Chapter 1
Evolutionary Theory: Between Gradualism & Punctuated Equilibrium
When Charles Darwin posited his evolutionary theory (or 'Darwinian Theory' as coined by Thomas Henry Huxley in April of 1860), he humbly admitted in his work 'On The Origin Of Species' that his was but mere postulation & may someday be either proven incorrect or incomplete. Indeed, one of the marks of a good academician (or even a 'layman') is intellectual integrity & skepticism. And an agnostic modus operandi, if you will, is the aim of this here work. Being that the scope of human consciousness is vast & quite possibly infinite, if one believes in some form of immortality or energial recycling via the second law of thermodynamics, not every possible angle will be explored. But I shall try my best to cover at least the major subjects of scientific & philosophical enquiry.
In continuum, Charles Darwin originally posited that species evolved gradualistically or through a slower process. Later on, 'gradualism' was addended with 'punctuated equilibrium'. The hypothesis of punctuated equilibrium arose out of the fossil gaps discovered by paleontologists & the like. They posited that, in some cases, species underwent a more 'punctuated' or sudden evolutionary shift. Furthermore, some scientists (& 'laypersons' alike) believe nature to employ both gradualism & punctuated equilibrium as she sees fit. However, there are some who criticise this view as being too 'god-of-the-gaps' in its application. Indeed many also view the substitute of 'quantum' mechanisms to account for things that are unexplained, as falling into this same scholastically dubious category. All in all, whatever one believes or follows, these inquiries are all equally valid, fascinating & worth our efforts.
While evolutionary theory originally intended to address the purely observable & natural world, this could also be metaphorically extended to the so-called 'metaphysical' realms. Perhaps every species, & especially homo sapiens, are evolving on a more metaphysical level than is directly observable to us. Indeed many religious texts such as those touted by Judeo-Christianity, speak of such things as 'new bodies' & immortality. And although 'outwardly we are decaying', perhaps as the Judeo-Christian scripture reads, 'inwardly we are being renewed.' As such perhaps when we physically expire within our current incarnation within this current realm of physical 'laws' & 'theories' & such, we will indeed be transformed & granted our 'new bodies' with our evolved 'spirits' or 'souls' so that we can dwell within the 'new Heaven & Earth' that have been prepared for us.
Moreover, this could be viewed as a kind of 'metaphysical gradualism' (with some dabs here & there of punctuated equilibrium). That is to say, we are 'evolving' both physically & spiritually, as many people of faith believe. Now, getting all staunch skeptics & scientists to follow this line of thought would be challenging, to say the least! However, perhaps we could cook up a digestible hypothesis for their intellective palates, at least. And of course, this is already being attempted with Grand Unified Theory (or to continue the gustatory metaphor: Grand Uni-FRIED Theory.) Ha! Of course, due to the nebulous nature of quantum mechanics, even physicists can only 'know' so much about how things work. That is why we have to concede to testable hypotheses & 'theories.' Nevertheless, it is the aim of this work to merely explore some of the larger questions looming & to pose some fun & interesting postulates.
In continuum, how could such a mechanism like 'metaphysical gradualism' (and/or 'punctuated equilibrium') work? How could the 'inward spirit' correlate with the laws of physics & chemistry to effect such an otherworldly transformation? Perhaps, since we have no way of knowing what the physical conditions will be in the 'afterlife' (if we believe in such things) this is a moot enquiry. But I'm one of those people who enjoys philosophising about this stuff anyway, so here we go. We can draw upon our current knowledge & extrapolate from that to a certain extent. For example, let's take the law of gravity as we now experience or know it.
Upon our current plane of physics as we understand it, gravity is thought of not as a 'force', but more of as a dynamic, interactional field of matter & mass. The more massive a space-time 'object' is, the stronger the gravitational exertion is upon nearby other 'objects.' Without going into the schematics of quantum particulate matter & how specifically this might be operant within the gravitational field, since even physicists don't have this yet mapped out, we can speculate broadly & make metaphorical comparisons between current working models & futuristic projections of other 'realms.'
Now, let us continue our exploration of how evolutionary effects such as 'gradualism' & 'punctuated equilibrium' may be at work on a psycho-spiritual or 'metaphysical' level. If one follows the strictly materialist view that 'physical' phenomena are mutually exclusive &/or preclusive of anything outside of them, then it is generally believed that what most deem 'metaphysical' or 'spiritual' phenomena, are arising from physical agents & forces that are just not yet fully understood. Nevertheless, the subjects explored within this work should be of some interest to both idealists or 'immaterialists/metaphysicians' & materialists. The aim here is to attempt to develop a working hypothesis of how things work not merely on a fundamental level, but also on a transcendental level. And this 'transcendental' schematic may indeed end up being more naturalistically or physically based & grounded than we currently think.
Moreover, many who follow the Judeo-Christian faith believe that God may indeed bring the 'end-times' about via purely naturalistic methods. For example, the Scriptures which speak of the sky being rolled back like a scroll & the elements being flung to the earth in a fiery, engulfing inferno could bear correspondence with actual cosmological predictions of lunar & solar events which are going to happen billions of years from now. The sun, for instance, is predicted by astronomers & cosmologists & the like, to exhaust its fuel in about 5 billion years, whereby it will morph into a Red Giant star & engulf the earth in lethal cosmic radiation. Thus, Science & Religion are apparently not as at odds as many presuppose. There are many correlations between observed 'physical' phenomena & scriptural 'prophecy.' This subject was explored more at length in my work entitled, 'The Constants of Metaphysics: An Exercise In Apologetics' for those who are interested.
In continuum, perhaps gravity will enact upon so-called 'spiritual' or 'quantum/directly unobservable' matter in the 'afterlife' (for those who believe in such things) in a different way than it does within our current incarnation. Of course it makes sense that the 'otherly realms' would by necessity be composed of variant physical properties than the realms in which we currently dwell. And perhaps our current physics is even molding & shaping us on an 'inwardly-we-are-being-transformed' way as we speak. For example, maybe certain quantum particles & other 'forces' take a much more active architectural role in our existential and psycho-spiritual 'blueprint' than we know. When Judeo-Christian Scripture speaks of believers being granted 'new bodies' upon translation to the 'new heavens & the new earth', one can only imagine what specific forms things will take. But fascinating indeed it is to ponder such things!
So, let us borrow some terms & ideas from particle physics. Very broadly speaking, fermions are the 'matter particles' & bosons are the designated 'force carriers' of electromagnetism, the weak force & the strong force. Ubiquitous matter is made of what are termed 'first generation fermions.' These are composed of 'up' & 'down' quarks which form protons & neutrons, as well as forming electrons & electron neutrinos. Protons have a positive charge & a greater mass in comparison to electrons & a slightly lesser mass in comparison to neutrons. Neutrons have no electric charge & a greater mass than protons. The discovery of neutrons by Sir James Chadwick in 1932 also led to the discovery of nuclear fission in 1938.
In addition, electrons have a negative 1 charge & electron neutrinos have no electric charge with a half spin. Electron neutrinos were postulated in 1930 by Wolfgang Pauli to account for the missing momentum & energy which seemed to be apparent in beta decay (the nuclear process of isobar transformation upon emission of either an electron or a positron). In 1956, Clyde Cowan & Frederick Reignes finally discovered or detected this once-postulated particle, which is now classified as a first-generation 'lepton.'
Quarks are the most fundamental & 'indivisible' particles-so far as we have been able to observe. Quarks rely upon composite subatomic particles called 'hadrons' (as in the Large Hadron Collider of physicist fame located at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) near Geneva, Switzerland). Not unlike molecules, which are held together by the electric force, quarkian hadrons are held together via the strong nuclear force. There are two categories of hadrons: baryons & mesons. Baryons are composed of an odd number of quarks (more often three such as protons & neutrons) & are what we humans are mostly made of, due to the comparable mesonic instability. Thus can we truly say that we are ODD BALLS! Couldn't resist. Mesons (such as 'pions') have an even number of quarks-usually two, with one quark & one anti-quark.
Furthermore, 'tetraquark' states or 'exotic mesons' have been observed in 2007, resonantly confirmed in 2014 & named 'Z bosons.' 'Exotic baryons' are called 'pentaquark' states & were discovered in 2015 & were named P plus C (4380) & P plus C (4450). There are many more exotic quarks that most likely exist & are currently being searched for in the Large Hadron Collider by colliding denser elements such as gold (Au) & lead (Pb) together with hadrons to produce particle shower debris that can be studied. Hadrons in isolation, known as 'free hadrons' & 'antihadrons' (meaning that they are not bound up in an atomic nucleus) are unstable & undergo rapid decay. Protons are also 'free' hadrons but have a much slower decay time. 'Free' neutrons are the longest-lived unstable particle at a half-life of about 611 seconds & a mean half-life of about 879 seconds.
Finally, to cover the basics of elementary particle physics as it relates to the subject matter, we have the antimatter particles-the stuff of Science Fiction fodder. But in this case, at least from a fundamental standpoint, a very probable particle, indeed. Each particle has its own theoretical 'anti'-particle in line with the laws of symmetry. One exception to this is the massless photon, which is the force-carrier of light, radio waves and electromagnetism, & is its own antimatter particle. Paul Dirac & Carl D. Anderson began this saga in 1932 when Dirac posited the existence of the 'positron' (the antimatter particle of the electron with the same mass but opposite electrical charge). Carl Anderson then discovered them in cosmic ray collisions observed within a cloud chamber. The particles were detected through the 'trails' that they left behind in the gas. At first, they were thought to be electrons travelling in the opposite direction of other electrons, but it was deduced that rather, they were the 'positron' with the same mass but opposite electric charge. The antiproton & antineutron were discovered in 1955 at the University of California, Berkeley by Emilio Segre & Owen Chamberlain. Since then, particles are deliberately created within particle accelerators, including complete antimatter atoms out of antiprotons & positrons.
Moreover, Paul Dirac of positron fame, was also a Titan figure of note concerning many other problems within the world of particle physics. When working out his infamous 'Dirac equation', he noticed that the infinitude of negative energy states contained in the equation would be anti-symmetrical. To compensate for this, he proposed what became know as then 'Dirac sea' of quantum particle states. In this theory, the electron vacuum (now called 'positrons') is modeled as an infinite sea of negative energy electrons (now realized to be the antimatter constituent known as 'positrons'). This positron was initially thought of as a 'hole' in the 'Dirac sea', which would be left when electrons would change into positive-energy particles when 'lifted' out of the 'Dirac sea.'
Yet Dirac attempted to reconcile this infinitude of universally negative charge-state by positing this is a mere perception of zero charge. Also, initially, the uneven masses of the proton & the electron were posited as mere electromagnetic interactions within the 'sea' yet were still thought to be problematic by some, until Hermann Weyl validated the 'hole' theory between negative & positive charges as being symmetrical. The positron was postulated in 1931 by Dirac after thought experiments involving protons & electrons annihilating to give off two photons were discounted by Robert Oppenheimer & Igor Tamm when they posited that this would cause ordinary matter to disappear too fast. The positron was discovered & validated about a year later.
Now that we've laid the groundwork to apply some of our knowledge to some more 'meta'physical postulations, let's start with Wolfgang Pauli's 'Exclusion Principle.' Wolfgang Pauli, born on April 25, 1900, who died on December 15, 1958 in Austria, became a theoretical physicist & is known as one of the pioneers of what came to be called 'quantum mechanics.' He was nominated by fellow Austrian & physicist, Albert Einstein for the Nobel Prize in Physics for this contribution. In 1930, to account for the conservation of energy, which is the First Law of Thermodynamics, he posited a particle with neutral charge named the 'neutrino' by Enrico Fermi in 1934. This particle would be discovered in 1956 by Frederick Reines & Clyde Cowan. In 1921, with the help of Danish born Niels Bohr, Pauli developed the 'Aufbau Principle', which was a working model for electron configuration within atomic shells whereby the electrons are 'built up' (the term 'aufbau' in German means 'building up').
Furthermore, Pauli was also known for deriving the hydrogen spectrum from Werner Heisenberg, Max Born & Pascual Jordan's 1925 'Matrix Theory' of quantum mechanics. This theory envisioned the properties of particles as evolving in time, much like the 'wave-formulation' that Erwin Schrödinger had been formulating. This model of 'electron jumping' from shell to shell within the atom nicely complemented the electron orbital models of Niels Bohr. To reconcile what was observed within molecular spectra with quantum mechanics, he developed the 'quantum number' of two possible values with the concept of 'spin.' The 'Exclusion Principle', also known as the 'Pauli Principle', states that no two electrons with the same quantum numbers can exist within the same space-time locale simultaneously. This specifically precludes fermions with half integer spin. He developed the theory for electrons in 1925, expanding it to include all fermions in his 'spin-statistics theorem' of 1940. This theorem proved that the 'intrinsic spin' (angular momentum not produced by orbital motion) was mathematically compatible with the statistics of collections of particles.
In addition, this theorem concluded the 'many-body wave function' for bosons (with integer spin) to remain symmetric with the exchange of two particles. In contrast, for fermions (with half-integer spin), such an exchange would be antisymmetric, thereby allowing non-interacting bosons to follow Bose-Einstein statistics & fermions to obey Fermi-Dirac statistics. B-E theory was co-developed by Satyendra Nath Bose from 1924 to 1925 with the later help of Albert Einstein to expand upon it. Bose-Einstein (or B-E) statistics describe how a collection of identical particles may occupy discrete energy states within a system of thermodynamic equilibrium. LASER (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) technology & helium superfluidity employ & have proven the validity of B-E condensates.
Thus, perhaps matter which is mostly composed of bosons & not fermions, due to not being beholden to the 'Pauli Principle', could, at least to pose a postulate, possess properties transcendent of fermionic-bound physics. For example, for those who believe Jesus Christ actually did 'walk on water', perhaps a physical explanation for this could be that Jesus was composed of bosonic matter & thus could achieve the metaphysical 'miracles' that he did. Also, perhaps when Judeo-Christian scripture speaks of being 'changed in the twinkling of an eye' into 'new bodies’, these bodies were 'changed' into bosonic or some other unknown type of matter which could achieve such energial transformations & configurations very rapidly as B-E condensates lend to the pin-point power & precision of a laser, or as helium when cooled to a certain temperature creates a 'superfluid.' Then this would be another kind of 'punctuated equilibrium', as our 'species' 'evolves' into the next level of existence. Indeed many believe the fantasy of aliens, or extra-terrestrials to arise out of a premonition of humanity's actual evolution, both physical & mental. And although most of what I've explored in this Chapter are inchoate ideas, to me, it is a worthwhile endeavor & endlessly fascinating to contemplate.
I shall hypothesise upon other possible 'particulate matters' throughout this work to try & get an idea of how things might operate on a metaphysical level. This is a subject which had always fascinated me, & in some ways led to almost mystical states of contemplation, revelation & 'fear & trembling' before the Lord/Demiurge/Creator/Great Spirit/Deity/Supernal Force or whatever you name it. Perhaps our own psycho-spiritual evolution as a collective humanity & as individuals is also being achieved on a subtle yet profoundly transformative 'bosonic' scale perhaps in tandem with other metaphysical properties & particles that we have yet to discover. And perhaps the Judeo-Christian scripture which refers to 'outward decay yet inward renewal' is a much more direct reference to physical events such as 'spiritual gradualism', however 'subatomic' they might be, than we think.
In closing of this longer-than-expected Chapter of this work, as to the further specifics of which particle enacts upon which other particle, such as in the case of biochemistry, which enzyme, vitamin, amino acid, etc. enacts upon which metabolic pathway, to effect such physical machinations & transformations, we can only speculate. Yet the aim of this work is to do just that. Primarily, because it tickles my fancy, & secondarily, because it may lead to other thought-forms which may in the end, be more pertinent towards development of a working Grand Unified Theory than we originally thought was possible. It is my humble hope that, if anything, this work may serve at the behest of fellow 'Curiosos' & deep thinkers as well as all others who may just find it all bemusing. Whatever the outcome, I invite you further in & hope that you enjoy this quantum mind-tunneling down this particular wormhole of wonder & befuddlement.
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