The edge of our beliefs

I wonder what is the line between a radical idea and an insane one. Until a certain point in our understanding, an idea is acceptable, beyond that it is slightly zany, and suddenly it becomes so crazy that it borders on being stupid. What defines these boundaries? It seems like we all have a different line which we toe with throughout our lives. For some of us it may be our comfort zone, but I think it is more complex than that.

So what makes us believe in radio frequency waves but not in a soul? Maybe because we can measure, record and manipulate the things we believe in. Or we are presented with a reasonable argument by someone whose intelligence has been measured and recorded to be sufficiently good. Our collective intelligence has gone beyond the point of trusting only our senses to comprehend a phenomenon. We now treat instruments and data, in addition to eyes and ears to send recognition signals to the brain. When I am first told that the universe is made of tiny stringy invisible matter, I dismiss it as hogwash. But when scientists show me measurements done in dimensions I can understand, I slowly open up to the idea even though I still cannot see it myself. So it is sort of dumbing down of the entire phenomenon in order to make myself understand it.

I love the concept of Flatland and use it every time I come across an idea too ridiculous. How would the 2 dimensional Flat people react to, say, an octopus? If they were as "highly evolved" as us, they would try to measure and manipulate it in their own silly way. One Flat scientist may measure the length (mind you, they cannot see both length and width) and another may have different results at another part of Flatland. They may conclude that the octopus is some kind of a mobile flat object with varying length at various points. It is an okay explanation for someone with only two dimensions to work with. But only when they realise that there is another dimension out there, they will be able to see the octopus for what it really looks like, well according to us 3D people anyway! But it isn't as easy as yelling at them to "look up, you idiot!", the idea that there are additional views to their world is beyond comprehension.


Thinkers extrapolate this concept to our world so that we open our minds to what is unknown. Because it seems like we are stuck through no fault of our own, in a limiting set of beliefs about the universe. Are there additional dimensions? Do parallel universes exist in our time-space reality? Is time travel really possible? Even these questions are framed out of our obsessive need to define everything in terms of what we know, which is an okay explanation for someone with three dimensions to work with? Maybe in our case looking 'up' is looking 'in', maybe that is where our answers lie... Who knows really? On the bright side, such concepts are generally understood in a flash, like gravity, a sudden realization. We just need to keep our head exposed so an apple can fall on it! Oh how I wait for that moment!

Why science needs a paradigm shift

As John Dewey said, “Every great advance in science has issued from a new audacity of imagination”. Maybe time has come for science to take another giant leap of imagination, this time brought about by the amazing findings of quantum mechanics.

All empirical scientific research when stripped to the bone looks the same: we conduct an experiment with certain measurable parameters, and observe the outcome. Depending upon the outcome we tweak the variables and again observe the results. Most science is conducted with one basic premise – the ‘observer’ and the ‘observed’ are independent of each other. Now, any quantum physicist will immediately laugh at this statement, because it has been proven that at the most basic level of matter this simply cannot be true. It is now very well known, although the reasons are not understood, that the two are linked, and it is impossible to separate the two.

Justifiably called the ‘big daddy of quantum physics’ is the double slit experiment, which gave the startling result that an electron exists as a wave and collapses into a particle only when it is observed. This led to a whole lot of studies being done on what is now termed, “the observer effect”. Scientists are now more curious about how the observer and the experiment interact on the quantum level and are trying to define their mysterious findings. Even Einstein dedicated the last years of his life trying to find a unifying theory that would explain the workings of the entire universe in a single equation.

The question we, the scientific community, should be posing ourselves is, when will we have enough evidence to extrapolate these findings into other areas of science? Biologists for example are still following the conventional style of research that experiments give results; and exact same experiments conducted by different people should give the exact same results. In fact an experiment is deemed credible only if its results are repeatable. Can anyone else see the problem with this approach?

After now knowing how the most basic form of matter functions, how can we still make observations with the assumption that we are separate from the outcome of our experiment? Can we be so naïve as to think that the findings of quantum physics only apply to subatomic particles, and the mere fact of observing is not affecting the result of the experiment? How long will it be before we take into account the relationship between the experiment and the observer, and then try to make sense of the universe?

Does an unbreakable connection between all matter mean that objectivity in scientific research goes out of the window? Not necessarily. Maybe we just need to imbibe the fascinating new principles into our scientific thought and design experiments that acknowledge the observer effect, instead of pretending that it does not exist. It may pose some confusion in the beginning, but so does any radical idea. It is said that the mind once expanded by a new thought never regains its original dimensions. After all isn’t that the whole point of every arcane research project – to expand the collective consciousness of human race by understanding the world we live in?