JNLII1Trainor1

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.