About Life Book I: Understanding Existence

About Life Book I:

Understanding Existence

Newton Fortuin

Copyright © Newton Fortuin 2006

Published at Smashwords

Blog: http://newtonfortuin.blogspot.com/

Last updated: 28 December 2014

A Heavenly Gift

The endless night sky,

A window with a glimpse to a wonder beyond mortal sense or reason,

The Universe –

An expanse so vast,

It transcends the bounds of the most vivid imagination.

For me,

A traveller in this space,

It seems all imposing.

Physically,

A mere quintessence of dust against infinity.

Yet,

Is this infinite vastness as omnipotent as the night vision suggests,

Or merely mortars afloat in a sea of darkened emptiness?

Is this world some coincidence?

Some nebulous manifestation having evolved into an ordered system.

Or is it a masterpiece,

An assemblage of mass and energy in passionate harmony,

Created with care by the hands of a loving master?

If so,

Then who is this genius and how has She acquired this divine craft

applied to such precision?

Perhaps these answers would defy our very existence

And

Best kept under eternal darkness.

Be it as it may,

One thought is like a dawn ray of sun over an infinite horizon.

All heaven’s motions can have but one purpose,

That of conceiving life,

Organic intelligent life,

Life as we know it on earth.

For without it,

This world is doomed to an endlessly passive existence,

The debris of some meaningless cosmic explosion.

Though,

With life

The entire Universe gains life.

It gains colour, form and meaning.

Most certainly,

Only the living can herald its wonders abound

By traversing it with their infinite imagination.

So next,

When you gaze at that infinite sky,

Stand tall, reach out,

And accept your very own gift of life with grace and dignity.

But remember,

Only you can make it truly yours

by giving it purpose and meaning.

Newton Fortuin, 1993

Contents

INTRODUCTION

About the Framework for Existence

Developing a Model for Existence

The Good News

Some Clarification

A Word of Caution

UNCOVERING THE MYSTERY

Against the Odds

Thought Provoking Experiments

The Heart of the Matter

What Monkeys Know

THE SILLY THEORY

Mental Preparation

Light as a Wave

The Luminiferous Ether

Light as a Particle

The Spooky Experiment

Making a Rational Breakthrough

FRAMING REALITY

Crossing the Chasm

Ordinary Relativity

Time and the Special Theory of Relativity

The Twins Paradox

The Exclusion Principle

The Imaginary Zone

Modelling Existence

BEYOND SPACE AND TIME

Gravity and the General Theory of Relativity

The Event Horizon

Matter and Energy

Identifying the Threads

Finding the Imaginary Realm

Untying the Knot

UNFOLDING EXISTENCE

A sneak Peek at God’s Cards

How to Build a Universe

The Final Draft

The Magic Trick of Life

God’s Original Plan

SPLITTING HAIRS

Chemical Manifestation

The Origins of Instinct

Genes hold the Key

Opposite Identical Twins

The Unmanifest Identity

The Answer in an Egg Shell

BEYOND MERE CHANCE

The Future is Nigh

The Dilemma of Knowing what will happen Next

Ordered Chaos

The Butterfly Effect

The Dance of Life

The Virtual Reality Program of Life

The Infinite Loop

CONCLUSION

FINAL NOTE

Introduction

"Nothing seems of more importance, towards erecting a firm system of sound and real knowledge, which may be proof against the assaults of scepticism, than to lay the beginning in a distinct explication of what is meant by thing, reality, existence: for in vain shall we dispute concerning the real existence of things, or pretend to any knowledge thereof, so long as we have not fixed the meaning of those words." – George Berkeley

About the Framework for Existence

I know that, in attempting a manuscript of this nature, I have set myself a near impossible task. Yet in my view, wanting to know the philosophical and scientific basis of how it is possible that we exist at all, and why, is the most important endeavour one can ever embark upon in one’s lifetime.

To serve as an introduction to this work that we may put this quest into some perspective, I have quoted below from the conclusion of Stephen Hawking’s famous work, A Brief History in Time, first published in 1988.

…

Einstein once asked the question: ‘How much choice did God have in constructing the universe?’

Even if there is only one possible unified theory, it is just a set of rules and equations. What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?

The usual approach of science of constructing a mathematical model cannot answer the questions of why there should be a universe for the model to describe.

Why does the universe go to all that trouble of existing? Is the unified theory so compelling that it brings about its own existence? Or does it need a creator, and, if so, does he have any other effect on the universe? And who created him?

Up to now, most scientists have been too occupied with the development of new theories that describe what the universe is to ask the question why. On the other hand, the people whose business it is to ask why, the philosophers, have not been able to keep up with the advance of scientific theories.

In the eighteenth century, philosophers considered the whole of human knowledge, including science, to be their field and discussed questions such as: did the universe have a beginning?

However in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, science became too technical and mathematical for the philosophers, and everyone else except a few specialists.

Philosophers reduced the scope of their enquiries so much that Wittgenstein, the most famous philosopher of the 20th century, said ‘The sole remaining task for philosophy is the analysis of language.’

What a comedown from the great tradition of philosophy from Aristotle to Kant!

However, if we do discover a complete theory, it should in time be understandable in broad principle by everyone, not just a few scientists. Then we shall all, philosophers, scientists, and just ordinary people, be able to take part in the discussion of the question of why it is that we and the universe exist.

If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we would know the mind of God." i

Developing a Model for Existence

The model that will be described in this work is logically formulated similar to that of a computer network model. For ease of understanding a computer network is logically divided into seven conceptual layers though they are in fact inseparable.

This allows for a standard way of viewing the workings of the network and is universally known as the OSI (Open Systems Interconnection – depicted in Figure 1) model.

Figure 1 – The OSI Network Model

The OSI Model divides network communication in progressive levels from its basic physical transmission devices to how the end user eventually interacts with it through the user interface (usually a printer, mouse and keyboard).

For the purposes of developing a similar model to understand existence one can logically reduce the entire seven layered model into a three-layered model as depicted in Figure 2.

Figure 2 – OSI Model as Three-Layered Sandwich

Here the actual data exchange takes place in the middle three layers while the user only experiences the outer application layer by interacting with the software applications specifically designed to facilitate his user specific tasks. Therefore when two users communicate with each other as on the Internet, they are oblivious of the complicated technical interactions which are involved in all the other layers.

And it is my suspicion that this is exactly how it is in our reality framework as well. Though:

Unlike formulating a model of something we are the creator of, framing existence is like the cyber-fellow in a computer game wondering why he is being kicked whenever the kickboxing software is turned on. And since no other option is apparent, feels compelled to kick back whenever it can.

At this point it is important to stop and think a little about what was described in the block above. In fact the fellow in the kickboxing game experiences a cause-and-effect reality as he relates to his particular cyber-world.

This is just as we do when viewing reality from an existential perspective. What must be grasped is that we are literally forced to experience our own reality through our five senses in exactly such a manner. Largely oblivious to the deeper levels of reality that defines who we are and what we are experiencing.

The Good News

The good news is that we are getting closer to understanding these deeper layers since science has now moved to the next frontier, from only exploring the rational ordered universe, to the transition zone of the Quantum Element.

Recent scientific experiments in quantum physics have shed enormous light on how this world might function and have confirmed beliefs by early quantum physicists that light is not the fastest moving particle. That information at the quantum level passes instantaneously, and thus is infinitely faster. And that virtual chaos exists at the level of the atom. The latter indicating that existence is not sure what it must be in this region. That is whether it must be a particle or whether it must be a wave.

That light is the fastest moving entity was considered immutable by Einstein. That chaos exists in the quantum domain and that photons can communicate telepathically, he countered with the following quote.

It seems hard to sneak a look at God’s cards. But that He plays dice and uses ‘telepathic’ methods – is something that I cannot believe for a single moment.

That quantum particles can communicate telepathically was however verified by an experiment in 1997 in Geneva Switzerland. Irrespective of this quote, hardly anyone else has done more to advance the understanding of the world around us. And his revolutionary insights into the nature of time and space also will form the basis of this work. ii

Some Clarification

On the Framework

The first all-important clarification to bear in mind about this work is that it presents a logical or conceptual – not technical – interpretation of the world as we ordinarily relate to it. It should therefore not be equated to how physicists may describe its intricate external nature. This being significantly more involved than this work attempts to do.

Let me emphasise this that it be born in mind as the work continues.

This is not a technical explanation. Rather, it looks at the philosophic implications of a diverse set of scientific findings to interpret a meaningful approach to aid relating to these often incomprehensible findings. This often requires we resist thinking in terms of the model described in technical terms.

In