“If you suspect you are more than flesh and bones, read Stan I.S. Law. If you want to be sure, read Stanislaw Kapuscinski.”
(Anonymous email received by the author)
My brother came to see me, today. We discussed this and that, and later, since he has a Ph.D. in physics from Leeds, UK, our conversation turned to physics. Particle physics, or as I like to call it, non-pragmatic reality.
I told him about the empty space business. About our reality not being there. Or here, so to speak. I was hoping he’d cheer me up.
He didn’t.
He said that the latest coming directly from the hot tub is nothing. I mean that atoms occupy, well, zero space. That, according to the particle physicists, they are points. Non-dimensional points. They are called point-particles. That atoms are there but not really, as far as mass is concerned.
No mass?
Not in particle physics. It’s useful, he said. They don’t take up any space. It’s how physicists see the particles when mass is, well, mass and size or shape, or… the structure is irrelevant in a given context…
So they are not really there?
Oh, they are there. Sort of.
What about the Earth, I asked? Is Earth a point, too?
Sure, he replied.
And the universe?
He just looked at me.
So much for Pragmatic Reality of particle physics.
Then I tried again. What about the Big Bang, then? It must have had an enormous black hole to initiate the expansion of the whole universe. The mass of our own black hole, at the center of Milky Way, is said to be about four million times that of our Sun. And our little solar system is only some 27,000 light-years away from the centre of the Milky Way—from the mother of all the black holes in our galaxy. I wondered how long it would or how long it will take to swallow us whole.
A point, he replied. A point.
You’re kidding, right?
No. Particle physicists never kid. Science is too vital. The whole reality would collapse if we did. Wouldn’t it? I must have looked dubious. You see, he added, before the Big Bang there was no time or space. Hence…
A point, I finished for him.
I must have continued to look a bit lost.
You see, he began again, for example, from far enough away an object of any shape will look and behave as a point-like object.
This time it was I who just stared at him. He continued talking. In the theory of gravity, we often discuss a point mass, meaning a point particle with a nonzero mass and…
I stopped paying attention.
My wife looked up from the settee. I’d rather be a fish, she said. When we both looked at her, she added, but not salmon.
Yesterday we saw a movie on TV about salmon. They, seemingly hundreds of them, have reached the end of their journey. Three brown bears were gorging themselves in shallow water. The salmon made an only half-hearted attempt at escape. What would have been the point? They came here to die.
It’s all a delusion, I thought. Like God?
I thought that Dr. Dawkins would be pleased. On the other hand, the non-physical universe of spiritual, mental and emotional whimsy suddenly became even more real. At least for me. How about you?
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