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Consciousness, Physics, and the Holographic ParadigmEssays by A.T. Williams Part I: Sneaking Up On EinsteinAll matter is immersed in it and it penetrates everywhere. No doors are closed to ether.
Chapter 3Section 2: Electromagnetic Radiation and Light Wave EnergeticsThe characteristic propagation of energetic electromagnetic radiation (EMR), including light wave propagation in the visible region of the electromagnetic spectrum, is somewhat more complex than simply moving an object from point A to point B:
Comparing the complexity of light wave and photon propagation with the classic example of water waves created on the calm surface of a lake or pond when a small stone is lobbed into it, the transverse (orthogonal) electric and magnetic fields of light wave (photon) propagation are analogous to the waves or ripples generated horizontally on the surface of the water, and the direction of light wave (photon) propagation is analogous to the stone sinking straight to the bottom. Nonetheless, the hydrodynamic/electromagnetic imagery suffers a serious breakdown at this point. Water waves are generated and propagated only transversely (90 degrees, orthogonal) away from a source in the horizontal plane. In marked contrast, the energetic electric and magnetic fields are not only generated perpendicular (90 degrees, orthogonal) to the direction of propagation, they are also simultaneously generated in the direction of propagation. Therefore – given sufficient time – energetic, self-sustaining propagation and constant uniform motion enables any unhindered electromagnetic wave or photon of visible light to cross an unlimited expanse of the material universe at the speed of light. Extended water / EMR analogy:At this point the hydrodynamic/electromagnetic radiation analogy apparently suffers a second major breakdown. From the largest ocean to the smallest stream – or even a cup of water held in a human hand – a body of liquid water in which water waves may be generated and propagated must necessarily be contained within an adequately nonporous material medium. On a global scale the nonporous material medium which acts as the container is the planet Earth itself. As an aside:
Water waves, sound waves, seismic waves (e.g., earthquakes, explosions), and atmospheric waves, all require a material medium within which to propagate. Thus the early 20th century hypothesis that the nonmaterial periodic waves which comprise the electric and magnetic fields require no underlying nonmaterial medium within which to propagate not only postulates a radical departure from the apparently seamless regularity and symmetry of Nature per se, but also injects a singular ad hoc anomaly into the scientific laws of nature. If the ad hoc hypothesis of the early 20th century is correct and the nonmaterial electric and magnetic fields do not in fact require an underlying nonmaterial medium, then the hydrodynamic/electromagnetic radiation analogy suffers a second serious failure. But if the early 20th century hypothesis is found to be incorrect (i.e., falsified), then the recent discoveries of the universal principle of energy and the nonmaterial nature of physical energy per se imply the strong probability that the electric and magnetic fields separately and collectively propagate on some level within the fundamental, irreducible, all-inclusive nonmaterial energy domain. Conservation of energy revisited:Notwithstanding the fact that the physically real mass of a material particle was later discovered to be invariant, there is a virtual or apparent equivalence between the rest energy and the so-called relativistic mass of a material particle at rest in a closed or isolated (conservative) material system which is represented by Einstein's 1905 derivation of m = E/c². Nonetheless, the qualitative difference between nonmaterial energy and particulate matter which was definitively articulated in 2001, ninety-six years after Einstein's insightful 1905 papers were published, was entirely unknown to Einstein and his contemporaries. It is now known that the discrete, organized aggregations of nonmaterial physical energy called particulate matter manifest in the material domain while various quantized forms of nonmaterial energy, such as electromagnetic radiation, manifest on some level within the fundamental, irreducible, nonmaterial physical energy domain.
As might be expected, the universal principle of nonmaterial physical energy is valid not only in closed or isolated (conservative) material systems, it is also valid in open (nonconservative) material systems, both open (nonconservative) and closed (conservative) nonmaterial energy systems which contain no particulate matter, and compound open (nonconservative) and closed (conservative) nonmaterial energy systems which contain embedded open (nonconservative) material systems such as our own finite, local space-time continuum. In principle there is no comprehensive mass-energy equivalence in open (nonconservative) material systems, nor in open or closed nonmaterial energy systems which contain no particulate matter. Therefore the historical definition of energy as the capacity to do work in a closed or isolated (conservative) material system describes only a limited, special case. Again, while there is comprehensive conservation of the total energy in a compound closed (conservative) nonmaterial system which contains embedded open (nonconservative) material systems, there is no physically real mass-energy equivalence in an embedded open (nonconservative) material system of any size. The omnipresent, pervasive, subquantum physical energy – sometimes called vacuum energy – that fills all regions of space from the interior of atoms to the cosmos itself is nonmaterial in nature while particulate matter is material in nature. Therefore particulate matter and nonmaterial energy per se are separate and distinct physical phenomena. Indeed, nonmaterial subquantum energy not only has an independent physical existence, but also exists in the absence of matter. In contrast, particulate matter is a discrete, organized aggregation of nonmaterial energy and cannot exist in the absence of energy. Thus it turns out that separate conservation laws for the conservation of energy in nonmaterial and material systems are necessary to completely describe the unique nonmaterial and material components of any compound nonmaterial/material system. Open and closed nonmaterial energy systems which contain no particulate matter also suggest the need for separate nonmaterial and material conservation of energy laws. Interestingly, in summarizing his view of special relativity Einstein wrote: "The old [classical] energy-substance is the second victim of the theory of relativity. The first was the [Maxwellian, Lorentzian, mechanical] medium through which light waves were propagated."11 As fruitful as virtual or apparent mass-energy equivalence and E = mc² have been and will continue to be in closed or isolated material systems in future, innumerable scientific advances and the discovery of the universal principle of energy seem to have caught up with, resurrected, and updated these two "victims" of Einstein's theory of special relativity. Continued in Chapter 3, Section 3: New Scientific Challenges
Reference Notes (Click on the Note number to return to the text): 11 Einstein, Albert, and Infeld, Leopold. The Evolution of Physics, Simon & Schuster, Inc., New York NY, 1938, p. 198. Copyright renewed 1966. ISBN 0-671-20156-5
Back to Chapter 3, Section 1: Einstein, Maxwell, and Energy Index: Consciousness, Physics, and the Holographic Paradigm Last Edit: December 14, 2004. Comments and suggestions welcome. This paper is a work in progress. Copyright © 2004 by Alan T. Williams. All rights reserved. |
