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Quantum Atoms and Cosmology
Simplified for the general reader
by Robert Campbell, 2003
A Brief Summary of Information Presented in
Science and Cosmic Order: A New Prospectus
Background
As every high school student of chemistry and physics knows, there are only 92 natural elements in the universe. The lightest element is atomic hydrogen and the heaviest is uranium. An atom of hydrogen consists of one negatively charged electron orbiting around one positively charged proton, something like a planet orbiting around a sun. The proton is 1836 times heavier than the electron. Uranium has 92 of each, plus a lot of neutrons in the nucleus as well. Only certain electron orbits are permitted in an atom. An electron cannot exist between orbits and there is a specific photon energy associated with each orbit. Higher orbits, farther from the nucleus, have a higher energy level.
In the simplest hydrogen atom there is thus an intimate relationship between photon, electron and proton. One atom is a fundamental element of particulate matter in the universe. All of the heavier elements are made from hydrogen by the nuclear fusion of lighter atoms into heavier atoms in stars. About 72% of the mass of the universe is made up of hydrogen and about 26% is helium. The rest, only some 2% of the universe, is made up of the heavier elements. The big bang theory of the universe maintains that both hydrogen and helium were produced in the big bang explosion in amounts uncomfortably close to the present ratio.
Helium is the second element next to hydrogen. One atom of helium is produced by the fusion of two atoms of hydrogen. There is a small amount of mass converted directly to heat and light energy by the fusion. This energy produces the horror of the hydrogen bomb. It is also released from stars like our sun, since their heat is produced by fusing hydrogen into helium, as well as some from the fusion of heavier elements. All energy in the universe stems directly or indirectly from fusion processes in the center of suns. This energy lights up the universe and makes it a livable place. The light radiates out and bathes planets. Atoms become married up with other atoms in molecules and the energies of life assume the chemical forms of animated bodies that evolve on planets like our own.
We shall see in exploring the basics of the cosmic order that the physical universe itself is a living system that is intelligently ordered. Intelligence can be understood as a phenomenon that is implicit in how the cosmic order works, with characteristics that vary depending on the subject considered.
The Cosmic Order as The System
The cosmic order is represented by what is called "The System". This System embraces the whole of experience. There is nothing apart from it, nothing excluded. All other systems are merely glimpses of some aspect of the One System. The System manifests itself as an unlimited number of self-similar sub-systems nested within it, such that they are all One System embracing the whole of experience. Each successive sub-system is thus associated with reconciling the Many with the One. This is represented by the progression of the natural numbers, such that we have System One as the whole system, System 2 as an elaboration of it, System 3 as a further elaboration, and so on. This elaboration is not mathematical, however. All of the higher systems are transcended and subsumed by the lower systems and by System One. It is One universe, not Many, yet there are Many varieties of phenomena in this One universe. All varieties of experience are thus expressions of the cosmic order and The System.
System One must allow of variety in experience, or there would be nothing to experience. It must allow of Twoness in a way that does not contradict Oneness. System 2 thus relates universal aspects of experience to particular aspects of experience as a fundamental relativity principle implicit in the whole of experience. A universal aspect has a hierarchical relationship to many particular aspects of it. Particular things are always identified by a universal quality associated with them. Mary is a human being. The rose is a flower. Flowers are plants. Rover is a dog. Dogs are animals. We define and identify every thing by its relationship to a universal archetype of some kind or other. Nothing that physically exists is completely unique. Everything is one of a kind of thing. Atoms themselves are defined such that each atom of hydrogen is identical to all atoms of hydrogen. Each conforms to a universal archetypal pattern. All experience is thus defined or identified by System 2.
System 3 elaborates upon System 2 by showing how the primary projection of physical matter in the universe is structured or organized. The primary projection is like a movie projection that consists of all of the individual atoms of hydrogen in the universe. Each particular hydrogen atom is a set consisting of a photon, an electron and a proton. The electron is held in a specific orbit about the proton nucleus by the energy of the photon. Each particular atomic set relates to all particular atoms by one universal pattern, like an archetypal atom that makes them all the same. That universal pattern links up the photon, electron and proton within each particular atom all at once. That one universal archetypal pattern is not restricted by the external limitations of space since it is confined internally within each atom, making atoms what they are. It links up every particular set in the universe all at once, making them all identical atoms. The universal pattern is omnipresent. And it is confined within the atom like quarks within the proton. The universal pattern does not manifest as a separate physical thing. It is what makes all atoms of a kind identical physical things.
The universal energy set also oscillates back and forth very rapidly between two modes of being. In doing so it regulates a quantum dance between form and emptiness, making every atom in the universe appear and disappear together. Each atom is a tiny particle going on and off, like a light flickering so fast in a void that it seems to be on all the time. In this way the universal set projects a cosmic movie as a succession of particle space frames and empty quantum frames. Particles appear and disappear in a universally synchronized action. This is similar to an ordinary movie that is projected as a series of picture frames, except that each atom is projected independently of all the others. Each has its own space frame, even though they all appear at the same time to produce an integrated picture of the physical world. Light links up all the atoms so that we see one picture as an integrated space frame embracing the whole universe. Light is the only activity within each space frame. It has a universal velocity with respect to each individual atom. Light itself defines the nature of space.
System 3 requires that relative motions between physical particles of all kinds occur as quantum jumps in position between each space frame. This is like an ordinary movie where each frame of the movie is a still picture, and there are discrete jumps in relative position between each picture frame that create the illusion of continuous action. These jumps are called quantum jumps because they are not continuous motions through space. They are discrete jumps in position that occur synchronously from one picture frame to the next in the movie. In the cosmic movie, they occur via the empty quantum frames that come between the picture frames. The quantum frames are timeless, so it may be better to think of them as behind the pictures frames. They do not occupy time between space frames. These timeless quantum frames have no form. They are quantum energy equivalents of the atoms that make up the picture frames. They collectively constitute a master sensorium, or energy bank, that is void of form. The atoms are all there in the void but they are quantized energy packages that have no form. Atoms thus take form out of the void. They keep alternating between particles with form and formless energy. In this way the quantum void underlies the universe of physical forms that we synchronously see around us. With this general pattern in mind, let’s have a closer look at how it works.
The Hydrogen Spectrum, Atomic Structure, and Quantum Mechanics
First imagine that the whole universe consists only of atomic hydrogen and that the atoms are not in consistent patterns of rapid motion with respect to one another. All of the atoms are synchronous and evenly spread out like a gas. All at once they appear as particulate forms in a space frame, then all at once they disappear and become quantized elements of the void. They keep oscillating back and forth this way and everything is synchronized. Light is able to link everything up within each space frame to provide an integrated picture. There is no relative skipping of space frames causing holes in the picture because the atoms have relatively slow motions that are random in nature and tend to cancel out.
Next, think of one atom of hydrogen. It is the lightest of all the elements, but it is also the largest atom with respect to the distance of the electron orbits from the nucleus. Because there is only one electron and one proton, the attraction between them is less than in atoms with many and the one electron is permitted larger orbits around the proton nucleus. According to the mathematics of quantum mechanics, based on the light spectra of hydrogen, the angular momentum of the electron in the first orbit is zero. It simply has to be zero for the mathematics to explain the spectral lines of hydrogen. But if the angular momentum is zero this means that the electron is not moving at all. But according to classical mechanics it has to be moving or else the attraction with the proton in the nucleus would draw them together. The electron is negative and the proton is positive. The electron could not stay in the first orbit because the centrifugal force of the angular motion around the orbit is what balances the coulomb force of attraction between the opposite electrical charges. Faced with these conundrums, Neils Bohr was driven to assert that some of the classical laws of physics do not apply within the atom. He had no reason for why the laws of physics were different inside the atom. He just concocted a fit with observed phenomena that were alien to classical physics in some important respects. This became the foundation stone of the Bohr theory of the atom, and also the development of quantum mechanics. The classical laws of physics do not always apply.
The laws governing behavior inside the atom are different because the electron, proton and photon are locked in an intimate relationship defined by System 3. An electron cannot traverse the space between one electron orbit and another. This is another strange conclusion of Neils Bohr in order to fit the observed facts and mathematical implications. The electron cannot exist in the middle between orbits at all. It must make a quantum jump from one orbit to a higher orbit when another photon of light energy is injected into the atom. It must disappear and reappear. So does the whole atom according to System 3, since there is no particulate motion within space frames. All physical motion occurs as quantum jumps in position between space frames. Only light can travel within a space frame. The electron thus jumps through the quantum frame, or the void. The angular momentum of the first orbit is zero because the electron disappears and reappears in the same relative position in the first orbit, which is also the equivalent of going around the orbit once, but it does not actually do that. So the momentum is zero. There is no other explanation that can be offered by anyone, except to say that it can’t be understood rationally and that laws of probability mysteriously apply. This latter explanation offered by science explains nothing.
So the atom is synchronously going on and off in System 3. When enough energy is absorbed, the electron can jump into higher orbits. When the electron jumps back into a lower orbit it emits the same amount of energy in the form of light photons that have a corresponding frequency and wavelength. The atom emits light radiating linearly out through space and traveling with the same universal speed determined by the product of the frequency times the wavelength. In other words the atom becomes incandescent. The specific frequencies of light emitted from excited hydrogen atoms correspond to specific spectral lines in specific positions in the light spectrum of hydrogen. The lines can be seen when the light is passed through a glass prism to spread it out into an observable spectrum. Spectra are like rainbows where white light is spread because different colors in white light have different frequencies and they are diffracted at slightly different angles through rain drops. In the spectrum of hydrogen most of the spectrum is missing and only certain lines appear that fall in specific patterns that are in mathematically precise positions. The energy in each spectral line corresponds to the difference in energy level between one orbit and another. The energy is the product of the frequency of the light and the Planck quantum of action h. The quantum of action is a very small universal constant.
So spectral lines are intimately associated with atomic structure. And quantum jumps in position are only possible because atoms are discontinuous and synchronous, oscillating between quantum and space frames. All of the evidence confirms this view. And there is otherwise no conceptual explanation for why things are the way they are. Because science can find no conceptual explanation, it has resorted to the rules of probability to explain quantum events. And yet this alternate discontinuous interpretation of reality indicated by the System has never been explored by science. To do so requires universal influences at work in the cosmic order and science will not entertain universals, despite solid evidence to the contrary. It smacks of spiritualism in matter accompanied by apprehensions that a disciplined basis to science may be eroded. Even though science is based on universals of many kinds, only local causal influences are allowed. Nevertheless the evidence strongly indicates that this entire universe is discontinuous and synchronous.
The Cosmic Movie, Primary Time, Electromagnetism, and the Universality of Light
The theoretical time required for an electron to circumvent the first orbit of hydrogen defines a primary interval of time in terms of classical units of time. It must be a primary interval because the angular momentum is zero. The electron may not actually go around the nucleus, but the time required must nevertheless correspond to the angular velocity around the orbit if the mathematics is to work out and balance the coulomb force of attraction, and it does fit observed fact. It just takes that long for each recurrence of the electron. But this means that the whole universe must be going off and on at the same synchronous rate if there is to be any coherence to the universe at all.
Different atoms are not locked into mutually intimate relationships in the same way that the electron, proton and photon are in each individual atom, because of the way System 3 works. Each atom is one particular set, so different atoms are different particular sets, albeit linked up by the same universal set that regulates the synchronicity of oscillations back and forth between quantum frames and space frames. Simple!
And once an electron receives enough energy to eject it beyond the reach of light in a single space frame it becomes a free electron. It moves independently of the proton through space, from space frame to space frame, since light can only travel so far in a primary interval of time. But the electron is still linked up with a proton partner via each timeless quantum frame where they share the same photonic energy. This linking up must span space frames and in doing so there is an electromagnetic field of force introduced. It is this spanning of space frames that gives rise to classical electromagnetic field phenomena.
Within each space frame there is only the activity of light energy moving through space, just as in a movie where each frame is projected by light as a still frame and the physical action is a series of quantum jumps in position between frames. So the speed of light has a universal relationship to the space frame of each individual atom, making it universally constant with respect to all bodies everywhere, irrespective of their relative velocity with respect to one another. Normally, relative motions are slight, so no noticeable discrepancies occur in the space-time projection of the movie.
Louis de Broglie and Wave Mechanics
In 1924, Prince Louis de Broglie concocted a wave equation of matter that is another foundation stone of quantum mechanics. He assumed that any particle, such as a free electron, is also a wave motion, "moving along like a little clock in motion in sync with its wave." He had no other rationale for making these assertions and the idea had no experimental backing at the time. He just tried it out and it seemed to work out quite neatly. His equation predicting that matter moved in waves as well as in particles was only later confirmed by experiment. Science still has no conceptual explanation for how a particle can also be a wave at the same time. How can a hard little lump also be a wave motion?
Louis de Broglie assumed that a particle is a standing wave, oscillating internally like a clock. In other words it is oscillating back and forth between space and quantum frames, just as System 3 requires, and this oscillation, indicated by Planck’s quantum of action h, is a measure of its energy in relativistic terms. This is Planck's law, with the particle’s relativistic mass substituted for its energy according to E=mc^2. As the particle standing wave moves, an external wavelength is introduced equivalent to its quantum jumps in position from frame to frame, relative to a stationary observer. This is how the internal clock of the particle can move along in sync with its external wave. De Broglie’s intuition was right. The particle is like a little clock in motion.
He next applied the Lorentz transformations of special relativity to arrive at his famous equation. The Lorentz transformations of special relativity convert measurements in one inertial frame of reference to those in another frame that is moving rapidly relative to it. In other words they compensate for relativistic distortions between rapidly moving bodies. So de Broglie equated the transformation formula for a clock to that of a wave. (See page 60 of Science and Cosmic Order: A New Prospectus.) The one formula is the inverse of the other, because the one is internal to the other, qualitatively defining it. (See page 54 of Science and Cosmic Order.) The external wave derives from the internal oscillation. In this context one can say that everything is defined by its own inverse relationship to unity, since an integrating oneness is the defining requirement of the cosmic order as illustrated by System 2. System 2 prescribes the denomination of a thing as a universal quality inherent within all things of its kind. As a result of equating the two inverse transformation formulas the derivatives of time in the calculus of his equations cancel out and the expressions of rest energy vanish. De Broglie’s final equation states that the momentum of the moving particle is equal to Planck’s constant h, divided by the wavelength. Planck’s constant is the universal quantum of action closely associated with the primary interval of time.
The conclusion to be drawn from de Broglie's equation is that the wavelength of the electron is determined by the distance the particle moves in a primary interval of time. The wavelength is therefore determined by the Planck constant h divided by the momentum of the particle, momentum being a measure of mass/energy in motion. De Broglie might have saved himself the mathematical effort, which he based upon unsubstantiated assumptions, and assumed the result directly. Although he lacked a knowledge of the System to guide him, he had his intuition. So de Broglie’s little idea of a clock in motion in sync with its wave is fulfilled. The internal clock is the oscillation of the particle between quantum and space frames. The external wave motion is the space it is displaced between each space frame as it oscillates back and forth between particle and void. Light comes to us in a series of quantized pulses because it only acts within each space frame. Space frames are projected as a discontinuous series in the cosmic movie, while the quantum frames are not normally seen since they are timeless and void of form or physical action.
Planck's Universal Constant h
Max Planck had to invent this universal quantum of action h to account for the characteristics of electromagnetic radiation. It means that light comes to us in a series of quantum pulses. Nothing else would work. No one could offer an explanation as to why it was this way and the phenomenon remains without rational explanation in science. Probability theory became established on this uncertainty between wave and particle to cope with events mathematically, and science went so far as to assert that meaningless things such as probability waves exist. Einstein strongly objected to this, and others were very unhappy about it, including Louis de Broglie and Erwin Schroedinger. Neils Bohr, Max Born, Werner Heisenberg and others won a larger following because a method was provided to take science farther, right or wrong.
Planck's constant h has the units of energy-time, since it quantizes energy according to a primary interval of time. It is a very small quantity, only 6.626 times 10 to the minus 34th power Joule-seconds, or 1.58 x 10 to the 34th power calorie seconds. That's a fraction with 34 zeros after the number in the denominator. Because there is a primary interval of time, there is also a primary quantum of energy proportional to Planck’s constant divided by the primary interval of time, also very small. This is a much larger number, although still small. It is 4.362x10 to the minus 18th power joules, or 1.04x10 to the minus 18th power calories.
When we see that Planck's constant is associated with a primary interval of time, then we can see why electromagnetic radiation such as light is quantized into discrete amounts of energy. Each space frame is discrete so light can only travel a certain distance in a space frame. Light is mass in reflux through the movie as energy. It is created by the transformation of mass into energy according to the famous equation E=mc^2. This occurs mostly in stars by nuclear fusion, but it also occurs when we burn a match. According to special relativity, if we could measure the energy produced in burning a match very accurately, and also measure the mass of the reactants and products very accurately, there would be a discrepancy between the mass of the reactants and products that would equal the energy produced. The mass of the charred match and the carbon dioxide produced would be ever so slightly less than the mass of the match and oxygen burned. The energy equivalent of mass is enormous because the speed of light is enormous.
Synchronicity and Skipping of Frames in the Cosmic Movie
The motion of a free electron puts it somewhat out of sync with the atoms that constitute the observer. By taking big jumps between space frames light cannot move fast enough to link up every point of space the electron traverses within each space frame. It can only move fast enough to circumscribe about the 12th orbit of the hydrogen atom, which is plenty fast enough to maintain the spatial integrity of the observer. None of the observer’s molecular parts are moving rapidly with respect to one another. And light is fast. It travels the equivalent of around the world about 7 times in a second, which is the same speed as going around the 12th orbit of a hydrogen atom once in a primary interval of time. Even if the electron jumps a small fraction of this distance in a primary interval of time the atomic integrity of the rest of the world is placed in a squeeze relative to it, and the squeeze accumulates with successive frames. So it is only the position of the moving electron between one space frame and the next that cannot be fully bridged by the speed of light in a primary interval of time, if light is to also to have time to fully circumscribe atoms combined in molecules such as exist in the observer. Here again we find that the external linear motion of light within a space frame has an inverse defining relationship to the internal circular dynamics of atoms. This is why E=mc^2. (See page 57 of Science and Cosmic Order: A New Prospectus)
The linear motion of light defines the nature of space. Where there is no light there is no space or time. There is a black hole. Space and time are concepts derived from the physical creation. We measure space by the distance between things that already exist and time by the rotation of the earth in relation to the sun. These are not a priori determining conditions of existence. They are derived a posteriori. There is no evidence whatever that space and time exist as things independent of this physical creation.
The electron may be moving fairly fast too, but not nearly as fast as light. Its motion nevertheless opens up perceptual gaps in the synchronous projection of the electron with respect to the observer. So the electron jumps farther than light can fully reach in a single space frame with respect to the observer. This results in a tiny hole in the fabric of the quantized space projected by light in each space frame as perceived by the observer. You may think of it as little black holes appearing in parts of the spatial path of the electron as it moves through frames. The electron still appears in each space frame of the cosmic movie but light cannot fully close-up the space between where it appears in each frame and where it appeared in the last space frame. One can say that the integrated fabric of space has holes in it relative to the direction of travel of the electron. These gaps accumulate. This alters the relationship between the observer and the electron. With respect to the moving electron some of the observer’s space frames are intermittently swallowed in the perceptual gaps opened by the collective jumps of the electron. This relative skipping of observer space frames closes the perceptual gaps.
The same is true of rapidly moving rocket ship. The rocket ship will be fully synchronous within itself, and so will the stationary observer and the planet they are standing on. But there will be a relative skipping of observer space frames, including his whole stationary frame of reference, with respect to the moving rocket ship.
In summary, some of the observer's space frames are intermittently skipped with respect to the electron, while the associated quantum frames of the electron, that are timeless, can only accumulate with respect to the observer and his continuing perception of the movie. The observer is at the same time fully synchronous with the floor he is standing on and the room he is in. He and the room are just there less frequently with respect to the moving electron. This depends upon the perspective of the observer. The mind of the observer spans space and time and integrates the history. The history is represented by the accumulated quantum sequences of the electron with respect to the observer. The mind of the observer is in fact constantly spanning space and time and integrating history, due to the endless flux of movements going on around us, not to mention the rotation of the planet, its orbit about the sun, and the sun's revolution about the galaxy. As we shall see, the whole content of the movie involves the intelligent reflux and renewal of experience.
These inverse effects of accumulated quantum frames and skipped space frames lead to the relativistic distortions between inertial frames of reference, consistent with the Lorentz transformations and de Broglie's wave equation. It's not easy to see this through. The inverse effects of skipping and accumulation of space and quantum frames respectively are consistent with the inverse Lorentz transformations for a wave and a clock in special relativity. (See page 60 of Science and Cosmic Order)
Light Speed, Lorentz Contractions, and Einstein's Special Relativity
The famous Michelson and Morley experiment in the late nineteenth century, accurately measured the speed of light in a north-south direction and in an east-west direction at the same time. They used a specially built apparatus called an interferometer designed to detect interference between reflected light rays in two directions. Diffraction patterns due to interference of the reflected rays should have shown up on photographic plates if the speeds in two directions were different. The speeds in the two different directions should have been different by the speed of the earth’s rotation but they were identical, proving that the speed of light is constant with respect to every moving body, irrespective of its relative velocity. What changes is the spatial dimension of the moving body in the direction of travel. It gets physically shorter in the direction of motion. It also gets heavier, and its time moves slower. If you could see a man in a space ship traveling past at near the speed of light, he would look thinner in the direction of travel, he would weigh more and his watch would move slower. Although everything would be normal to the man in the space ship, he might return to Earth after a ten-year journey and find that twenty years had passed on Earth.
The Lorentz transformations allow these distortions between different frames of reference to be calculated. In his special theory of relativity Einstein arrived at the same transformations in a different way. He also showed that simultaneity could not be measured. He therefore suggested that there was no such a thing as universally simultaneous events in linearly flowing time. He believed that space and time are a four dimensional continuum that independently exists.
In System 3, the Lorentz transformations are also consistent with a relative skipping of space frames, but this does not mean that there is no such a thing as simultaneous events at points distant from one another. Quantum mechanical measurements in recent years have clearly established that there is such a thing as quantum entanglement that seems to indicate simultaneous action at a distance in some sense.
Einstein objected to the use of statistics and probability theory in the development of quantum mechanics to the end of his life, and the System indicates he was right about this. But the original basics of quantum mechanics clearly indicate that the universe is discontinuous and synchronous, not continuous. Light comes to us as a series of quantized pulses according to Plank’s universal quantum of action h, because space itself is projected as a discontinuous series of frame sequences. The projection of each frame quantizes the light into discrete packages. And light itself defines space. The evidence is there. Even Heisenberg's indeterminancy principle confirms it. We cannot know the momentum and position of a moving particle at the same time because position occurs in a single space frame while momentum must be measured over a succession of space frames.
However, space still appears to us as a continuous field associated with the projection of light. Under normal circumstances there is no compelling reason to question this. It is only with relativistic distortions that we must seek some other explanation. Irrational numbers, complex numbers, and chaos theory also raise serious doubts about the continuity of space. This space-time continuum assumption of relativity theory has been challenged by others. The first one to point out problems with continuity to space and time was Zeno of Elea about 2,400 years ago. His paradoxes exemplified problems associated with infinite regress in space and time. Berkeley criticized the development of calculus on a similar basis. The System indicates there is a minimum limit to the increment of the differential in the calculus. Also prior to relativity, the mathematician Richard Dedekind showed that any spatial continuity must also have irrational holes in it. Henry Bergson took specific issue with Einstein on philosophical grounds, and others have specifically challenged the theory. The theory, however, allowed science to advance its knowledge. There were no other practical explanations upon which to proceed.
Einstein's General Relativity and the Space-Time Continuum
All this indicates that there is no such a thing as a space-time continuum as assumed by general relativity. And yet the observed fabric of space and time may appear to be curved because of the relative skipping of space frames associated with the repetitive cyclic motions in the heavens and also with the synthesis of the elements heavier than hydrogen in the centers of stars that has the effect of contracting space. On a cosmic scale, however, the same cosmological conclusions may not be derived from the System as are derived from general relativity.
System 3 is very different from the interpretation of either Lorentz or Einstein. It confirms that there is such a thing as a synchronous present between distant points, despite Einstein's thought experiments with measuring rods and clocks employed in special relativity. Nevertheless in special relativity System 3 has a similar effect with different interpretations. On a limitless cosmic scale the interpretations diverge even more. General relativity is something quite different from special relativity. General relativity is a theory about gravity.
Einstein did not like action at a distance. Gravity appears to act at a distance and not as a force transmitted through space and time. It appears as a universal instantaneous force of attraction between all physical objects in the universe that acts everywhere at once. What kind of magic is that? It seems to defy explanation. Einstein devised a way to get around it, inspired by Faraday’s idea of the electromagnetic field, and Maxwell’s success in using the concept of the field to explain electricity, light and magnetism. This gave Einstein the idea of making a continuous field out of space and time.
But let's look back a bit. Rene Descartes was sick for a couple of weeks looking out his window and the cross between the four panes of glass became the x and y axis of Cartesian coordinates. There was an origin, a zero point in the middle of the cross, so that spatial dimensions and time could be related to this origin. Algebraic equations could be plotted on graph paper and mathematics was given a big boost by this simple contrivance. It also facilitated the invention of the calculus by Newton and Leibniz.
In the mid eighteen hundreds a man named Riemann developed a system of generalized coordinates for any number of dimensions, as opposed to a geometry with a fixed origin in one, two or three spatial dimensions. Einstein used this geometry to define a space-time continuum without an absolute center or origin as in Cartesian coordinates. This mathematical continuum consisted of ten mathematical expressions relating to every point in it. There was no physical matter in this hypothetical space-time continuum that Einstein imagined. He then took the case of a universe filled with matter thinly smeared out evenly throughout it, like a thin fluid gas. He used a system of tensor calculus to define the stress-energy-momentum tensors relating to all points of this mass and came up with another set of ten mathematical expressions. He equated the first ten expressions to the second ten expressions and these became the field equations of general relativity. Unfortunately there was no possibility of solving these equations. But if certain assumptions were allowed some of the equations cancelled out and the remaining equations could be solved under specific conditions.
Gravity as a universal force of attraction between all physical bodies that is not transmitted through space and time was distasteful. That spooky action-at-a-distance was troublesome to explain and Einstein set out to get around it. He had been inspired to begin this work by the notion that in free fall a person is weightless. Gravity is not felt. So he set about to eliminate gravity. He began by assuming that gravity and acceleration are equivalent. One popular argument is that if you are standing on a weigh scale in an elevator accelerating upward, your weight will appear to increase, and from inside the elevator you cannot tell the difference between gravity and acceleration. Only local influences are allowed. The ideas may be brilliantly conceived and the mathematics elegant, but there is something amiss in this general theory of relativity. One does not have to be a mathematician to sense this.
Nevertheless, the field equations of general relativity indicate that the spacetime continuum has a curvature related to the distribution of matter. The curvature of the space-time continuum now substitutes for gravitational action at a distance. Moreover it indicates that gravity can be transmitted at the speed of light as a gravity wave pulse through the continuum.
It is hard to conceptualize a four dimensional continuum but one can think of the fabric of space-time as a huge bed sheet stretched out and suspended more or less flat. This would represent the fabric of the spacetime continuum in any neighborhood if matter was static and evenly distributed thinly throughout the universe. Now lets add a sun. That would be like placing a heavy ball on the bed sheet. The ball will depress the sheet and the fabric will curve into where the ball rests. That curvature in the fabric of the spacetime continuum is what causes smaller bodies to accelerate or gravitate toward it, just as if you dropped a pea on the bed-sheet. The pea will roll in toward the heavy ball and impact it, just as if an asteroid was attracted to fall into the sun or impact the earth. So the curvature of the space-time fabric is determined by concentrations of gravitational mass. That is the way general relativity gets around action at a distance. The curvature of the field accounts for the acceleration due to gravity. Gravity is a local curvature in the fabric of space-time associated with mass.
Black Holes in Space-Time and Big Bang Cosmology
If the concentration of mass is extremely high, as it is at the centers of galaxies, then the fabric of space-time becomes more curved. In the limit it can become curved so tightly that it closes upon itself like a bubble. This bubble represents a closed event horizon called a black hole. Even light cannot escape because the space-time curvature is closed upon itself. From within it, nothing outside it can be seen, and vice-versa. At least that is the way it is interpreted in general relativity even though there are exchanges of matter with a black hole.
The black hole in the center of our galaxy appears to be as massive as about 4 million suns. There are probably black holes in the centers of the two hundred or so globular star clusters in our galaxy that may be as massive as a few hundred suns. The black hole in the center of galaxy M87 appears to be as massive as 5 billion suns. Distant quasars are more massive yet, so there is a very wide variance possible. The critical diameter of a black hole depends upon the total mass involved and the larger the mass the less is the critical density.
If the mass of the whole universe is above a certain limit, it will have a critical density such that it will stop expanding one day. The whole universe will be like a bubble of space-time with absolutely nothing outside it, because there is no space or time apart from it. The bubble is the whole fabric of space-time. In this scenario, the universe will collapse again into the singularity from which it supposedly came, that is, an infinitely small point of infinite density. There doesn’t appear to be nearly enough mass in the universe for this to ever happen, so the universe will suffer another fate, in one of a couple different ways. If the bubble of space-time turns out to be infinitely flat or open, as opposed to spherical, eventually all the lights will go out and everything will be left in eternal darkness. Whatever the case, the point of infinite density from which it all came into being in a big bang from absolutely nothing has no explanation. All the laws of physics upon which the theory is based are refuted in that instant of creation. The cosmological big bang theory remains a contradiction in terms. That supposed origin to the universe divorces us from it, and from our own understanding.
The general relativity assumption of a space-time continuum also contradicts the evidence that the whole of experience is quantized and discontinuous, and yet both general relativity and quantum mechanics are used side by side in big bang cosmology. To date there have been no successful efforts to unite quantum mechanics and relativity into a common theory. This will never be accomplished by traditional approaches because of deeply rooted contradictions in both. On the other hand, a new quantum-relativity emerges naturally with System 3.
System 3, the Red Shift, and Space Frame Skipping
System 3 offers an alternative view consistent with the factual evidence. Think of that bed-sheet again but this time think of every atom in the bed-sheet being discontinuous and synchronous. The bed-sheet is oscillating all at once between form and emptiness. But the mass of the universe isn't really like a bed-sheet at all. Its atoms are mostly gathered together into suns and planets and moons, collected into galaxies. The suns are forever revolving in orbits about the centers of galaxies and they are moving with moderate cosmic speeds that would be very fast here on earth. However the centers of galaxies in any neighborhood don’t move quickly in relation to one another. They are relatively stationary.
The farther galaxies are away from us the faster they appear to be receding as inferred by the red shift of spectral lines. From this single bit of evidence the universe is assumed to be expanding. It is assumed that the recessional speed of distant galaxies can be determined and measured from the shift of their spectral lines toward the red end of the electromagnetic spectrum. In other words the distinctive lines in the hydrogen spectrum don't appear where they should in the spectrum. Their frequencies are proportionately lower while the lines remain in the same relative position to one another. It is true that this effect can be caused by recessional velocity. For instance the light from a pinwheel galaxy facing us edge on is generally red shifted on one side and blue shifted on the other, indicating that one edge is moving toward us and the other away from us as it rotates.
But there is nothing to say that a shift of spectral lines toward the red end of the spectrum cannot be caused by the relative skipping of space frames due to great distance as well. In a discontinuous universe full of dynamic patterns one should fully expect that there will be a relative skipping of space frames between distant galaxies over the billions of years it takes light to traverse the distances between them, resulting in the shifting of spectral lines in the spectrum, along with a variety of other relativistic effects. The relative skipping of space frames is an inevitable result of relative motions, especially when these motions involve the regeneration of stellar populations over billions of years. These changes must be reconciled with a synchronous present integrating history via the quantum void.
System 3, Cosmic Synchronicity, Black Holes, and a Universal Observer
So the bed-sheet becomes a forest of revolving galaxies whose material content must find a fair degree of synchronicity in order to cohere as a whole. There must be a preponderance of synchronicity that also allows of synchronous distortions of various kinds within that overriding context. The centers of the galaxies are in reasonably stationary positions with respect to one another while their peripheries are revolving about them. This causes synchronous distortions between the centers and the peripheries of all galaxies. If the atoms of the whole universe are oscillating off and on, and if the centers of the galaxies are reasonably stationary, then the major discrepancies will be between the center of each galaxy and its own periphery. The centers of galaxies then become synonymous with a universal observer with respect to all peripheral rotational motions in all galaxies at once.
On a cosmic scale we have a different situation than de Broglie had with his moving particle in relation to a human observer. On a cosmic scale there is no observer clothed in atoms and molecules at all. The peripheral motions of all galaxies cause the unlimited skipping of space frames at their centers resulting in massive black holes at the very centers of all galaxies. The centers of galaxies are consequently associated with an accumulation of quantum frames related to missing mass from the cosmic movie and integrating the history of the galaxy. The integration of history, spanning space and time, is a characteristic of intelligence in the broadest sense. Galaxies in this context become invested with intelligent integration of their nature. It is a universal cosmic intelligence associated with all galaxies everywhere at once and with the primary projection of hydrogen.
Galaxies, Cosmology, and the Regeneration of Stellar Populations
In any galaxy the relative skipping of space frames nearer to the central black hole also tends to distort the integrated fabric of space more than it does farther out from the center. This curved distortion in the integrated fabric of space is compensated for by the nucleosynthesis of the elements heavier than hydrogen. The heavier elements are all formed by the fusion of atoms in the centers of stars under immense temperature and pressure resulting from their gravitational compression. When fused, two or more atoms occupy the same relative space as one atom. In other words the two space frames of two atoms of hydrogen become integrated into one atom of helium occupying less space than one atom of hydrogen, and so on up through the periodic table of the elements to the element iron. Elements heavier than iron, all the way up to uranium, are fused in supernova explosions by heavy stars that go through their life cycles much quicker than stars like our sun. (Our solar system is a second generation system incorporating supernova material, with heavier elements accreted into the planets.) All this clearly indicates that the very process of nucleosynthesis in the centers of stars is driven by the angular momentum of galaxies. The angular momentum generates a skipping of space frames that is accommodated by atomic fusions that contract space.
It is observed by X-ray and infrared telescopes that gigantic rings of hydrogen seem to be periodically ejected from the center of our galaxy, since they are moving radially outward with hot young star formation in them. At the same time, old stars seem to be drawn back toward the galactic center where the density of stars is by far the greatest, to be eventually swallowed in the central black hole. The curvature in the integrated fabric of space in galaxies is thus such to impel the outward motion of hydrogen together with its condensation into solar systems. This action will tend to resolve the synchronous distortions in the primary projection of the cosmic movie. The huge clouds of hydrogen move outwards because they need to dance to the same beat as the integrated fabric of space in the galaxy and the space further out from the center is less curved. Star formation and nucleosynthesis helps to resolve the synchronous distortions along the way.
At the same time, old stars that have gone through their life cycles and that have generated a healthy supply of heavy elements in their centers will tend to be attracted back towards the galactic center where the integrated fabric of space is more nearly synchronous with their own spatially concentrated bulk. When they are eventually drawn back into the central black hole they come into contact with the primary projection of the cosmic movie. They will be torn apart into the quantum energies of primary hydrogen by the primary projection of the movie wherein all galactic centers participate. The heavy elements will thus face reconstitution back into primary hydrogen in the quantum sensorium that exists eternally at galactic centers.
At periods determined by the historic integration of the whole galaxy with respect to the universe at large, there are thus fresh quantum stocks of atomic hydrogen available for ejection from the center back into the movie to regenerate the stellar population of the galaxy. The quantum stocks are internal to the external projection of the movie. The expressive and regenerative modes of the creative process are thus eternally at work in galaxies, forever recreating their stellar populations. This whole pattern follows necessarily from the quantum mechanical basics of atomic structure as derived from the spectral lines of hydrogen, and as interpreted by System 3. There is no need to inject a swamp of arbitrary assumptions in the theoretical development, as has been done repeatedly in the traditional scientific development of big bang cosmological models.
An Intelligent Universe
On a cosmic scale the rotations of massive galaxies in the intergalactic vacuum are virtually frictionless and the migrations of stars within them are driven by synchronous distortions in the integrated fabric of space. The galactic centers may be permitted a limited degree of migratory motion with respect to one another but this will be substantially restricted by the need for a preponderance of synchronicity in the primary projection of hydrogen. It will be limited by reflux rates of the stellar populations of migrating galaxies. If they migrate too quickly the reflux rate associated with their angular momentum will not be sufficient to compensate for synchronous distortions. This additional accumulation of quantum frames in galactic centers will provide the quantum energy needed to limit motions, or even to accelerate the galaxy’s angular rotation and increase its reflux rate. A variety of effects may be possible. Gravity, however, will be unable to exert its pull between galaxies sufficiently to collapse them into an implosion. Relative cosmic motions become tensionally coupled and intentionally regulated. The accumulated quantum energy will always be there at the ready to be translated in a variety of ways in the projection of the cosmic movie. This introduces a new class of quantum forces involved in the universe on a cosmic scale. They are more than idle conjecture because they necessarily follow from a discontinuous universe.
The Eternal Regeneration of Light and Life
What is light? Light is generated in suns by the nuclear fusion of atoms to produce the heavier elements. The net weight of a heavier atom that results from the fusion of two smaller atoms is a bit less than the sum of the weights of the two smaller atoms. That net loss in mass is converted into heat and light energy, which radiates out from the sun. It is essentially energy in reflux in nature’s energy refinery, energizing chemical synthesis and living processes on planets where organic life can take root and evolve.
In its endless journey into space, light is eventually reabsorbed by the skipping of space frames, in synchronization with the source from which it arose since the stellar source is eventually refluxed back through the galactic center. The wavelength of light keeps getting longer and longer in step with the skipping of space frames, until it is infinitely long and vanishes into nothing, being reabsorbed back to the universal source of the movie. Nothing is ultimately wasted. It is because the action of light within each space frame defines the nature of space, that the red shift gives the appearance that space is expanding, when in reality it is being reabsorbed back to the source from which it came.
In the space-time continuum of general relativity, light continues its endless journey with an every increasing loss of energy into eternal darkness, spelling the ultimate end of the universe in a heat death. This must happen according to the current laws of physics unless there is enough mass to pull everything back in on itself to extinction in an unthinkable implosion similar to the explosion from which it came. But there is not nearly enough observable matter in the universe for this to ever happen. Accordingly, when everything exploded into existence all at once in an unthinkable blaze it predetermined the condensation of all the galaxies and stars that have come into being since, and that initial explosion gave them enough repulsive energy so that they will never collapse on themselves again. All will eventually pass away into darkness as the lights finally go out forever one by one. The thermodynamic clock of the whole universe was only wound once according to this view, and it must inevitably run down forever.
But in the quantum relativity of System 3 there is an eternal dance going on associated with galaxies that had no beginning and that will never end. Galaxies themselves have no substance. Only their content of stars, gas and dust have substance. In the quantum-relativity of System 3, all substance in the universe is subject to be born and die. Even the atoms of hydrogen, from which stars are made, get fused into heavier elements and eventually get swallowed in black holes, only to be born again. The dance of the stars is a secondary expression of System 3, after the primary projection of hydrogen. Then a third partner in the eternal dance is the chemical synthesis of living processes as life takes root on planets and evolves. As it does there is yet another tier to System 3 expressed in the integration of cell, organ and host in complex living creatures like ourselves.
And here we are, living hosts capable of seeing through the whole process, of rendering it transparent. And that transparent realization of the dance consists of nothing material at all. It transcends it all, even while we jog along eternally in tune with the cosmic music. How can such a cosmic realization that is without substance of any kind die? The whole process of creation is intelligent, living within the cosmic movie and transcending it too. The creative process is the eternal cosmic order expressed as the System. The System itself is intelligent and alive and we are part of that eternally living order.
So it seems that we are presented with a fundamental choice. We are free to believe that we are mere accidents of chance and that we will perish forever when we die. This belief carries with it the assumption that this is true for all people for all time. This is not a substantiated fact. It is a universal value judgement about the human condition that is consistent with the idea that the whole universe will one day pass into oblivion as a completely meaningless exercise. Alternatively we can give some credence to the view that we have a cosmic role to play. The System offers a new paradigm for a disciplined approach to explore this theme in a scientific manner consistent with the evidence. It is not a blind belief system. On the contrary it renders the creative process transparent. It rescues us from the vagaries of blind beliefs whether they have been conditioned by our religious or scientific traditions.