Essay #8 - The Basic Elements of Nature: Matter, Energy, and Information

Evidently nature can no longer be seen as matter and energy alone. Nor can all her secrets be unlocked with the keys of chemistry and physics, brilliantly successful as these two branches of science have been in our century.

A third component is needed for any explanation of the world that claims to be complete. To the powerful theories of chemistry and physics must be added a late arrival: a theory of information. Nature must be interpreted as matter, energy, and information.

Essay #7: The Holographic Universe

Books such as The Tao of Physics (1975) by Fritjof Capra and The Dancing Wu Li Masters (1979) by Gary Zukav pointed out startling parallels between modern discoveries in quantum physics and ancient beliefs of Taoism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Serious scientists were beginning to sound like mystics, and mystics were starting to talk about quantum mechanics and subatomic particles. The so-called ‘new physics’ seems poised to bridge the world of faith with the world of science through a common belief in a fundamentally interconnected universe.

One of the most interesting notions to emerge from this shiny happy alliance was a particular model of the universe that seemed to explain not only puzzling scientific phenomena but psychic experiences as well. The holographic paradigm was so named because its central metaphor is that of the hologram – or, to be more specific, a certain very unusual feature of holograms.

Essay #6: Energy, The Nomad, The Divine, and a Chaotic Universe

Albert Einstein (1879-1955) was the first scientist to discover the relationship between, rather than the equivalence of, mass and energy (E = m.c^2, the relationship between mass, energy, and time).

In science, energy usually is considered essentially lifeless, and life is seen as a curious accident in the midst of the cosmic accident (Big Bang) that the universe commonly is considered to be.

Essay #5: The Chicken and The Egg

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

I am delighted to report that after extensive navel contemplation, this quintessential human conundrum can be laid to rest. The answer (or answers), is revealed here.

Essay #4: E=M.C^2

Between his twenty-first and thirty-eighth birthdays, A. Einstein completed a so-called revolution in science, with and I quote, “profound repercussions at many levels”. The two supposed great breakthroughs were his Special Theory of Relativity (1905) and the General Theory of Relativity (1915). Special Relativity deals with high speeds (light), and General Relativity with gravity.