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Everything is One ….
I am the part of a whole
but everything is in the part…
(Holographic theory) Newtonian
physics is certainly valid but it cannot complete the infinite
structure of the cosmic castle by itself. Sustainable
development inserts itself in the field of human sociology in
the same way that recent theoretical and philosophical
innovations do. It is enough to take a look at the following
to understand that everything is interconnected and
indissolubly linked. In 1982 a research team at
Paris University, directed by the physicist Alain Aspect,
conducted perhaps the most important experiment of the 20º
century. Aspect and his team discovered that when subatomic
particles such as electrons are subjected to particular
conditions, they are able to instantly communicate with each
other whatever the distance that separates them, whether a few
meters or millions of kilometres. This is as if each single
particle knows exactly what all the others are doing.
This phenomenon can only be explained in two ways: either
Einstein's theory - which excludes the possibility of being
able to communications faster than light - is to be considered
wrong, or subatomic particles are not locally connected.
Who is David Bohm? Most physicists deny the
possibility of phenomena which go beyond the speed of the
light, but Aspect's experiment revolutionizes the postulate,
proving that the bond between subatomic particles is actually
of a non-local type. David Bohm, the late famous physicist of
London University, thought that Aspect's discoveries implied
the non-existence of objective reality. That is to say,
despite its apparent solidity, the universe is in reality a
ghost, a gigantic and splendidly detailed hologram.
Holograms - everything in a part To understand Bohm's
amazing claim we must try to understand something about the
nature of holograms. A hologram is a three-dimensional photo
produced with the help of a laser: the object to be
photographed is first immersed in the light of a laser beam,
then a second laser beam is made to bounce on the reflected
light of the first and the pattern which results from the area
of interference where the two rays meet is impressed onto
photographic film. When the film is developed, only a tangle
of clear and dark lines is visible but when this is
illuminated by another laser beam, the original subject
appears. Three-dimensionality is not the only interesting
characteristic of holograms: if the hologram of a rose is cut
in half and then illuminated by a laser, each half still
contains the whole image of the rose. Even if we keep on
dividing the two halves, we will see that every minuscule
fragment of film will always contain a smaller but intact
version of the same image. Unlike normal photographs, every
part of a hologram contains all the information possessed by
the entire hologram.
For Bohm, the reason for which subatomic particles stay in
contact whatever the distance that separates them resides in
the fact that their separation is an illusion. He was in fact
convinced that, on a deeper level of reality, such particles
are not individual entities but extensions of the same
fundamental "organism". Bohm simplified this with an example:
imagine an aquarium containing a fish. Imagine that the
aquarium is not visible directly, but only through two
television cameras, one positioned in front of the aquarium
and the other positioned from the side.
Looking at the two television monitors we can think that the
fish are two separate entities. In fact, the different
position of the television cameras will give us two slightly
different images. If we continuing to observe the two fish,
however, in the end we will realize that there is a certain
relationship between them: when one turns, so does the other;
when one looks in front of itself, the other looks sideways.
If we were not aware of the real nature of the experiment, we
could believe that the two fish were communicating with each
other in some instantaneous and mysterious way. According to
Bohm, the behaviour of subatomic particles indicates that
there exists a level of reality which we are not aware of, a
dimension that goes beyond ours. If the subatomic particles
seem separate to us, this is because we are able to see only a
portion of their reality. They are not separate "parts" but
facets of a deeper and more fundamental unit, which in the end
reveals itself to be as holographic and indivisible as our
rose. Since everything in the physical reality is constituted
by these "images", then, as a consequence, the universe itself
is a projection, a hologram.
The cosmic warehouse Apart from its illusory nature,
this universe seems to have other amazing characteristics: if
the separation between subatomic particles is only apparent,
this means that, on a deeper level, all things are infinitely
connected. The electrons of an atom of carbon in the human
brain are connected to the subatomic particles that constitute
every salmon that swims, every heart that beats and each star
that shines in the sky. Everything penetrates everything.
Although human nature tries to categorize, to classify and to
divide the various phenomena, every subdivision is necessarily
artificial and the whole of nature is nothing more than an
immense, continuous net.
In a holographic universe even time and space would no longer
be fundamental principles. Concepts such as place are
shattered in a universe where nothing is really separate from
the rest. Therefore time and three-dimensional space (just
like the images of the fish on the TV monitors) should be
interpreted as simple projections of a more complex system. At
its deepest level, reality is nothing more than a sort of
super-hologram where the past, the present and the future
simultaneously coexist. One day, when we have the appropriate
instruments, we may be able to penetrate that level of reality
and to witness scenes of our long forgotten past. What else
the super-hologram can contain remains an unanswered question.
Hypothetically speaking, if we accept that it exists, it
should contain every single subatomic particle that is, that
was and that will be, as well as every possible configuration
of matter and energy: from snow flakes to stars, from whales
to gamma rays. We should imagine it as a sort of cosmic
warehouse of Everything-that-Exists. Bohm was even inclined to
suppose that the super-holographic level of reality could
merely be a simple intermediary stage beyond which is
concealed an infinity of further developments.
Since the term hologram usually refers to a static image that
does not coincide with the dynamic and perpetually active
nature of our universe, Bohm preferred to describe the
universe with the term "holomovement". Claiming that every
single part of a holographic film contains all the information
present in the whole film simply means that information is
distributed in a non-local way. If it is true that the
universe is organized according to holographic principles, we
must also suppose that it also has some non-local properties
and therefore every existing particle contains in itself the
whole image. As a result of this conjecture, every life form
must derive from a single source of causality that includes
every atom in the universe. From subatomic particles to giant
galaxies, everything is at the same time an infinitesimal and
total part of "everything."
To be exact
The claim that every fragment of a hologram contains the
whole information is not exact: There is always a certain loss
of information. The smaller the fragment, the greater the
loss. This, however, does not invalidate the hypothesis of the
holographic universe in any way. On the contrary, it tightens
the mutual influences among things - from an inconceivable
previous infiniteness to more circumscribed circles - making
the whole theory even more believable.
Guido Bissanti |
