THE REALITY

We all had the experience of suddenly coming out from a dream and get perplexed whether what we
experienced as dream was the reality or the present.

Then what is reality.

The standard model of physics breaks down the world into following building blocks.

Bosons: Carriers of force

Photon: Carriers of Electromagnetic force

Gluon: Carriers of Strong Force

Graviton: Carriers of Gravitational Force

Bosons: Carriers of Weak Force

Higgs Boson: Carriers of Higgs field, responsible for mass

Fermions: Building blocks of Matter

Quarks: The 6 Quarks: Up-Down, Charm-Strange, Top-Bottom

Leptons: The charged Leptons: Electron, Muon and Tau

Neutrinos: Electron Neutrino, Muon Neutrino and Tau neutrino

But then these building blocks constitute only 4% of all the visible mass in the universe. Of this 3.97% is
Hydrogen and Helium. The balance 0.03% accounts for the mass of all known matter in the universe.

73% of total energy of universe is Dark Energy and 23% is Dark Matter which are not yet detected but
postulated based on the observed behavior of the universe.

The entire universe is in perpetual motion. There is nothing called state of rest in universe. State of rest is
only relative, not absolute.

Atoms are always in motion, electrons are in motion and entire matter is in motion. Even when we
presume an object on earth as resting it is only relative. Earth is rotating around its axis at 1,674.4 km/hr
and it is revolving round the sun at 108,000 km/hr. The solar system with the sun at its centre is moving
round the Milky Way 828,000 km/hr. The Milky Way is moving away from its nearest galaxy at 2,100,000
km/hr.

The age of our universe is presumed to be 13.7 billion years (13,700,000,000 years) formed by a big bang
from an infinitesimal point. The echo of the bang is still out there, as 3 Degree Kelvin background
radiation permeating the universe. Prior to that there was no matter, space, and time. The universe is
still expanding. It is estimated that there are 100 billion galaxies and 100 billion stars in the universe. The
visible universe is 10 billion light years, i.e., light which travels at a speed of 300,000 km/sec takes
10,000,000,000 years to travel across universe. Compared to this our Milky Way galaxy is 100,000 light
years and our solar system is located at a distance of 30,000 light years from the centre of Milky Way.

That much for the macro universe.

Now the micro world.

The micro world starts with atoms then to electrons, protons and its constituent quarks. Quarks are the
current known basic constituent of matter.

An atom is constituted by a nucleus with positively charged protons and neutrally charged Neutrons.
Around the nucleus negatively charged electrons are moving around in specified orbits. If you imagine a
nucleus scaled up to the size of a tennis ball, then the tiny electron is smaller than a mole of dust
orbiting at a distance of a kilometer. Or else if you imagine the nucleus of an atom to be size of a fly, the
whole atom will be about the size of a cathedral- and apart from the vague presence of the electron on
the outside, all rest is empty space. The size of hydrogen nucleus with one proton is
1.75/1000000000000000 Meter.

Electrons are negatively charged and the nucleus is positively charged. The electron should feel the
strong urge to plunge in to the nucleus. But keeping them at arm’s length is a constant flow of virtual
photons (packets of energy, including that of light) travelling between the electrons and the nucleus. In a
sense every atom inside you and everything around you is aglow with light that never escapes, acting as
the binding glue of matter.

Then what is light? Light is not a particle, and it is not a wave and it is not a disturbance in a field. It is
light. It operates at a quantum level that we can never directly observe or describe. Light bouncing of a
mirror is not like a tennis ball hitting a wall or like a wave hitting a blockage. Those are large scale items
that we can use to give a mental picture that represents what is going on, but they are not what light is
really like. And light is not the outcome of a disturbance in a field that is just a mathematical approach
that happens to produce reliable results. All three are representations- models, as scientists call them-
that enable them to make predictions. Sometimes the wave model is easier to use, sometimes the
particle model. From a mathematical view point the field approach is most universal, but is often difficult
to visualize. Each view is sometimes useful. None is a true picture of reality.

Weight of an atom is concentrated in the nucleus. But when the weight of quarks constituting protons
and neutrons are added up it makes only about 1% of the weight of nucleus, or atom itself. Where is the
balance 99%? It is postulated that the energy of gluons, the carriers of strong force, which holds the
positively charged protons and neutrons, account for the balance. It pops out from the vacuum, virtual
energy. Every cubic centimeter of empty space contains more energy than the total energy of all matter
in the known universe.

So then what is Matter?

What are the sub atomic particles that make up the matter, the electrons, the protons and all? Electrons,
and for that matter all subatomic particles do behave like a particle when experimenters probe its
interactions and behave like a wave when they study the propagation.

Although an electron can sometimes behave as if it were a compact little particle, physicist have found
that it literally posses no dimension. Another discovery physicist have made is that an electron can
manifest as either a particle or wave, exhibiting entirely contradicting properties. A particle has a specific
location in space. A field exists at any point in space. It is defined by its magnitude which is some
particular number at every point, and may be some other qualities like direction. Quantum mechanics
brought the two concepts of particle and field together: Everything is made of fields, but when we look
at them closely we see particles. There is compelling evidence that the only time subatomic particles
ever manifest as particles is when we are looking at them. When an electron is not looked at, it is always
a wave. Bohr pointed out that if subatomic particles only come into existence in the presence of an
observer, then it is also meaningless to speak if a particle s properties and characteristics exist before
they are observed.

Everything is made of fields, but when we look at them closely we see particle. According to quantum
field theory, when we observe a field carefully, enough, we see it resolve in to individual particles
although the field is real. Think of a TV set which seems to display a smooth picture from distance, but
on close up we find that it is actually collection of tiny pixels. On quantum TV set there really is a smooth
picture, but when we look closely at it we can only observe it as pixels. Matter is really waves (quantum
fields), but when we look at it carefully enough we see particle.

The weirdest characteristic of quantum physics is that these smaller subatomic particles are not made of
matter-they are not physical at all. Quantum physicist has learned that there is no physical substance
inside atoms; the sub units that comprise atoms are made out of extremely powerful invisible energy
vortices. Matter, as it turns out, is a strange form of energy; it is not physical. Atoms are made out of
vortices of energy. That means molecules, which are made up of atoms, are vortices of energy as well; so
cells, which are made up of molecules, are also vortices of energy; and finally human beings, each of
whom is made up of trillions of cells, are vortices of energy. It is true that we look as if we are physical,
but it is an illusion, a trick of light- we are all energy.

That is for Matter.

So then what is that World out there?

How do we perceive the world out there? Stimulus activating our sensory organ of smell, touch, sight,
sound and taste are converted to electrical signals and transmitted to brain.

Visual information entering our brains is edited and modified by our temporal lobes before it is passed
on to our visual cortices. Some studies suggest that less than 50 percent of what we “see” is actually
based on information entering our eyes. The remaining 50 percent plus is pieced together out of our
expectations of what the world should look like. The eyes may be visual organs, but it is the brain that
sees.

Our feelings of love, hunger, anger so on are internal realities. The sounds of birds, heat of sun so on are
all external realities. But it is not clear how our brains enable us to distinguish between the two. When
we look at a person, the image of the person is really on the surface of our retina. Yet we do not perceive
the person as being on our retina. We perceive them as being in the “world out there”. Similarly when
we stub our toe we experience pain in our toe. But the pain is not really in our toe. It is actually a
neurophysiological process taking place somewhere in our brain. How is then our brain able to take the
multitude of neurophysiological process that manifest our experience, all of which are internal and fool
us in to thinking that some are internal and some are located beyond the confines of our grey matter?

Fourier developed a mathematical way of converting any pattern, no matter how complex, into a
language of simple waves. He also showed how the wave forms could be converted back into the original
pattern. The equations he developed to convert images in to wave forms and back again are known as
Fourier Transforms. Fourier Transforms enables to convert a picture of an object in to the blur of
interference patterns. They also enable to convert these interference patterns into an image of the
original object.

Brain converts sensory inputs in to a language of frequencies. Various research uncovered evidence that
the visual system worked as frequency analyzer. Research in 1960’s had shown that each brain cell in the
visual cortex is geared to respond to a different pattern, some brain cells fire when the eyes see a
horizontal line, others fire when the eyes see a vertical line and so on. As a result, many a researchers
concluded that the brain takes input from theses highly specialized cells called feature detectors, and
somehow fits them together to provide us with our visual perception of the world.

Researchers found that brain cells respond not to the original pattern, but to Fourier translations of the
pattern. The brain was using Fourier mathematics to convert visual images into the Fourier language of
wave forms. The visual cortex was responding not to patterns but to the frequency of various wave
forms.

Which is true reality, the seemingly objective world experienced by the observer or the blur of
interference patterns recorded by the brain?

Space is filled with light and other electromagnetic waves that criss cross and interfere with one another.
All particles are also waves. This means that physical object and everything we perceive in reality are
composed of interference patterns. What was out there was really a vast resonating symphony of wave
forms, a “frequency domain” that was transformed in to the world as we know it only after it entered
our senses.

That is we have two realities, one where our bodies appear to be concrete and posses a precise location
in space and time: and one in which our very being appears to exist primarily as a shimmering cloud of
energy whose ultimate location in space is somewhat ambiguous. This realization brings with it some
profound questions. We have been taught that our mind is a product of our brain, but if the brain and
the physical body are just energy fields, then what is mind?

So what is reality? Our senses are receiving a barrage of waves from all around us. They may be
interfering and so on. How is the brain creating this world from this? Is this picture of reality, real or
simply an effect of interference pattern created by this maze of waves?

Then, No Matter, Never Mind!!

Sreekumar.R

14.07.2015