Most of you are probably aware that on July 4th the CMS and ATLAS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN announced the discovery of a new particle. As a member of the ATLAS experiment, I could not be more excited. This new particle, which has a mass about 130 times greater than the proton mass, would appear to be the long sought after Higgs boson. The actual confirmation that it is a Higgs will still need to await some final experimental checks, but it certainly has all the characteristics of a Higgs particle so far, and the news of the discovery made headlines around the world (let me shamelessly choose share my appearance with Brian Greene on Charlie Rose).
While it ranks as probably the most important discovery in my (long) career in particle physics, this seems an appropriate moment to reflect on the importance of this discovery after the initial euphoria has worn off. It is a question my non-physics friends and my congressman asked me; namely, "Awesome, this is a great discovery, but... so what?"
It is a serious question that deserves a serious answer, and I would like to give you my view on the answer. The answer comes in three parts.
First and foremost is the scientific importance of this discovery. I will recap the importance of this manifestation of the Higgs field, but only briefly, since you have probably read a lot of press on that topic -- the Higgs field provides the answer to the question of how the elementary particles acquire their mass, and the fact that many of them acquire a non-zero mass is crucially important to us because it allows the formation of atoms, which in turn beget molecules, which in turn beget us!
So, yes, this aspect is crucially important to my physics friends and provides the last piece of the puzzle to the "Standard Model" of particle physics -- one of the most successful theories to explain how elementary particles interact with the fundamental forces. It is one key to the eternal quest to understand where the universe comes from, how it evolved and how we got here. It is hard to think of a more important question to address.
The second part addresses the question: "But is that quest worth a few billion dollars in the difficult financial times?" I believe the answer is yes. If you ask me if the discovery of this new particle will make your life better tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, or even five or 10 years down the road, the answer, I suspect, is no. But what about 20 or 50 or 100 years down the road? Then I am confident, with history as my guide, that the answer is yes.
History has taught us that the fundamental research of today is the technology of tomorrow. So while I have no clue how our particular research on an esoteric topic like the search for the Higgs might lead to future technologies, the history of science is full of those examples: early experiments on electricity may have seemed cool at the time, but who could have predicted that what we now take for granted and can't live without came out of a quest to understand nature?
In the early 1900s, I doubt that anyone could have foreseen how quantum mechanics would become the bedrock of our current technology (such as cell phones and computers) or how important Einstein's theory of general relativity would be. Could anyone have imagined that the effects predicted by general relativity are crucial to the accurate functioning of the ubiquitous GPS systems that we have in our cell phones? There are many other examples, but the point is that if we stop supporting basic research, we will not feel an immediate impact, but our children's children will pay the price for that shortsightedness.
My last point is that the questions we ask are big questions. What is the universe? What are we made of? What is our future fate? Do we live in more than three-space dimensions? These and many other questions like them can inspire the next generation. When I think of the number of young people that showed up at 3 am to listen to the live announcement from CERN on July 4, I needed no greater proof that these questions do inspire our youth. Of course, I understand they won't all become particle physicists; however, I do believe that many will be inspired to pursue careers in science and technology because it is "cool." Much like the space program of the 1960s inspired a generation of scientists, the physics of the LHC can inspire the 2010 generation.
Have I convinced you? I hope so.
Théo Le Bret: Beyond the Standard Model: The String Controversy
Steve Meyer / New Thought Movement
Oh well...we carry on without resentment or worry, because as the concepts and design become public on how to depict the unmanifest realm and manifest realm simultaneously in simple 2-D fashion, then I believe we'll be able to see some increased interest and responsiveness (both positive & negative) in people. .
But before that first vibrational nano-moment, there was literally Nothing -- no movement, no action, no vibration, and thus no space-time unfoldment. There's not even a discernable "point" of manifestation at all. But the question remains as to "what constitutes the Nothing?"
Cosmology and particle physics are only trying to describe the manifest, vibratory realm -- while ignoring the non-vibratory realm of cosmic Potentiality, or the capability to manifest Life, manifest a Cosmos. Or rather, science is not deliberately ignoring it, but is simply helpless to DESCRIBE it. They're relying on mathematical equations, which effectively do describe/measure/evaluate energy fields -- vibrational relationships in action, in movement. Mathematical language is used to interpret and communicate understanding ABOUT what the numbers & symbols mean (and of course, to identify the numbers in the first place. Language, whether for poetry or math or music, is absolutely critical to every aspect of human behavior, and our entire world culture.
There IS in fact a definite way of depicting what's in the virtual realm of the Nothing or Stillness. But obviously this is not the forum for that. Thanks for letting me bend your ear, and any response or comments, critical or not, will be appreciated.
So again, all this mad movement of vibratory particles forms our thoughts, feeling, speech, action and all events; all the acting, the flowing, the vibrating that sets up the whole space-time Field, in which we exist, takes place CONTINUALLY amidst non-vibratory Silence & Stillness.
This mysterious Stillness, then, we may infer, not only was before or "eternally prior to" the big bang beginning, but is therefore eternally prior to, or underneath, or within and all around, the manifest Life we are living, as evolving beings on this lovely Earth, this very moment in space-time. Which, if made more and more conscious with unconditional Love, and expressions of Kindness toward one another, is surely a Holy Moment.
We can say metaphysically, then, that the Ground of Stillness or Essence "creatively undergids" the Field of space-time, giving it eternal "impetus" to eternally "make happen" Bentov's continual big dissolve / big bang wormhole nucleus, the cosmic recycling engine. From this ending-beginning dynamic, and from our 13.7 billion year perspective, Bentov's model seems to make possible for our imaginative mind, in an appealing and convincing way, to get a "whole-sense" of the living Universe and its entire evolutionary arc of development, all at once.
Thus Bentov is helping us "see" the whole form of the Cosmos -- as that horizontal, ovoid, Tree-of-Life, "Seed-void Egg" Universe -- propelled from beginning to ending to beginning again, seemingly, by the very Virtue, or lively Integrity, of Life itelf, if we want to get poetic.
So, we can reasonably say that the Nothing or Stillness or virtual domain is the unmanifest "potentiality- or capability-setting" for all movement (i.e. vibration; moving Void). This unmoving Ground is the kinetic baseline for whatever fundamental constituent-particles or -waves or somesuch, are busily "doing" in movement, in the Field of space-time.
Using metaphysically-informed language is a method or a tool with which we can express, descriptively, what we're "made of", and progressively, more and more successfully respond to "Is there inherent meaning in creation, in existence, in life?"...and the other Big Questions.
Anyway, keep up your spirits; I know you're depressed. Life doesn't seem inherently Divine. Where's the magic? Where's the childlike excitement and innocent naivete?
And goodness knows anyway, we've probably, by this 2012 point, already invented (and patented) that model of gun, you'd think.
Animating it all is the flowing World-process that pours forth, like a two-sided Cornucopia or Fountain, our Universal-seed-void-egg Tree (so to speak). This metaphorical, cosmological Tree of Life -- free from constraints by any one religion or mystical tradition -- nourishes the greater Good in every evolving sentient Being, human or otherwise. Love is Supreme. Thus, there is no greater Virtue than Love. And Love means a loving, alive, vibrating Universe -- yet grounded or based in unmanifest, non-vibratory Stillness.
Moving void -- the Higgs Field of Existence – abides amidst its own Essence: unmoving Void, our unmanifest Ground of pure Consciousness, Silence, Stillness. All energy & manifestation -- all Worlds and all Life forms, or the entire Higgs boson Cosmos-field in action -- flourishes with great vitality and eternally creative spontaneity amidst our One Home…the Mind-soil or Womb of all Life. This manifest, moving, vibratory Life-realm of the Higgs boson -- which by extension makes up our whole Universe in its working totality or Goings-on -- is acting always in its ever-recycling Glory.
Never underestimate the power of descriptive language to help us understand what might otherwise remain empirically elusive.
:-)
If we take the time to really examine the state of affairs between science and mysticism (never mind traditional religion or fundamentalism for now) we find science, including its Higgs triumph, remains completely unable to give us ANY information whatsoever about what's BEFORE the big bang.
For me, however, taking Bentov and his recycling Universe model further, there is the intuitive insight (backed by a whole history of similar kinds of insights through the ages) that the same recycling, or renewing, DYNAMIC that the wormhole nucleus represents in Bentov's cosmology is being eternally "played out" upon, or amidst, an omnipresent unmanifest, like a blank screen, or a kind of virtual "reference background of proto-space" -- as charmingly, and accurately, characterized by Bentov.
"Eternally prior to space-time” is a particularly effective way to describe the Nothing's unmanifest or non-vibratory quality right Now -- its core of Essence, so to speak.
This non-vibratory status of the unmanifest Ground is a point of great confusion among people. From the standpoint of plausibility (because we'll never be able to "prove" this point empirically) we must understand both worlds: that of action, of vibration, of particles in their mad dance of Life...and the unmanifest or virtual world of no-action, no-vibration, no-dance...no-thing.
1) "What is the universe?" The late (and seemingly forgotten, but I won’t let him be) Itzhak Bentov posits an ovoid-shaped, ever-renewing or -recycling Universe -- pictured as a cosmic Tree of Life lying on its side. Bentov's ovoid torus is like a Tree-within-a-Seed or -Egg...and this living Cosmos has a recycling wormhole nucleus -- a blackhole-whitehole, omega-alpha, cosmic engine of renewal…for a living, eternal Universe. Eternal, yes -- yet nonetheless possessing a physical "ending-beginning" of space-time, CONTINUOUSLY taking place. A primary metaphysical point here is that the SAME dynamic is present Everywhere, Everywhen, and in Everywho.
2) "What are we made of?" Depends on whether you're talking about unmanifest Life or manifest Life. The unmanifest or virtual realm is the Stillness or Ground AMIDST WHICH our space-time, manifest Universe or Field vibrates and shapes itself at every level of Creation & Evolution, as One Life in action…the World and as all of Us. It's ALL "Life" -- whether manifest, moving, vibratory Life or unmanifest, unmoving, non-vibratory Life underneath or within our lively Universe . We are assuming the Cosmos is, at least metaphorically or metaphysically, "alive" in the Whole God-or-Divine-Nature sense.
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This is a significant set of comments but pokes a stick into the psyche of the reactionary anti-science religious "believers". And unfortunately, their political influence on our government's funding of science hampers our nation's ability to be competitive in the area of both basic research and science education.
:-)
See what I mean?
:-)
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Wrong answer. The right answer would be something like: is there a single trader or manager worth his bonus in these difficult financial times? Because that adds up to a lot more than a few billion.
And depending on how you calculate, those are government billions as well, as with the LHC.
It's not exactly easy to figure out how that calculation goes. I guess we'll need to build the equivalent of a LHC to find out...
... because that's roughly how intransparent their paychecks are, when you factor in risk and who bears it in the final analysis.
A final analysis which, to be sure, has never been carried out.
:-)