The Paradox of Abstraction: Part Two – Probable Electrons
BOOK III: The Enigmatic Mystery (Science & Religion) – Consideration #179
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Tuesday March 11, 2025
“The ‘Paradox’ is only a conflict between Reality and your feeling of what reality ‘Ought to be’”
– Richard Feynman
PREFACE
Welcome Everybody!
The ancient Greek philosopher, Democritus, deduced that there was a particle of matter so small it could no longer be divided, which he called an atom. In 1804 John Dalton developed modern atomic theory by deducing that atoms cannot be subdivided, created, or destroyed. However, as scientists began to experiment with this new atomic abstraction, they found that it could, in fact, be further divided. J.J. Thomson deduced that the atom could be divided into three indivisible particles called protons, neutrons, and electrons. Today, physicists claim there are over 200 subatomic particles that have so far been detected. Some, very unstable, and only detectable for less than a millionth of a second.
“…at some point the objective nature of the physical world transcends into the rational reality of the quantum world.”
For centuries the primary goal of the physical sciences was to isolate and determine the basic building blocks of matter. Dividing something into its most elemental constituents, or parts, is essential to both Aristotle’s, and Descartes’ scientific method. However, at some point the objective nature of the physical world transcends into the rational reality of the quantum world. A world of rational abstraction and infinite potentiality. How do you divide an abstraction? How do you limit infinite potentiality? What is the smallest unit of reason?
Ultimately, what is the quintessence of Consciousness?
“In the history of our penetration into this submicroscopic world, a stage was reached in the early 1930’s when scientists thought they had finally discovered the ‘basic building blocks’ of matter. It was known that all matter consisted of atoms and that all atoms consisted of protons, neutrons, and electrons.
These so-called ‘elementary particles’ were seen as the ultimate, indestructible units of matter: atoms in the Democritean sense. Although quantum theory implies, as mentioned previously, that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units, this was not generally perceived at the time. The classical habits of thought were still so persistent that most physicists tried to understand matter in terms of its ‘basic building blocks,’ and this trend of thought is, in fact, quite strong even today…
Further developments in modern physics have shown, however, that the notion of elementary particles as the primary units of matter has to be abandoned.”
Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics
Einstein’s theories of relativity completely altered our perception of time, space, and gravity in terms of our physical relationship with the universe. Quantum Mechanics completely altered our concept that the universe was empirical. Ultimately, the smallest building blocks of the universe were not physical, they were rational. They were abstractions. Because our ability to understand their essence is only possible through abstractions and theoretical entities. We cannot experience them completely in physical reality. They represent concepts existing far beyond the limitations of empirical reality and the traditional laws of physics.
When asked about quantum mechanics Albert Einstein responded: “If it is correct, it signifies the end of physics as a science.”
CONSIDERATION #179 – Probable Electrons
“If you are not completely confused by Quantum Mechanics, you do not understand it.”
– John Wheeler
Whereas classical physics had attempted to find the basic building blocks of matter, quantum physics had discovered that these so-called “building blocks” were nothing more than mere probabilities:
“At the subatomic level, the solid material objects of classical physics dissolve into wavelike patterns of probabilities, and these patterns, ultimately, do not present probabilities of things, but probabilities of interconnections. A careful analysis of the process of observation in atomic physics has shown that subatomic particles have no meaning as isolated entities, but can only be understood as interconnections between the preparation of an experiment and the subsequent measurement…
It shows that we cannot decompose the world into independently existing smallest units. As we penetrate into matter, nature does not show us any isolated ‘basic building blocks,’ but rather appears as a complicated web of relations between various parts of the whole.”
Fritjof Capra, The Tao of Physics
Essentially, this means there is no empirical building block uniting the physicality of the universe. The basic building block of physical reality is rational quantum relationships. The universe is an interconnection of these quantum relationships that somehow become manifested into what we perceive as the physical universe. Atoms, the abstraction recognized as the building block of matter, are only a reflection of even greater, and more complex, rational constituents. Ultimately, to understand the empirical universe requires understanding its rational components and relationships.
In his book, Physics as Metaphor, Roger S. Jones gives a similar account of how quantum theory has changed our understanding of what a theoretical entity, such as an electron, actually is.
“We are now to picture the electron as a fuzzy cloud. Matter is to be visualized as an enormous aggregate of these smeared out clouds, rather than of discrete particles. It is nebulous instead of grainy… The pictures represent what is technically called the probability distribution of the electron in the space of the atom…
But these are not pictures of an electron, they are pictures of probability. No one has seen or ever will see probability... It is a mathematical abstraction. When you go looking for an electron, you don’t find its probability: either you find an electron, or you find nothing…
No one has ever seen an electron or directly observed its mass or charge. But, certain procedures carried out in the large-scale physical world will consistently result in a set of measurements that we associate through a long abstract argument with a thing called an electron.”
Roger S. Jones, Physics as Metaphor
If the empirical universe is ultimately manifested through rational quantum relationships what does that mean for empirical science? Empirical science cannot explore reality beyond the laws of physics; and the laws of physics are not applicable at the quantum level of reality. What is more “real,” the empirical physical objects making up the universe, or the rationality manifesting its empirical existence?
This is the current scientific paradox.
POSTSCRIPT
“I think I can safely say that nobody understands Quantum Mechanics.”
– Richard Feynman
In quantum physics, not only are the subatomic entities themselves ambiguous, but their actions are also ambiguous as well. For example, quantum theory establishes that electrons have no definite position in an atom. We can never know the exact location of an electron with complete certainty; all we can actually obtain are the relative probabilities of its many possible, or potential, locations. Another example is the dual nature of waves, which at times act as particles and at other times as waves. It is this inherent ambiguity that makes quantum computers and Artificial Intelligence possible.
Next week we encounter the same type of ambiguity and paradox when attempting to understand another theoretical entity called God…
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PART ONE: UNTANGLING EMPIRICAL REALITY
Untangling the Reality of Time (April 2)
Untangling the Reality of Space (May)
Untangling the Reality of Gravity (June)
PART TWO: UNTANGLING RATIONAL REALITY
Untangling the Rational Universe (July)
Untangling the Rational Mind (August)
Untangling Rational Science & Religion (September)
PART THREE: UNTANGLING QUANTUM REALITY
Untangling Quantum Consciousness (October)
Untangling Artificial Intelligence & Quantum Computing (November)
Untangling Complete Potential Being (December)
Excerpt from this week’s podcast: “Untangling John the Baptist ”
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Book IV: The Cosmic Symphony – Overtones of String Theory
“Pythagoras was a major Greek philosopher who revolutionized Western thought, particularly in the areas of mathematics and geometry. Essentially a ‘priest’ of the sacred language of God, mathematics, Pythagoras understood the physical world as the manifestation of a hidden world of complete rational abstraction. All of Reality was founded on, and a result of, mathematical reason.” (Book IV – The Cosmic Symphony)
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