Excerpts from
Little Book
of
Big Ideas:
Where
Science
Meets
Spirit",
by
Dr. Fred Alan Wolf,
Moment Point Press,
2005,
pages 87 - 91.
Your knowledge
of a situation
changes the situation
instantly.
By becoming
aware,
you alter
the
outcome
of
the situation.
+++
Let me tell you
about a motion picture
that illustrates
the many facets
of Niels Bohr's
principle
of correspondence,
or
as we could think of it,
the
"principle of illusion."
King of Hearts
tells the story of a soldier
who finds himself
in a small French village
during World War II.
Not speaking French well
and fearful of appearing
conspicuous
in Nazi-occupied France,
our English soldier
seeks refuge
in
a French insane asylum.
Upon hearing of
the encroaching
German military machine,
the "normal" townspeople
desert the town,
leaving it
in the hands
of
the "crazies",
who manage to find
the gate of the asylum
open.
The inmates
soon
occupy the town
and
take it over.
In come
the Germans,
who are
of course
oblivious
to all this.
When they arrive
on the scene
it looks
perfectly normal
to them;
after all,
the French
are certainly not
as "normal"
as the Germans
who occupy them!
At this point
we realize that
the "crazies"
are still "crazy",
but
because they are now
"townsfolk",
they appear
to all intents and purposes
quite normal
to the occupation forces.
Even later,
when the Germans
are driven out of town
by the
incoming Allied forces,
the "crazies"
appear "normal".
It is only when
the real townspeople
return
to their village
that the secret is out
and the inmates
are returned
to the asylum.
As I watched this film
I thought that
in many ways
we,
the people of earth,
are the inmates.
We're crazy
and sane
at the same time.
We're allowed
to play roles
in life's great village,
and
as long as we continue
our masquerades
we remain
"in character".
It's this
continuance,
our wish
for continuity,
that glues us
to our destinies.
Underneath it all
we are all
quite nuts.
No one alive
can really take life
seriously
with its myriad
of kaleidoscopic
paradoxes;
but we do.
Like us,
the physical world
is also
a little nuts.
To bend
the double entendre
over,
each "nut"
is a quantum.
Bohr called
his discovery
"the
correspondence principle"
because
he realized that
our normal,
or classical,
world view
is continuous.
Yet his discovery
of the quantum
within the atom
showed that atoms
were fundamentally
discontinuous
in any transaction
involving observers.
How could
the "atomic inmates"
be so erratic
while
the "village of atoms"
that make up
the macroscopic universe
appears so normal
and orderly?
Bohr's discovery
showed how
the "quantum insane asylum"
corresponded
with the
"normal atomic village",
i.e., the orderly classical world
of continuous motion.
+++
Life is a series
of punctuated
conscious moments.
Much like the frames
of a motion picture
on a reel
passing through a projector
create an image
and
then vanish,
our awareness of life
also passes
from instant to instant.
Every action we take
involves this kind
of on-off
movement.
Each time
we raise an eyebrow
in incredulity,
or flare our nostrils
in a sneer,
a large number
of mental events
occur.
As we listen
to
an untrustworthy politician's
speech,
not all of our neurons,
muscle fibers,
skin patches,
and nerve endings
want to go along
to produce
our incredulous sneer.
Some of these
bodily components,
undoubtedly,
want to laugh
or
even inhibit the actions
of the other components
composing the sneer.
But the homeostatic majority
usually wins
because it
not only outweighs the minority,
it also
can enforce its behavior
in more and different ways
than can
our heterostatic
behavior modification.
In a society
of sneerers,
your sneer
is expected.
You have
learned well
how to sneer.
You have
watched
your peers
sneer.
You have learned
just how
to hold your head,
to flare your nostrils,
and
to condescend.
The society of sneerers
could conceivably
encompass
a whole country!
In such a country
perhaps sneering
becomes
an accepted,
expected norm,
and if we
lived in that country
perhaps
our normal expression
would be
"sneerful".
Thus our faces
become the face
of a nation.
Not only that,
but our way of speaking
may be shaped
by our faces,
our expressions
literally shaping
the very way
we utter a word.
What would have
to occur
to create a shift
from a sneer
to a grin?
Awareness
and
Intent.
Little Book
of
Big Ideas:
Where
Science
Meets
Spirit",
by
Dr. Fred Alan Wolf,
Moment Point Press,
2005,
pages 87 - 91.
Your knowledge
of a situation
changes the situation
instantly.
By becoming
aware,
you alter
the
outcome
of
the situation.
+++
Let me tell you
about a motion picture
that illustrates
the many facets
of Niels Bohr's
principle
of correspondence,
or
as we could think of it,
the
"principle of illusion."
King of Hearts
tells the story of a soldier
who finds himself
in a small French village
during World War II.
Not speaking French well
and fearful of appearing
conspicuous
in Nazi-occupied France,
our English soldier
seeks refuge
in
a French insane asylum.
Upon hearing of
the encroaching
German military machine,
the "normal" townspeople
desert the town,
leaving it
in the hands
of
the "crazies",
who manage to find
the gate of the asylum
open.
The inmates
soon
occupy the town
and
take it over.
In come
the Germans,
who are
of course
oblivious
to all this.
When they arrive
on the scene
it looks
perfectly normal
to them;
after all,
the French
are certainly not
as "normal"
as the Germans
who occupy them!
At this point
we realize that
the "crazies"
are still "crazy",
but
because they are now
"townsfolk",
they appear
to all intents and purposes
quite normal
to the occupation forces.
Even later,
when the Germans
are driven out of town
by the
incoming Allied forces,
the "crazies"
appear "normal".
It is only when
the real townspeople
return
to their village
that the secret is out
and the inmates
are returned
to the asylum.
As I watched this film
I thought that
in many ways
we,
the people of earth,
are the inmates.
We're crazy
and sane
at the same time.
We're allowed
to play roles
in life's great village,
and
as long as we continue
our masquerades
we remain
"in character".
It's this
continuance,
our wish
for continuity,
that glues us
to our destinies.
Underneath it all
we are all
quite nuts.
No one alive
can really take life
seriously
with its myriad
of kaleidoscopic
paradoxes;
but we do.
Like us,
the physical world
is also
a little nuts.
To bend
the double entendre
over,
each "nut"
is a quantum.
Bohr called
his discovery
"the
correspondence principle"
because
he realized that
our normal,
or classical,
world view
is continuous.
Yet his discovery
of the quantum
within the atom
showed that atoms
were fundamentally
discontinuous
in any transaction
involving observers.
How could
the "atomic inmates"
be so erratic
while
the "village of atoms"
that make up
the macroscopic universe
appears so normal
and orderly?
Bohr's discovery
showed how
the "quantum insane asylum"
corresponded
with the
"normal atomic village",
i.e., the orderly classical world
of continuous motion.
+++
Life is a series
of punctuated
conscious moments.
Much like the frames
of a motion picture
on a reel
passing through a projector
create an image
and
then vanish,
our awareness of life
also passes
from instant to instant.
Every action we take
involves this kind
of on-off
movement.
Each time
we raise an eyebrow
in incredulity,
or flare our nostrils
in a sneer,
a large number
of mental events
occur.
As we listen
to
an untrustworthy politician's
speech,
not all of our neurons,
muscle fibers,
skin patches,
and nerve endings
want to go along
to produce
our incredulous sneer.
Some of these
bodily components,
undoubtedly,
want to laugh
or
even inhibit the actions
of the other components
composing the sneer.
But the homeostatic majority
usually wins
because it
not only outweighs the minority,
it also
can enforce its behavior
in more and different ways
than can
our heterostatic
behavior modification.
In a society
of sneerers,
your sneer
is expected.
You have
learned well
how to sneer.
You have
watched
your peers
sneer.
You have learned
just how
to hold your head,
to flare your nostrils,
and
to condescend.
The society of sneerers
could conceivably
encompass
a whole country!
In such a country
perhaps sneering
becomes
an accepted,
expected norm,
and if we
lived in that country
perhaps
our normal expression
would be
"sneerful".
Thus our faces
become the face
of a nation.
Not only that,
but our way of speaking
may be shaped
by our faces,
our expressions
literally shaping
the very way
we utter a word.
What would have
to occur
to create a shift
from a sneer
to a grin?
Awareness
and
Intent.
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