October 7, 2021

I've been busy with my usual activities but recently concentrating on understanding quantum physics (the physics of the very very very tiny) by reading articles (esp.  Suskind wormhole theory of black hole https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ER_%3D_EPR ), Katie Mack's The End Of Everything (Astrophysically Speaking), Lee Smolin  and loop gravity theory in Einstein's Unfinished Revolution The Search for What Lies Beyond the Quantum, and finally Sabine Hossenfelder's Lost in Math book rant on theory making, math beauty, quantum theory, and the scientific communities problems in getting stuck in outdated unproven theories and the short changing of progress in new research and  new theories. 

For example, in quantum mechanics once you measure something very very very small (i.e. position or momentum) you have by your measurement found one or the other measurements (decoherence) and influenced the particles characteristics to influence the other paired particle so you also know its value. This value appears in the paired particle only if the other has been measured and it's instantantanies (greater than the speed of light).  Anton Zeilinger and his team went to the Canary Islands to do the experiment of measuring paired photons 89 mile apart showing that information was transmitted instantaneously (faster than the speed of light).  https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/entangled-photons-quantum-spookiness/

This magic long hypothesized (Copenhagen Interpretation) can not be reconciled with Einstein's special and general theories of relativity. Nothing can travel faster than the speed of light according to these theories and so far all experimental measurements taken. His general theory of relativity theorizes spacetime as a variable with gravity the result of space being warped by the mass of objects so the two theories shows that as you approach the speed of light time changes for you (and our satellite orbiting the earth) so you age slower in relation to your starting place (the earth). Therefore for our satellite clocks we have to add a mathematics correction to get the accurate data. So decoherence found with large instruments to measure the very very very tiny is in Einstein's words is spooky. Well the researchers in the past ignored the effects of gravity in the quantum measurements since this is a very very very small force in this very very very tiny but now we have a problem since gravity in our macro world is strong so strong if fact that it can lead to a force that prevents the photon (light) from leaving the black hole environment similar to what has been hypothesized in the singularity of the Big Bang. Well, the physicists have been hypothesizing about this with theories that are difficult to comprehend unless your trained in the field and can use very sophisticated hard to learn and use math. https://apple.news/Au-aQHS-wQh2axhRWmdWU_A

Enter into our discussion the Large Haldron Collider 27 miles of a circular tracks in which the very very very small is guided by magnetic energy (Maxwell brought together photons, electrons, and magnetic waves into a provable theory) to approach the speed of light to smash against each other into a chambers leaving the energy and debri to be analyzed to understand what these very very very tiny matter/energy quanta consist of.  So far 25 identified particles the last discovered the Higg's Boson. O.K. so look at The Standard Model of Particle Physics    https://www.energy.gov/science/doe-explainsthe-standard-model-particle-physics

So an atom above helium in the periodic table consists of electrons which orbit the nucleus and protons and neutrons that are glued together by the strong nuclear force. There are electroweak forces also. The fermions, quarks, and gluons make up the menagerie of particles and forces. The electron thought to orbit the nucleus when with more energy jumps to other orbits that decay to their baseline orbit when energy is lost. Only two electron per orbit and they have different spins (https://web.gccaz.edu/~kimld88531/rev130_files/WkstAtomic.pdf). The Large Haldron Collider is not powerful enough to smash even further into our understanding of particle physics and energy but the Higg's Boson is hypothesized to have a larger partner not yet discovered (or else does not exist). Since photons, electrons, and other particles are both wave and particle things get very strange indeed. To know what's there in the very very very tiny you have probability curves in which you guess (Bayesian mathematics) their location or momentum. Except recently there now is a theory called the pilot wave theory that hypothesizes that the wave guides the particle (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pilot_wave_theory).  To round out the current theories trying to reconcile the standard theories with the quantum theories is the loop gravity theory which hypothesizes that space and time consists of plank dimension space loops ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loop_quantum_gravity).  I'm hanging in there hoping to understand and now there's this. If you look at our telescopes at the galaxies and clusters our there you can make out that some of these rotate but something strange is happening since the peripheral arms seem to rotate faster that the mass of the material stars and debri warrant. This and other data lead to hypothesize a substance now call dark matter since we have no idea what it is except maybe even tinier than the very very very small. All matter has a gravitational force associated with it (Einstein general theory of relativity) so the percentage of dark matter in the universe is computed to be 23% (https://astronomy.swin.edu.au/cosmos/d/Dark+Matter). Then mention in the attached article is dark energy (energy not understood but seems to be present). If you look at the total amount of stuff out there you suspect that the gravity influence will slow the expansions after the big bang (a few hundred thousand years after the singularity of the big bang there was a rapid expansion to the size of a football but gravity would influence things so eventually all collapses(Big Crunch) except measurements of the red shift of the very very very far galaxies shows that they are accelerating away from us so this is hypothesized due to unknown (dark) energy.  I must bring up Stephen Hawkings shuttle clock theory of how everything started and where it's going (https://www.quantamagazine.org/physicists-debate-hawkings-idea-that-the-universe-had-no-beginning-20190606/). 

So what's up with Leonard and these interests? Many reason that I can think of but I'm sure there is the unconscious and other possible influences. Sabine Hossenfelder in her Appendix C list many errors in our thinking and evaluating to watch out for. We have cognitive and social biases. Since we are social creatures we want to fit in with the group and therefore accept the groups viewpoints. We want to confirm our opinions so we find them in the media and literatures (confirmation bias). We are motivated to find our biases to be true rather than see there is no evidence (Here it is folks! The Big Lie).  We are prone to have the sunk cost fallacy (throwing good money after bad) since so far we've spent a lot already lets build a bigger collider to find the supersymmetry particles our unproven theory tell us is there. Since we're part of the in group who are people who are more intelligent and aware than others, we have a bias to think we're smarter and more knowledgeable. We even can have a false consensus bias overestimating the amount of agreement with opinions others in our group have.  We even consider a fact more likely the more we've heard it (echo chambers). Of course we may believe that we're not biased at all (the bias blind spot). This brief summary of biases in science leads scientists to continue even for generation to bark up the wrong tree. 

I have been studying, reading, underlining, and summarizing through note taking the articles and books on physics especially cosmology, quantum, Newton laws, Einstein theories etc. since early in college I became interested but pursued medicine and psychiatry instead. No that's not it, I am interested in these subjects and came across reviews of these books and articles so I immersed myself in them getting pleasure in the new information revealed and comprehended. Yes and I pursue these interests to keep my mind working to learn and appreciate the world. And I am doing this to stop reading about our present social and political world news debacles and controversies in which large groups of people endorse very outlandish and dangerous viewpoints or excuse those hold to these viewpoints due to the errors of thinking I summarized above. 

Do we have free will or are we so influenced by our cognitive biases and social affiliations that our viewpoints are more fantasy than reality? Baruch Spinoza a middle ages philosopher had very modern views including probabilistic musing like in quantum mechanics. He believed we live in a deterministic universe in which atoms and other things have causes and effects so therefore were a part of this with tendencies to respond deterministically. Yet through knowledge we may have some choice and therefore some freedom. He believed in the bulk of humanity as having the potential of becoming more enlightened and rejected the Hobbesian Greek Aristotle solution extolling the virtues of autocracy or monarchy.  Since he rejected the teaching of the rabbinical groups, that the Jewish religious worshipper is fulfilling God's directive and therefore God had chosen his people as special. Instead he wrote that God was more impersonal followed the deterministic and scientific principles and all people could become special. Of course, as you know he was excommunicated from being able to worship in the synagogues in the Netherlands. 

John Horgan wrote Mind Body Problems Science, Subjectivity, & Who We Really Are. He has a chapter describing his interviews with Owen Flanagan a philosopher who writes about consciousness. Horgan is very interested in free will and in his book he interviews various people with his interests in mind. Owen Flanagan is interesting to me also since he shows us how mistaken we can be in what we believe, how we behave, and how much control we have in our choices in life. Here's a very erudite and intelligent man established in his career happily married who suddenly finds himself without any strong desires including sexual desires. Finally after many months he's diagnosed with a pineal gland tumour secreting prolactin like compounds stopping his sexual desires among other issues. So medicines to help shut the hormone effects from crippling this part of his body and testosterone cream to slather on himself. Seeing a psychiatrist he's now on prozac and then to boost his energy bupropion (Wellbutrin). He's on top of the world, makes risky investments, goes to parties and drinks alcohol to great excess, notices the female flirtations and enjoys affairs. Finally his therapists and psychiatrists get him off the bupropion which added to his mania and he tries to stop drinking but this persists. His marriage is over and his long rehabilitation continues with finally no more relapsing to alcohol. Well, here is a tale of woe showing me that indeed our choices in life are associated with our biases and our biology. Flanagan had little free will during his downward spiral.

Rebecca and I enjoy talking. She's an artist in viewpoint and accomplished in creating art. Yet she is interested in these subjects of free will so we discuss together our interests. Home to roost we are attempting to be supportive to friends and relative whose free will seems very impaired. Solving everyday problems of living is difficult for them and Rebecca especially is there to attempt to guide and support. So I have a supportive partner who gives me good critical feedback. I have reading and studying that leads me to better understanding of difficult subjects. I have piano music written by people whose lives I read about and then play some of their pieces with increasing understanding and some musicality. Hiking continues with greater stamina and my photographs of some of these hikes I can manipulate and post for others to see. Family interactions are pleasant and comforting. 

How can I then stop reading about our planets woes and our flawed social environment? Today I read a brief editorial article in the Washington Post about the Republican party now being so changed that the only solution for former Republicans is to leave the party and be conservative Democrats or independents. The reason is that the Republican Party now endorses the Big Lie, voter suppression, and racists and oligarchal policies. Then I read another article about a journalist following certain blue collar subjects https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/opinion/globalization-work-trump-social-justice.html?referringSource=articleShare. The women portrayed in his article were subject to wife abuse, gender discrimination on the job in a steel mill and others experienced racial discrimination. Yet they do not feel any closeness to for example women's liberation groups and literature extolling the virtues of education and upward mobility since as a class the blues have been very marginalized due to the economics changes with globalization, shutting down of factories, and loss of income, status, and job security like in the movie Nomad. They vote as a protest with the Republican's. 

So my take away from all of this blog is complex but interrelated. We live in a world and universe that continues to amaze us since our investigations and theories evolve with greater understanding and we can innovate and improve our lot. Just think that not long ago we were inundated with a disabling killing virus global contagion and now we have effective vaccines and even some treatments due to our scientific researchers and work to find solutions.  The cost of this understanding includes our tendencies to be biased and closed minded so we can spend generations barking up the wrong tree. These biases affect others who are grouped into the better off and more powerful and the marginalized and exploited. Our searches for understanding may create beautiful fantasies that are far removed from reality. We have some choices that may be characterized as free will but they are limited and subject to our biology and this deterministic world we live in. Dialogue including this exercise of blogging and sharing with others matters for me in these attempts for clarity and truth. I need to keep perspective and not immerse myself too much in any one thing except good close relationships. 

Leonard 

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