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                                                                                    JNLRMI Vol. II Nr. 1 February 2003

 

 

The End of Reduction

 by Lynn Trainor*

 

  The quantum world -
  Nature divis
ible.
  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.