Read Online The Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot - Free Book Online
Authors: Michael Talbot
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a particle appears to
be destroyed, it is not lost. It has merely enfolded back into the deeper order
from which it sprang. A piece of holographic film and the image it generates
are also an example of an implicate and explicate order. The film is an
implicate order because the image encoded in its interference patterns is a
hidden totality enfolded throughout the whole. The hologram projected from the
film is an explicate order because it represents the unfolded and perceptible
version of the image.
The constant and flowing
exchange between the two orders explains how particles, such as the electron in
the positronium atom, can shape-shift from one kind of particle to another.
Such shiftings can be viewed as one particle, say an electron, enfolding back
into the implicate order while another, a photon, unfolds and takes its place.
It also explains how a quantum can manifest as either a particle or a wave.
According to Bohm, both aspects are always enfolded in a quantum's ensemble,
but the way an observer interacts with the ensemble determines which aspect
unfolds and which remains hidden. As such, the role an observer plays in
determining the form a quantum takes may be no more mysterious than the fact
that the way a jeweler manipulates a gem determines which of its facets become
visible and which do not. Because the term hologram usually refers to an
image that is static and does not convey the dynamic and ever active nature of
the incalculable enfoldings and unfoldings that moment by moment create our
universe, Bohm prefers to describe the universe not as a hologram, but as a
“holomovement.”
The existence of a
deeper and holographically organized order also explains why reality becomes
nonlocal at the subquantum level. As we have seen, when something is organized
holographically, all semblance of location breaks down. Saying that every part
of a piece of holographic film contains all the information possessed by the
whole is really just another way of saying that the information is distributed
nonlocally. Hence, if the universe is organized according to holographic
principles, it, too, would be expected to have nonlocal properties.
The Undivided
Wholeness of All Things
Most mind-boggling of
all are Bohm's fully developed ideas about wholeness. Because everything in the
cosmos is made out of the seamless holographic fabric of the implicate order,
he believes it is as meaningless to view the universe as composed of “parts,”
as it is to view the different geysers in a fountain as separate from the water
out of which they flow. An electron is not an “elementary particle.” It is just
a name given to a certain aspect of the holomovement. Dividing reality up into
parts and then naming those parts is always arbitrary, a product of convention,
because subatomic particles, and everything else in the universe, are no more
separate from one another than different patterns in an ornate carpet.
This is a profound suggestion.
In his general theory of relativity Einstein astounded the world when he said
that space and time are not separate entities, but are smoothly linked and part
of a larger whole he called the space-time continuum. Bohm takes this idea a
giant step further. He says that everything in the universe is part of a
continuum. Despite the apparent separateness of things at the explicate level,
everything is a seamless extension of everything else, and ultimately even the
implicate and explicate orders blend into each other.
Take a moment to
consider this. Look at your hand. Now look at the light streaming from the lamp
beside you. And at the dog resting at your feet You are not merely made of the
same things. You are the same thing. One thing. Unbroken. One enormous
something that has extended its uncountable arms and appendages into all the
apparent objects, atoms, restless oceans, and twinkling stars in the cosmos.
Bohm cautions that this
does not mean the universe is a giant undifferentiated mass. Things
be destroyed, it is not lost. It has merely enfolded back into the deeper order
from which it sprang. A piece of holographic film and the image it generates
are also an example of an implicate and explicate order. The film is an
implicate order because the image encoded in its interference patterns is a
hidden totality enfolded throughout the whole. The hologram projected from the
film is an explicate order because it represents the unfolded and perceptible
version of the image.
The constant and flowing
exchange between the two orders explains how particles, such as the electron in
the positronium atom, can shape-shift from one kind of particle to another.
Such shiftings can be viewed as one particle, say an electron, enfolding back
into the implicate order while another, a photon, unfolds and takes its place.
It also explains how a quantum can manifest as either a particle or a wave.
According to Bohm, both aspects are always enfolded in a quantum's ensemble,
but the way an observer interacts with the ensemble determines which aspect
unfolds and which remains hidden. As such, the role an observer plays in
determining the form a quantum takes may be no more mysterious than the fact
that the way a jeweler manipulates a gem determines which of its facets become
visible and which do not. Because the term hologram usually refers to an
image that is static and does not convey the dynamic and ever active nature of
the incalculable enfoldings and unfoldings that moment by moment create our
universe, Bohm prefers to describe the universe not as a hologram, but as a
“holomovement.”
The existence of a
deeper and holographically organized order also explains why reality becomes
nonlocal at the subquantum level. As we have seen, when something is organized
holographically, all semblance of location breaks down. Saying that every part
of a piece of holographic film contains all the information possessed by the
whole is really just another way of saying that the information is distributed
nonlocally. Hence, if the universe is organized according to holographic
principles, it, too, would be expected to have nonlocal properties.
The Undivided
Wholeness of All Things
Most mind-boggling of
all are Bohm's fully developed ideas about wholeness. Because everything in the
cosmos is made out of the seamless holographic fabric of the implicate order,
he believes it is as meaningless to view the universe as composed of “parts,”
as it is to view the different geysers in a fountain as separate from the water
out of which they flow. An electron is not an “elementary particle.” It is just
a name given to a certain aspect of the holomovement. Dividing reality up into
parts and then naming those parts is always arbitrary, a product of convention,
because subatomic particles, and everything else in the universe, are no more
separate from one another than different patterns in an ornate carpet.
This is a profound suggestion.
In his general theory of relativity Einstein astounded the world when he said
that space and time are not separate entities, but are smoothly linked and part
of a larger whole he called the space-time continuum. Bohm takes this idea a
giant step further. He says that everything in the universe is part of a
continuum. Despite the apparent separateness of things at the explicate level,
everything is a seamless extension of everything else, and ultimately even the
implicate and explicate orders blend into each other.
Take a moment to
consider this. Look at your hand. Now look at the light streaming from the lamp
beside you. And at the dog resting at your feet You are not merely made of the
same things. You are the same thing. One thing. Unbroken. One enormous
something that has extended its uncountable arms and appendages into all the
apparent objects, atoms, restless oceans, and twinkling stars in the cosmos.
Bohm cautions that this
does not mean the universe is a giant undifferentiated mass. Things
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