Most people are far too comfortable with the world around them. Reality is a mysterious and fascinating concept that we simply can’t come to terms with as mere biological constructs- our perception of the world around us is imprisoned by our limited five senses and our instinctual thought patterns. The world of quantum mechanics and sub-molecular particles has shattered our perception of what the universe really is, and the average ‘layman’ goes about his day in a purely terrestrial and ‘grounded’ manner despite these revolutionary findings.
It’s a shame that so few people are thinking critically about the world around them and looking at reality from new perspectives in an attempt to understand the inexplicable mysteries of the ‘unseen’ world- most of us limit our consciousness to the immediately perceivable. Let’s open our minds a bit and take a look at some of the weirdest discoveries and theories about how the universe really works.
Observation changes the observed
If electrons behaved like we think matter does, they shouldn't be doing this.
Here’s one of the most mysterious curiosities about reality: the mere act of observing matter makes profound changes to how it behaves. A bear may shit in the woods when no one’s looking, but an electron is a different story.
Researchers at the Weisman Institute of Science performed an experiment in which they shot electrons through two small vertical slits in a sheet of metal into a wall and recorded the pattern that they made. Being just tiny bits of matter, the logical result would be two vertical lines of contact on the wall.
However, instead of following the traditional rules of physics, the electrons did not simply go through one of the two slits when they were shot and create two lines on the wall that they hit. They instead created an interference pattern on the wall, meaning that they behaved as if they were waves, not matter. This means that when they shot the electrons at the two slits, a single electron goes through both, neither, left, and right, all at the same time. Baffling! How can matter be in so many places at once? The researchers had to know.
That’s when things got spooky. In order to see just what was happening to the electrons as they approached the two slits, they set up some equipment to observe how the electrons behaved to create a wave pattern on the wall. They fired some more electrons under the surveillance of this equipment, and were once again astonished by the weirdness of the quantum world. When this equipment was actively observing how the electrons behaved, they no longer created a wave pattern on the wall. They simply formed the expected arrangement of two vertical lines, not an interference pattern. The act of observing electrons changes how they behave, as if they are aware of being watched. How can we be so sure of what reality is if the mere act of experiencing it changes what it is?
Empty space and potential
Electrons move at near warp speeds.
In traditional terms of how matter works, an atom is 99.99999999% empty space. That’s insane. How can solid matter be mostly empty? Why does everything seem so full of stuff when nothing’s there?
There is something there, but it’s too abstract for most people to really wrap their heads around. The empty space in an atom represents potential. That’s really all an atom is, distilled potentiality with near-infinite possibilities. Because the particles in an atom move at quantum speeds and seem to instantly warp from one place to another within the atom, any given area of ‘empty’ space has a certain probability of being occupied by a particle at any given moment.
Let’s combine this concept of pure potentiality with the act of observation. If atoms are just an infinite series of potential states (represented by the ‘wave’ or ‘interference’ pattern) and we only perceive them as having a definite state (two straight vertical lines), that must mean that when an atom is not being observed by any conscious entity, it is in a state of pure potential. The instant someone observes that atom, it snaps into a singular state.
Is this what everything really is?
It’s all just information
If we take into account all the mysterious and baffling properties of quantum mechanics and apply them to the world we
live, we find that it’s just a big stream of data. Atoms are just bits of programmable information, mostly empty ‘blank slates’ that have infinite possibilities until the consciousness of an observer decides upon its state.
If that’s true and our reality is a colossal whirlwind of infinite information and possibilities, our meager five senses can’t possibly be getting the whole picture. Our survival-obsessed state of mind processes the information that’s necessary- it doesn’t concern itself with the vast majority of what it deals with. Your brain processes 400 billion bits of information every second, and we are only consciously aware of 2000. What is the nature of the hidden world that our brain is unable, or unwilling, to share with us? What’s really going on outside the realm of our senses?
