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?