Journal of Nonlocality and Remote Mental Interactions February 2003 Vol II Nr 1
The End of Reduction
by Lynn Trainor*
The quantum world -
Nature divisible.
No, not energy.
No, not mass.
Action is the key -
The ultimate quantum entity !
Nature divisible
Changes occur
In quantum jumps.
Directed how ?
With changes scaled
By the quantum of action
Planck’s constant “h”
Multiplied by the frequencies of
Primordial vibrations.
What vibrates then
At this primordial level?
Point particles or waves?
Seemingly both.
But can points vibrate?
Perhaps it’s strings !
Strings of what?
We should not ask !
Revealing the mind of God.
Einstein’s dream
Bohr’s reality.
Where is reality?
In Nature ? or in the human brain,
Is conception limited by
Six cerebral layers
Of connective tissue ?
If eight, perhaps, the mind of God -
All revealed in concept clear,
Constrained in a new mathematical vessel.
Then explanations beyond God’s eight ?
Ten perhaps will go beyond.
Ultimate territory, the end of reduction.
Or is it twenty six? Whatever !
Will God then cease to be
The ultimate reduction.
Are there limits to
The human imagination ?
It extends through science -
Nature revealed by observation,
But beyond, the human imagination
Searching understanding.
Wherefore brain ?
And wherefore mind?
Generated in the primary stem cell
Which by division
And differentiation,
Leads to consciousness -
With human attributes
Of love and fear
Of good and evil;
Creative concepts,
Artistic adventures,
Freedom of will,
Social structures,
Peace and war
Death and oblivion.
Life -- a wisp of time
Invented in biochemistry.
The gift of love
The burden of consciousness.
“After life”, does it exist?
Probing it from living systems -
Metaphorically akin to
Deducing the strange quantum world
With classical instruments
And classical experiences.
All turns strange
In ultimate extremity.
We conquer all
But understand nothing.
Is there an end
To ultimate reduction ?
We’re only one species !
But with great powers.
Sufficient thereunto
For self destruction..
So, perhaps, there is an end to it.
*Lynn Trainor is a Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto following a long career spanning several Canadian universities, first in nuclear and statistical physics, later in theoretical biology. At Toronto he spearheaded a unique physics course, and later a Physics Department research group, exploring the role of physical theory in biology.