Theoretical physicist & Marxist turned non-dualist 

I read about David Bohm five years ago as a part of reading and understanding quantum theory. I found it difficult to follow him, his theories and on how he is related to quantum theory. I am revisiting him since I saw a documentary on him and also after seeing an interview of his with Jiddu Krishnamurti, a philosopher who rocked the western intellectual world.

He passed away in 1992. His interviews on YouTube are fascinating. His clarity of expression and simplicity in thought and manners are very impressive.

My understanding of Quantum theory (QT), as a non-mathematical layman is at best sketchy. I got interested in it because of its weirdness, unorthodoxy and mystic nature. We are all taught by the schools and society to be orderly and not to go out of step.

We are trained to think in Reductionism which is otherwise bandied about as modernity and rationality as opposed to superstition or pseudo-science.

QM birth was in the 1900s. In 1905 Theories of relativities  (general and special) were propounded. Later Heisenberg looked into the reality of nature and rolled out the Uncertainty principle. Then came the Copenhagen interpretation of Neils Bohr and followed  Quantum field theory and theory of everything and the end of Physics appears to be nearing.

The two breakthroughs QT  and Theory of relativity do not speak to each other. Physics has these two warring polar opposite schools.

What is the true nature of reality?

Reconciliation of these opposites was brought about by BOHM and Luise de Brogli, through the theory of Implicate order of Bohm and Pilot waves theory of de Broglie. Though it seems plausible and verified indirectly by experiments, there is reluctance in the scientific world as it is too fantastic and brought in the bugbear of physicists called” Consciousness“.

They find it so because it is not tangible and not measurable. On this count and context, Bohm said that measurement in science is a recent phenomenon and hopefully it will swing to the other side, as before.

Bohm was an American and was communist and fell away from it when Russia invaded Hungary. He had to leave America under McCarthyism, losing the opportunity to work with Oppenheimer and Einstein. But he was not lesser in stature at the end of his day.

Einstein considered him to be his “spiritual son;” Robert Oppenheimer was his thesis advisor.

But the scientific orthodoxy ultimately dismissed the radical work of physicist David Bohm, who introduced Consciousness into quantum theory.

The growth and evolution of physics are from Magic to Newtonian classical physics where the universe is a clockwork and measurability where initial positions in coordinates are known, the locations in temporal dimension in future could be calculated. It has predictability. It was/ is a rectilinear grid.

When Einstein has come with his Relativities (special and general), time and space assumed different positions and the universe is considered a curvilinear grid.

QT has come to remove the tangibility in the matter and brought in the dual nature of matter as a wave and particulate. This Superposition of reality has removed the Determinism and Causality and installed Probability in its place.

Next phase was how to reconcile the relativities and QT. The observer effect and the Nonlocality have directly juxtaposed against the Einsteinian limited speed of light which his theory says.

The observer effect on subatomic particles makes the Wave function collapse making the wave into a particle bring the observer into focus. What constitutes an Observer.

David Bohm says that innate connectivity of the universe makes the Nonlocality and the Implicate order within, makes it appear as non-causality. It also restored the formalism of physics. The Consciousness (self ) assumes the centre stage.

He propounded Implicate order. The experiment he cited as an analogy is Ink and Glycerine. When a blob of Ink is placed on glycerine in a container and when the container is rapidly moved in one direction with high-speed, Ink spreads out and distributed so widely that it can not be seen. When we move it in the opposite direction it will reappear as a blob again. Glycerine has the channels formed and those channels are the analogy which he has given as an implicate order for the reality of the universe.it appears that things happen at random but the hidden agenda drives it.

Over time,  when enough computational power and mathematics have developed sufficient capacity and maturity in its evolution to deal with the hidden variables of BOHM. They could develop a model of single file subatomic particles going to the assigned position on the interference pattern through bizarre gyration. Louise De Broglie has propounded the theory of matter waves for which he was given a Nobel prize. He formulated that the particle travels on the pilot waves. De Broglie and Bohmian theory formalised and brought in the causality and determinism to the particle physics. In an experimental study of a falling water drop on silicon-liquid proved the de Broglie and Bohmian Pilot waves.

The “Implicate order” of the particles passing through the double-slit (Double slit experiment in quantum physics) in a single line one after the other and adopt a bizarre path to the recording plate. It is because it is acting as per the implicate order which he called as a quantum potential.

He considers the whole universe is one system of wholeness. Universal Consciousness has the implicate order and whatever is happening is as per the hidden regime of that implicit order. The thought is also part of it.

The thought is limited in Consciousness and it is the product and programme of ego and egocentricity and it is not a solution but a source of all conflict and problems. Identifying with the limited mind is not a solution. But in fact, a problem, identifying/ programming with the Universal Consciousness is the way.

It reminds me of Roger Penrose saying that morality(goodness), beauty and mathematics are the characteristics of the universe. Oneness, Love are synonymous and are just as above. One statement by Bohm that measurement in sciences has reached extremes and pendulum will move to the other side as it was before soon.

Two great minds. Scientist and a philosopher.   David Bohm and J Krishnamurthy

Click the YOUTUBE icon to listen. it is an interesting discussion of the highest order.

 

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