Natural Science Forum / Physics / Particle Physics / March 2006

For days I was grappling with the mystery behind entanglement and
searched the literature. Do you know where John Bell got the
inspiration to pursue the entanglement thing and the subsequent
experimental proof by Aspect. It's from David Bohm. Bohm believes the
reason subatomic particles are able to remain in contact with one
another regardless of the distance separating them is not because
they are sending some sort of mysterious signal back and forth,
but because their separateness is an illusion. He argues that at
some deeper level of reality such particles are not individual
entities, but are actually extensions of the same fundamental
something. He has such a sophisticated idea of it and entanglement.
What is your thought of the following? I am thinking if it's plausible
(if it is, the implications would be huge).

"Enfolded Orders and Unfolded Realities

One of Bohm's most startling assertions is that the tangible
reality of our everyday lives is really a kind of projection,
like a holographic image. Underlying it is a deeper order of
existence, a vast and more primary level of reality that gives
birth to all the objects and appearances of our physical world in
much the same way that a piece of holographic film gives birth to
a hologram. Bohm calls this deeper level of reality the Implicate
(which means "enfolded") order, and he refers to our own level
of existence as the explicate, or unfolded, order.

He uses these terms because he sees the manifestation of all
forms in the universe as the result of countless enfoldings and
unfoldings between these two orders. For example, Bohm believes
an electron is not one thing but a totality or ensemble enfolded
throughout the whole of space. When an instrument detects the
presence of a single electron it is simply because one aspect of
the electron's ensemble has unfolded, similar to the way an ink
drop unfolds out of the glycerine, at that particular location.
When an electron appears to be moving it is due to a continuous
series of such unfoldments and enfoldments.

Put another way, electrons and all other particles are no more
substantive or permanent than the form a geyser of water takes as
it gushes out of a fountain. They are sustained by a constant
influx from the implicate order, and when a particle appears to
be destroyed, it is not lost. It has merely enfolded back into
the deeper order from which it sprang. A piece of holographic
film and the image it generates are also an example of an
implicate and explicate order. The film is an implicate order
because the image encoded in its interference patterns is a
hidden totality enfolded throughout the whole. The hologram
projected from the film is an explicate order because it
represents the unfolded and perceptible version of the image.

The constant and flowing exchange between the two orders explains
how particles can shapeshift from one kind of particle to another.
Such shiftings can be viewed as one particle, say an electron,
enfolding back into the implicate order while another, a photon,
unfolds and takes its place. It also explains how a quantum can
manifest
as either a particle or a wave. According to Bohm, both aspects are
always enfolded in a quantum's ensemble, but the way an observer
interacts with the ensemble determines which aspect unfolds and
which remains hidden. As such, the role an observer plays in
determining the form a quantum takes may be no more mysterious than
the fact that the way a jeweller manipulates a gem determines
which of its facets become visible and which do not. Because the
term hologram usually refers to an image that is static and does
not convey the dynamic and ever active nature of the incalculable
enfoldings and unfoldings that moment by moment create our
universe, Bohm prefers to describe the universe not as a hologram,
but as a holomovement.

The existence of a deeper and holographically organized order
also explains why reality becomes nonlocal at the subquantum
level. As we have seen, when something is organized
holographically, all semblance of location breaks down. Saying
that every part of a piece of holographic film contains all the
information possessed by the whole is really just another way of
saying that the information is distributed nonlocally. Hence, if
the universe is organized according to holographic principles,
it, too, would be expected to have nonlocal properties.

The Undivided Wholeness of All Things

Most mind-boggling of all are Bohm's fully developed ideas about
wholeness. Because everything in the cosmos is made out of the
seamless holographic fabric of the implicate order, he believes
it is as meaningless to view the universe as composed of "parts,"
as it is to view the different geysers in a fountain as separate
from the water out of which they flow. An electron is not an
"elementary particle." It is Just a name given to a certain
aspect of the holomovement. Dividing reality up into parts and
then naming those parts is always arbitrary a product of
convention, because subatomic particles, and everything else in
the universe, are no more separate from one another than
different patterns in an ornate carpet."

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