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                                            EMERGENCE  and  PRECOGNITION

In support of the Zen-Taoist view.

The cyberneticist Ross Ashby (1903-1972) stated that “when the complexity of
the system exceeds the finite capacity of the scientist,
the scientist can no longer understand the system....”

In a 2005 paper discussing "Emergence", the astrobiologist Paul Davis notes that
aggregations of sub-atomic particles (basic matter) can produce
radically different manifestations -
such as a rock, a baby, a high temperature superconductor, etc..
That is, unexpected qualities
that cannot be predicted from an examination of their constituent parts
often arise from complex systems.

This is contrary to the "reductionist" (standard) scientific view of things,
which implies that
if you knew the position and motion of every particle in the universe
and the forces acting between them,
you could perform a massive calculation
and predict the future in every conceivable detail.

      This implies unlimited computational power.
However, since the universe is believed to have originated
13.7 billion years ago from the "big bang",
it is not itself believed to be infinite.

            This, therefore puts a limit on the predictive precision of physics,
and implies that there are gaps
where our physical laws cannot completely determine
the future states and properties of some physical systems.

[ This concords with  Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle,
Turing's Halting Theorem, Gödel's Incompleteness Theorem,
Tarski's Truth Theorem, and  Church's Undecideability Theorem ].

Indeed, Seth Lloyd has shown that
any calculation requiring more than 10¹²⁰ bits (of information) is a fantasy,
because the entire universe could not carry it out in the time available.

         For example, the basic building blocks of life are small
protein molecules of around 100 amino acids,
of which there are 20 different kinds.
This gives a total number of 10¹³⁰ combinations,
and when their shapes (which determine their functions) are taken into account
the number jumps to 10²⁰⁰ combinations -
both figures being well in excess of the Lloyd limit of 10¹²⁰.

This implies that not all properties of life are calculable (predictable).

       The same is true for DNA (genetic material) strings of
more than 200 base pairs - the minimum number for genes.

Similarly, considering the connection between "our reality"
and the amalgam of different "realities" (so-called superpositions)
in the quantum (sub-atomic) world,
the number of components in a mere 400-particle super-entangled state
exceeds the 10¹²⁰ limit of predictability.

            Therefore, since all states in our physical world are continually changing in some way,
these examples from biology and quantum mechanics imply that :

Life is written into the laws of Nature
(an idea first claimed by the biochemist Christian DeDuve in 1917),

The laws of classical (reductionist) physics are not immutable,
and are affected by the (observer) of the world "reality" !!

Indeed, the theoretical physicist John Wheeler (born 1911) proposed in 2006
that the laws of physics actually evolve
in a way analogous to Nature's Natural Selection (Darwin's theory).

This is the principle of Strong Emergence,
which states that there exists hitherto overlooked "organizing principles"
(akin to the Taoist's Tao?)
that arise as system complexities increase.


Such principles might be the bridge between the seeming disparity between
our perceived "reality" and that of the quantum world of which it is composed.
 

Akin to Strong Emergence is the question of Pre-cognition,
which has been scientifically investigated for more than the last two decades.

Modern physics accepts that when you look closely at even the most solid-looking material, separateness dissolves.
Reality is woven from strange, "holistic" threads that aren't located precisely in space or time
This was predicted by quantum theory and called "spooky action at a distance" by Albert Einstein.
One of the founders of quantum theory, Erwin Schrödinger, dubbed this peculiarity "entanglement",
calling it THE characteristic trait of quantum mechanics.

Until recently, it was accepted that elementary particles could become curiously entangled,
but those states were assumed to be fleeting and have no practical consequences for our macroscopic world.
We are now finding that there are ways in which the effects of entanglements "scale up"
into our macroscopic world.
Entangled connections between atomic-sized objects can persist over many miles.
(A so-called "paranormal" or "psi" phenomenon).
Some suggest that living systems might depend in a fundamental way on quantum effects like entanglement.
Others suggest that conscious awareness is caused or related to entangled particles in the brain.
Some even propose that the entire universe is a single, self-entangled object.

There is now substantial experimental evidence that some psi experiences are genuine..


...Recently, May (2003-) has clearly shown that "under strictly controlled conditions,
mental intention is predictably correlated with the behavior of a machine".
True random number generation by a computer can be influenced by human thought
to become statistically non-random  !

And Radin (2007) has shown that "blessing" chocolate can make it taste better. (here use browser back-button to return)

He also found (1997) that even when visual stimuli were adequately randomized,
anticipatory responses (as measured by changes in skin conductance) before exposure to emotional pictures
were significantly larger than before exposure to calm pictures.
There is typically an increase in arousal two to three seconds before the presentation of an emotional picture.
These results have been replicated by many others,
and imply that pre-cognition is occurring.

A meta-analysis of available literature shows that the effect observed in these experiments is
(a) not due to chance,
(b) was successfully replicated by many different experimenters,
(c) is not correlated with potential methodological flaws or artifacts, and
(d) is not accounted for, even if more than 50,000 studies averaging a null effect had been overlooked.


              More recently (Todd et al. 2005), it has been shown using NMR brain scans that
"thought communication" is associated with activation of specific brain areas in the recipient.

Such experimental results lead to the "disturbing" question as to whether human free will exists.
 It seems that we misunderstand the nature of causality, since
we can know the outcome though it is ostensibly not yet determined.
At the core level, these experiments probe the nature of time,
since the fundamental equations of physics are time symmetric.

The physicist Russell Targ (b.1934) - who has published over 100 papers on plasma, psi, and laser research -
believes that what seem to be separate and distinct loci of consciousness (human individuals)
are all part of the same fabric of consciousness. They are undivided.
The apparent transmission of information from mind to mind is illusory
because our minds are not separate.
This reflects the Zen and Taoist philosophies of existence.
                                                                                                                                                                                     TOP
 

Enlightenment and Endarkenment must concede each other.
This is the tao of Zen.


bob harbinson

©2009 bob harbinson and Silver Pipe Productions S.A.
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