Soliton (![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} saintbryan) wrote,@ 2005-10-12 05:12:00 |
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Descartes, The Matrix and The Holographic Universe
Just finished my tiny-ass paper for my philosophy class. It took me much longer than I thought it would mainly because it was so tricky trying to fit an idea as complex as my Thesis into a 2-3 page paper. In class, we've been reading over Rene Descartes' meditations on questions he presents about the nature of the objective world, and what we can actualy know about it. In case you're not familiar with Descartes, he's the dude who said "I think, therefore I am". Basically, the only thing one can know for certain is that you exist. All else is to be doubted.
Descartes worried that the real world may actualy be completely different than what his senses relay to him. For some silly reason, my philosophy teacher thinks that idea is absurd because if the "real world" WAS different than the way we percieve it, someone would have been able to see the real thing at some point. I don't see her logic, and I disagreed wholeheartedly with her simple view, so I decided to forumlate my Thesis around her arguement. And I think I did a good job sticking it to her in this essay.
I agree with Descartes’ initial implication that it is possible that the nature of the external world is entirely different than reason and empirical observation would have you believe. In his first meditation, entitled “Concerning Those Things That Can Be Called into Doubt”, Descartes kick starts his thesis by noting that all things he believes to be true were received either from, or through the senses. For example, one believes the sky is a particular color because that information was brought to them through their optical senses. One believes that the word for that color is “blue” because that information was brought to them through their auditory senses during childhood. All things we think we know have the senses to thank for their existence. Next, he notes that the senses are sometimes deceptive. It is wise, he says, for one to never place complete trust in anything that has deceived you even once. To quote Obi-Wan Kenobi, “Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them.” Of course, this also applies to every one of your senses. The senses cannot be trusted to bring us accurate information about the nature of our world. Does the Universe really exist in the manner that we perceive? My argument is: quite possibly, no. Descartes postulates that it is possible that we are merely dreaming. That the things we perceive are illusory. But one wonders, if that is the case, then wouldn’t it be possible for science to somehow give us a glimpse of the “real” or “wake world”? Wouldn’t it also be the case that some people may have, in a way, “woken up”, and experienced the universe in its “true” form? In this all-too-short paper, I will attempt to illustrate how possible this scenario may be.
In “The Matrix”, we see an excellent illustration of the idea I am attempting to present. The world that Neo senses around him is deceptive. It is merely a result of his mind interpreting code which is sent directly to his brain. Near the end of the movie, once he truly understands the nature of this world, the deceptive lens is removed and he sees the Matrix for what it really is: code. Interestingly enough, this is very similar to neurophysiologist Karl Pribram and quantum physicist David Bohm’s theory of a holographic universe. In order to describe this theory, I must first describe how a hologram works. A hologram is made by a laser light shone through a half-slivered mirror. Half of the laser beam is directed onto a photographic plate, and the other half bounces off an object, then onto the photographic plate. When the two halves of the light meet back at the plate, their waves interfere with one another, forming an interference pattern on the plate. The interference pattern forms an image much like the wave patterns created when your throw a handful of pebbles into a pond. When a laser beam is shone through the plate, a virtual image of the object photographed unfolds from the wave pattern and is projected into three dimensional space.
One incredibly interesting trait of holograms is their apparent non-local characteristics. When a holographic plate is broken into shards, and a laser is shone through one of the fragments, the entire image of the object still appears (although not quite as sharp). Information about the whole object is encoded within every single fraction of the hologram. In other words, there literally is no difference between one section of the hologram and another; all parts contain the exact same information. Mathematician Dennis Gabor discovered that the complex interference patterns formed by the overlapping wave forms can actually be translated into a language of simple waves through a method called ‘Fourier transforms’. Using Fourier transforms, normal images can be translated into interference patterns and vice versa.
According to the research of neurophysiologist Karl Pribram, the brain does exactly this with sensory information. His and many others’ research had led Pribram to develop the Holonomic Brain Theory: a theory which describes workings of the brain as holographic. According to Pribram’s findings, when the brain receives sensory information, say, through the eyes, the wave-like activity of the neurons forms the exact same interference patterns as those formed on a holographic plate. When our minds perceive shapes, what is happening is a series of Fourier transforms occurring in the brain, decoding the information contained within our brainwaves. Recent findings show that the visual “centers” of the brain are in fact not “centers” at all. Visual information, as it turns out, is processed all throughout the brain in the form of chaotic interference patterns. Scientists have gone so far as to remove large chunks of the brain that process visual information and still, sight is not impaired. Exactly like a hologram: ‘Parts’ (or quantities) of information are not contained within the pieces of the pattern. Instead, pieces of the pattern all contain qualities of the whole. In fact, all brain activity, as Pribram points out, takes the form of holographic waveforms: all sensory information, memory storage, emotions, etc.
Pribram began to speculate on some of the many strange questions which his Holonomic Brain Theory brought to light. The implications of his theory of the nature of sensory information is, according to Michael Talbot (author of The Holographic Universe), “analogous to taking a Polaroid picture of a group of people sitting around a table and, after the picture develops, finding that, instead of people, there are only blurry clouds of interference patterns.” Pribram began to question the very nature of the objective universe. Could it be that if one were to somehow remove the lens of the Fourier transforms which simplify and decode all that we perceive, then would one perceive the universe as it “truly” is? As one massive rippling symphonic “Frequency Domain”, as he puts it?
Coincidentally enough, at the same time Pribram was developing his theory, quantum physicist David Bohm was putting together his own theory relating to the holographic nature of the universe. When Bohm and Pribram discovered each other, they teamed up, forming an overarching theory based on research from both of their respective fields. Their combined Holographic Universe Theory held that the universe is a single, non-local system, possessing all the qualities of a hologram. Non-local in that not only does every existing subatomic particle contain information about the whole, every particle is in fact indistinguishable from the whole: it is the whole. Only each is a different aspect, or quality (as opposed to a quantity) of the whole. Take for example, two video images of the same object; one viewed from the side, the other from the front. Each image is displayed on a separate TV screen. Bohm asserts that all subatomic particles are connected in the same manner that the two images of the same object are. They appear to be separate objects, yet on a deeper level, they are actually merely different aspects, or qualities of a single whole. According to this theory, the entire Universe, everything that was, is and is to come, exists as an eternal and infinitely complex zero-dimensional qualitative fractal interference pattern. ("whoa.")
“Our brains mathematically construct objective reality by interpreting frequencies that are ultimately projections from another dimension, a deeper order of existence that is beyond both space and time: The brain is a hologram enfolded in a holographic universe,” Says Michael Talbot. Quite different than reason and empirical observation would have us believe, wouldn’t you say?
Now how about our Matrix example? At the end, Neo opens his eyes to a whole new existence. Once it becomes clear that he is The One, his lens of illusion is removed. He wakes up to perceive the Matrix as it truly exists. Would it be possible, in the same manner then, for someone to “wake up” in a sense from this illusion we perceive? Could there be people who have managed to see the universe without this deceptive Fourier lens? Quite possibly.
Hindu mysticism for example, describes the universe we perceive as ‘maya’, or illusion. In reality, the universe is Brahman; The Absolute, out of which the manifold is manufactured. One appearing as many. Through the methods of Raja-Yoga, it is said, one can attain Brahman, a state in which one perceives ultimate Unity. They know all things past, present and future because the lens of separateness is now gone. And, supposedly, humans who have attained Brahman (they are called Aptas) have existed, and do exist. Some well known examples; Buddha, Jesus, Lao-Tzu.
Could these ideas be nothing more than folklore and fantasy? Possibly. Or could there be reality behind these claims that the Truth is not what it seems to be? Possibly. What I do know is that findings within the new fields of chaos theory and quantum theory all seem to be pointing uniformly in one basic direction: the direction of an implicitly ordered, holistic, qualitative universe. This is a universe quite unlike that which we perceive. Am I saying that this is certainly the case? Of course not. As stated in my thesis, I am merely saying that it is possible.
EDIT: By the way, I appologize for the totaly overused Matrix references. I really had no origional intention whatsoever to include any mention of the Matrix in this paper, however, my prof was insisting that the topic of this paper had to relate somehow to both Descartes and The Matrix... So yeah. Not my fault.
