Entanglement

One of my “hobbies,” for lack of a better word, is to read so-called popular science books, specifically on the New Physics of String Theory and the like such as Brian Greene’s The Elegant Universe, whom I find to be incredibly accessible, yet gets the most difficult concepts across without being either condescending or flippant.

However, there was a book some time ago that I read about a concept that has never really left my mind, perhaps because it is somewhat beyond comprehension, even to the most sophisticated physicists and über-mathematicians, usually from Hungary for some reason. It is the concept of Entanglement (from Amir Aczel’s eponymous book), which, if it truly is a phenomenon, blows away any possible conception of the universe as we know it out of the water, not the least the concept of a constant speed of light being the limits of a transfer of energy from one point to another.

Entanglement, which as the name indicates, involves at least two entities becoming entangled, but at such a profound level that it truly defies any laws of physics known to humans, way beyond even the fantastic concepts of String Theory, which in themselves have the most astute mathematicians and physicists scrambling for a GUT, or Grand Unifying Theory, the ultimate quest of Einstein’s entire corpus of work, a quest that left him alone towards the end of his life as even his most staunch supporters began to question his quest for such a Holy Grail.

Whether String Theory becomes the GUT to end all GUT’s, or merely the Emperor’s New Clothes, remains to be seen, and what role, if any that Entanglement may play out in this quest is also unclear, yet as with all modern physics, all roads somehow end up leading to Einstein, either to prove or disprove him.

Just this week, yet another headline appears, “Was Einstein Wrong?” as it goes on to explain that 15,000 test runs have shown that the previously elusive neutrino may in fact be caught with a speeding-faster-than-light ticket on the super-conductor highway. Apparently, such particles can arrive faster than a light particle, suggesting that they can, as seen in many Feynman diagrams, theoretically go back and forth in Time, and thus arrive before they depart, or other such funky scenarios. Yikes, and once again, Truth may well be stranger than even (Science) Fiction.

In order for Entanglement to be possible, likewise, there must be the possibility of a transfer of energy, in this case, information, at a speed that exceeds that of light, but not by billionths of a second, but something even more sinister...without Time elapsing at all, thus SIMULTANEOUSLY. In other words, there is a transfer of information that does not happen over Time, irrespective of Space as well.

Here’s the skinny. When two particles become “Entangled,” then neither Time nor Space can interfere. Particles have Spin and weight. Let’s two particles are then “Entangled,” then if one changes Spin from positive to negative, then the other will also change from positive to negative Spin at the EXACT same Time. Fine, you may say, interesting enough, but show me the money. Now, the kicker is that they can be at opposite ends of the Universe (we won’t go into Finite vs. Infinite there for simplicity sake), and they will still change Spin simultaneously, if it were to be able to be recorded as such. And, for all intents and purposes, they will remain entangled, again, irrespective of either Time or Space.

So, you may be thinking, why has Robert gone off on this obscure, yet to be proven, much less explained concept?

For one, reading that article reminded me how much I love reading about this, but it also reminded me of the philosophical concept behind “Indra’s Net,” in that within the Net, every intersecting jewel infinitely reflects every other, simultaneously in Time and over infinite (not going into that...) Space. It is the concept of the Universal Atman self-containing the individual Atman that upon the surface appear to be separate, yet are ultimately merely parts of a greater whole, something that I obviously place great stock in with my own philosophy of life.

Furthermore, it made me think about the various physical “jewels” in my life, namely my friends, family, and you (yes, I’m talking to you, dear Reader), that we might very well be reading this post, or another, at the exact same moment, being somewhat entangled if you will. Or, via email and other electronic communications, that how rapidly we can communicate in comparison to just a few years ago, further making the tyranny of distance a thing of the Past to some extent.

Just this weekend, I corresponded directly in writing with a number of people in a variety of locations in Belgium, my friend in Brighton, UK, my friend in Tirunelveli, India, my Irish friend who was traveling in Spain, my sister who lives in Chicago, my mother who lives in Texas, but was traveling to New Mexico, two of my very dear friends  (having finally found one of them recently) in different places in Texas, a client who lives in Russia, and a friend who lives in Arkansas, all from the comfort of my armchair in Antwerp.

Big deal, right?

But, isn’t that amazing that we can just shrug our shoulders at that, so quickly? If I had written that 10 or 15 years ago, it would have been shocking, or at least pretty darn amazing. Today, yeah, big deal...

Do I have a point here? Not really, except to say that perhaps we should remember that it is a big deal that we are able to be virtually entangled because mediums such as Facebook have made it a commonplace, quotidian event, but like the poor high school student (and a large part of the remaining population for that matter) at the cash register who can’t add or subtract whole numbers to make change when the power goes out at the grocery store, what would happen if the lights go out on The Net? Where would you be in your means of communication? Would the “entanglement” then suddenly be just a sham, the Emperor’s New Clothes? Where would all of those dozens (or hundreds) of “friends” suddenly go if you couldn’t post your status with the click of a button and you actually had to make a physical, concerted effort to contact them? How many jewels in your Net would you have left if the system failed? 

Waves Roll

Water, Water Every where, nor any drop to drink...so laments the albatross-haunted voice of Coleridge’s Rime of the Ancient Mariner.

Sitting on the bank of the Schelde the other day, I noticed an interesting phenomenon while trying to focus on the rolling waves of the river. I have noticed this often while at the ocean, most notably when I was at Kanniyakumari where three different major bodies of water come convene, causing the most amazing currents I have ever seen, but it was very apparent with the river’s coursings as well.

Try to focus on a point in a body of moving water. It is not easy. The natural tendency of our eyes is to follow the water, not remain locked in on the point of interest, especially if there is a piece of flotsam, jetsam, or sundry detritus bobbing along, much less a lazy seagull. The gaze follows the motion.

There was a cautionary buoy of sorts some fifty yards or into the middle of the river. That was a completely different experience then, to focus on a non-moving object surrounded by total movement. Both were hypnotizing to say the least, and I became engrossed and entranced by each over Time, losing myself indefinitely in the inertia and the inertia.

Being abroad, I sometimes wonder, what makes it “abroad,” and for me, the answer is simply, water. I am abroad because I am across the Atlantic Ocean from my native land. I was abroad abroad in India because I was across the Arabian Sea across the Atlantic Ocean or across the Indian Ocean across the Pacific Ocean. Six or one half dozen. I was exactly halfway around the globe in either case.

Yet, I have never made one of these trips per boat, oddly enough. I have always flown, as we live in the jet-age, so why should I? I have many times heard the story of how my mother, when she was eight and her brothers merely 2 and under traveled across the Atlantic in the dead of the deadest of deadliest winters to come join their father, traveling with my grandmother who had like many on the trip, fallen ill. My mom has described this trip, and it made me realize how impressionable that must have been. Huge, dark, ominous, unforgiving waves rolling and smashing against the hull of a transport ship lurching across a nearly frozen ocean, as the English Channel itself did freeze that winter!

That was a journey. That was a passage.

Now, we jump on an airplane and are magically transposed from point A to point B, with no real liminal space in between. Sitting by the river on Sunday, it was hard for me to imagine that just a week and a half before I was sitting in a boat, contemplating the ephemeral nature of life on the Ganges , watching bodies burn in a chain-smoking row of bonfires, and now, here I was, alone along the banks of the Schelde, contemplating...what?

I am content to be back in Antwerp, yet the disjunct between Belgium and India is so great at times, jolting, and the journey back was so sudden. I am confident that the next time I make such a journey, I will find a way to go by boat, or at least by a slower medium than the 747 that carried me from Mumbai’s Chatrapi Shivaji to London’s Heathrow.

I recently read online a list of ways to travel “differently” from the Lonely Planet publications. One of them was to “return slowly.” I believe that that is merely one half of the equation. I would like to next take a journey that I “go slowly” and where the journey itself is the destination. To roll along the waves, surrounded by water, water everywhere, desiring no-thing but the passage itself.

Not So Innocently Abroad

Here is a piece from a very good friend of mine, Professor John Pedro Schwartz at the American University of Beirut, Lebanon. John Pedro is a so-called “late-bloomer” in academics and has never slowed down once he got his wings. I am constantly blown away by the verve and detail of his writing, though not losing the essential message.

JPS, as I am wont to call him, sent me this piece a couple of weeks ago while I was still in Madurai, and I was yet again blown away about what he is writing about and how. He has the ability to render a highly socially conscious piece, without being biased or didactic. A true gift. Not to mention that he is quite funny, both in person and on paper.

Two days ago, after I had returned to Antwerp and was beginning to read the various newspapers online again and seeing the events in Syria, I could not believe the real impact of JPS’s words. He then sent me an email with “Published” as the subject line and this link as the body of the mail.

So, here it is. Important stuff from Lebanon.

http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2011/11/04/highway_to_homs