part of Evolved. Presence both in the spatial and temporal sense. Mahayana Buddhism talks about Zen through meditation, a way of seeking emptiness for enlightenment. Judaism describes God in one form as Present. There is something special about the present, being present. In our world we tend to live in the past, highlighted by recent neurological studies focused on the time lag between subconscious and conscious thought.

The universe in Evolved is split into two (what we think of as reality and something else) through the interaction of a ten dimensional brane with a field of resistance. The mind of the protagonist, the Evolved, strives to make two back into one.  While writing Evolved I danced around the concept of presence through many re-writes, approaching it from a cosmological, quantum, philosophical, neurological and then psychological angle. When I finally felt like I had wrestled the concept into something that made sense, I read Martin Buber’s “I and Thou” and Richard Rohr’s “Immortal Diamond.” They approached this concept from a religious and spiritual perspective. Their message came together with what I had written like a thunder clap in my head. Richard Rohr discusses Presence from the Christian faith:

In some ways, presence is the “one thing necessary” (Luke 10:42), and perhaps the hardest thing of all. Just try to keep your heart open, your mind without division or resistance, and your body not somewhere else. Such simple presence is the practical, daily task of all mature religion and all spiritual disciplines. Once you are “present and accounted for,” you grow from everything, even the problematic and difficult things. If your presence is wrong, you will not recognize the Real Presence even in the Eucharist. The Presence will be there–it always is–but you won’t be. I love to say that it has been much easier for Jesus to teach bread and wine what it is than to teach humans, who always resist their deepest and simplest identity.

– Richard Rohr

Nested Meanings

Two is better than one, as the saying goes. This seems true from the smallest to the largest scale. Did you know particles in quantum theory like photons are monogamous? Only two can become entangled, not three. Entangled particles are connected in a way not completely understood by physicists, but basically it means the measurement of one determines the value of the entangled particle, no matter the distance separating them. Breaking the entanglement is possible, but costs energy. It is one of the stranger and least intuitive aspects of quantum theory, and also one that has proven vexing when scientists have tried to integrate the theory of general relativity with quantum theory.

Bridging quantum theory and the theory of relativity has been an on-going effort, resulting in fields of study like string theory. String theory replaces particles with loops and strands, creating a mathematical basis allowing for the two theories to combine, but not without contradictions. String theory requires higher dimension objects called D-branes to solve some of the contradictions between quantum and relativity. String theory suggests D-branes (branes for short) are ten dimensions, although there are theories that imply many more dimensions are necessary. Dr. Randall at Harvard does a great job pulling it together in a readable manner.

Before your brain cramps, simply think of a dimension as a necessary descriptor to describe your location precisely. In the reality we understand, we can locate every particle by its three spatial dimensions and time. But let’s say we found a way to shift gravitational force, holding everything else constant. Well then, we’d need another descriptor, or dimension, in order to describe our location precisely.

In the book Evolved the universe is based on ten dimensional branes within a higher dimension bulk universe. Think of it as objects floating in space. Humanity is in a four dimensional reality (three spatial plus time) within the ten dimensional brane. The Big Bang was the point when the brane (referred to as “The One” in the book) collided with a resistance field in the higher dimension bulk universe, causing the conversion of energy to mass in three spatial dimensions and dividing the reality we understand from the remaining dimensions held within the brane. It is this theme of division, and its counter force of unification, that runs through Evolved. If you look at the Evolved symbol you’ll see a caret-like symbol with a vertical line above it. This is the ‘Two into One’ theme. A lot more to the symbol, but let’s leave it at that for now.

If division was the split of one into two, unification is the effort of making two into one. Our world is defined by the tension between these opposing aspects. I find it interesting you see this unification at the quantum level through entanglement. In our life the will to unify surrounds us. The Rusty Blackbirds reminded my daughters and I of unification yesterday as they squawked at our presence near their three babies in their nest under the eave of the shed by the dock. The Loons watching us closely as we rowed near their nest with eggs was another reminder, as was the startled Eastern Phoebe flapping out of her nest with eggs when we opened the back door. Of course, the Bald Eagles swooping over our shed on their way to their nest where junior typically perches on the edge is a dramatic reminder.

Makes you wonder if evolution is simply “The One” trying to reunify itself in a divisive reality…

Time Matters in Evolved

What is time? If the image of a clock appears in your mind, reconsider. It is something we take as fundamental to our existence, a plug in a physics formula, a tool by which to schedule our day. But tell me, what IS time? Does it change? Has it always been around? Even before the Big Bang? Can we time travel? Well, yes! We’re all doing it right now as the seconds pass…

Einstein’s theory of relativity suggests time shortens or lengthens as velocity changes relative to another object. Objects… something with mass and three spatial dimensions. Mass is basically resistance as energy interacts with an external field. E=mc², Higgs Boson and all that. So if the strength/ weakness of the resistance field changes, our mass changes. Perhaps if we found a lever to control this resistance it could become the next diet fad, despite tearing apart our universe as we know it. But, back to time.

Do you believe there is a future? A past? A present? Well then, this implies time is fundamental to existence. This view is supported by many intellectuals, so you’re in good company. It implies time existed before the Big Bang, ticking away the seconds just like we experience today. The Big Bang was instead The Big Bounce, or perhaps a newly formed Bubble Universe. Quantum physics would appear to support this view of time as the wave length of particles move through space. Philosophers tag this type of time “A-theory.”

What if we shifted the term future to ‘happening after,’ past becomes ‘happening prior,’ and the present becomes ‘simultaneous.’ This is much more than semantics, it instead argues time is tenseless. It implies time is emergent, possibly didn’t exist before the Big Bang. It is more consistent with the theory of relativity, in which a human could theoretically accelerate close to the speed of light, slowing time for them relative to us, and return home to find hundreds of years have passed. This type of time is called “B -theory.” It too has many supporters among intellectuals.

This debate is woven into the fabric of Evolved, including consideration of chance, free will and determinism. Present, or simultaneous time, becomes a special point when possibility meets knowledge. In Evolved, the Big Bang can be thought of as the Big Division, when the resistance field first interacted with a singularity. This dynamic suddenly created mass (and time), splitting the singularity into the four dimensions we know and everything else we don’t. The present point holds the answers in Evolved, but proves surprisingly difficult to attain and control (are our four dimensions determinate from within our reality?). It forces the protagonist, fourteen year-old Amos, to consider higher dimensions within the universe and even spirituality in a society that has abandoned such notions.

Eagle Eyes Penetrate

Everyone does it. “Knows something” and conveniently rationalizes that something into an inconsequential object in our mind. The sun is bright, the oceans vast, the universe infinite. Simple neat objects in our mind. It is only when we’re confronted with an unfiltered view of the sun, swim in hurricane churned surf, or watch the northern lights dance over distant galaxies that we begin to touch the deeper power surrounding us. Objects in our mind become real, threatening, perhaps liberating…

This year we have the good fortune of new neighbors. A family of bald eagles built a nest on the back side of the property. Even better, apparently our lawn and dock is the runway leading to the nest, supplying endless gasps and wonder as they sweep past through our grove of white pines. When they are hungry we marvel as their talons appears, their wings stretch behind their back, and they drop from the sky to grab a fish.

I’ve “known” that bald eagles are big beautifully graceful birds of prey. Yet, until the girls and I had two fly just over our heads as they squawked like sick seagulls at each other, they were simply objects to me. We went and looked at their nest a few times today, the eagle perched staring down at us nonchalantly. Looking into a wild animal’s eyes you see something else, something that connects you in this reality. The world, and all its power, became that much more real today.

Standing on Giants

Over the summer I plan to go through my sources of inspiration for Evolved. This is partly for my own benefit as I refresh my understanding of various theories. It is also to recognize the brilliant minds that have transformed my life over the past few years. Finally, it will help you understand the road I have traveled to date, and how I arrived at this point.

The path started innocently enough with the thought, “What if humans could adapt to non-organic elements and unlock new capabilities?” This initial idea quickly swept me into chemistry, neurology and psychology, followed almost immediately by cosmology and particle physics. Quantum mechanics and time philosophy took some time to wrap my head around, but boning up on general relativity helped me to understand at least the basics. I’ve always enjoyed moral philosophical debates like “sacrificing the many for the few,” as well as arguments around free will and determinism. One book on chance I read at least five times before it clicked.

When the second draft of the manuscript was complete I took a step back and thought, “there is something more to this.” After showing the draft to a minister at my church, I was blown away that the world I had created was explained almost perfectly by spiritual teaching. Not only that, but Christian, Judaism, and Buddhism belief systems all seemed to explain the supra conscious element I had developed, especially Native American spirituality. Ancient Greek philosophy suddenly sprang into relevance for me. It became clear my mind was wrestling with deeper questions than I had recognized. This realization has been transforming me, urging me on to deeper understandings in all the areas mentioned above.

It has been very cool to go into science and emerge out of spirit. Hope you enjoy the ride.