Meta-Quanta: A Thought-Experiment in Time: Absent Time

By Michael W. Allen

Instantaneous quantum entanglements, Einstein’s “spooky actions in the dark,” have been a controversial subject in physics for over 100 years. Human consciousness is an integral part of this phenomenon. Physics cannot ignore entanglement or human consciousness, but has yet to find a way to explain these realities in a cogent manner. Meta-Quanta is a thought-experiment seeking to address these concerns. The enigma of human consciousness within entanglement, together with quantum theory and relativity, when observed from a state absent time, gives agency to imagining a viable reality to the conundrum of instantaneous entanglement as seemingly unbounded by the speed of light. This perspective also enables mega-macroscopic strands of time demonstrating mirror symmetry to the ultra-microscopic superstrings of physics.
This thought-experiment does not suggest that the myriad questions of millennia have been answered. This is but another what if experimental moment, a point of observation empowering freedom or thought, absent traditional boundaries. Engaging our universe from this perspective envisions the intrinsic relationship between philosophy, physics, psychology, dream theory within psychology, and theology owning new dimensions of ideation in the continuing intellectual struggle to answer humanity’s eternal questions regarding what we are, where we came from, and why we are here.

• Language: English
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Release date: Mar 31, 2023
• ISBN: 9781663251008

Michael W. Allen

Mike Allen was raised on a multi-generational family farm in west-central Illinois. He entered the United States Army in September of 1967 and graduated from the Infantry NCOCS at Ft. Benning in June of 1968. He served as an Infantry Squad Leader with the 1st and 9th Infantry Divisions in Vietnam and was medically evacuated in December of 1968. He began his career as a pilot in February of 1978 and professionally flew airplanes and helicopters until 1996. Mike is still active in the aviation community. He is a life-member of Chapter 698 of the Vietnam Veterans of America, the Veterans of Foreign Wars, and the Disabled American Veterans. He is a member of the General George Rogers Clark Chapter of the Sons of the American Revolution, ILSSAR. Mike contributed Chapter 1, of Volume One, to the two-volume book, The Vietnam War in Popular Culture: The Influence of America’s Most Controversial War on Everyday Life. Ron Milam, Editor, November 2016. He earned his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Denver in 1977, and a Master’s degree in Historical Studies from SIUe in 2017. Mike’s interest in the Quantum Enigma began during intellectual history courses at SIUe.

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Copyright © Michael Warren Allen 2022 / 2023

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ISBN: 978-1-6632-5099-5 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5101-5 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-6632-5100-8 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2023903194

First Edition

iUniverse rev. date:  03/30/2023

For

my wife, Debby

and

our family

Zeb, Tana, Owen & Warren

Abbi

Sarah

and

Larry & Sam

REMEMBRANCES

In addition to my family, this book is dedicated to those who gave their lives to protect, preserve, and defend the Constitution of the United States of America in Vietnam, whether they died from wounds received in country, or at a later date from exposure to Agent Orange, or any other malady as a result of their service in Vietnam.

I respectfully honor the following individuals:

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

Foreword

Chapter 1     Meaning-in-Being

Chapter 2     Questions Without Answers

Chapter 3     Human Consciousness

Chapter 4     Entanglement and Observational Reality

Chapter 5     Observational Perspectives

Chapter 6     Eternity

Chapter 7     Mental-Imagery and Language

Chapter 8     Memory and Time

Chapter 9     Strings of Time

Chapter 10   Beyond Quanta

Chapter 11   The Quantum Enigma

Chapter 12   Entangled Consciousness

Chapter 13   Closing Thoughts

Notes

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

At the outset, I must acknowledge the faculty and staff of the Historical Studies department in the College of Arts and Sciences at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUe) for their many contributions to my thought-experiment. It would be impossible to name each person at SIUe who encouraged and supported me in my pursuit of a Master’s degree. The list would be long, and I am certain I would inadvertently omit someone. Nevertheless, the patience shown by Drs. Jeffrey Manuel, Jason Stacey, Robert Paulett, Victoria Harrison, Rowena McClinton, Eric Ruckh, and Tom Jordan is greatly appreciated. Each of these individuals was a significant contributor to my discovery and ownership of the proper method of historical research and writing.

In my pursuit of meaning-in-being, I attempted to incorporate portions of my thoughts in Meta-Quanta within many of the class papers I wrote for these professors over several years. Each allowed me to pursue this inner passion with graceful tolerance, even though what I wrote may not have transitioned well to the subject at hand. Thank you, each and every one of you, for your unwavering support and encouragement. Perhaps this iteration of thought will give some measure of substance to your patience.

Dennis O’Connor, a friend, and former PhD Professor of Engineering at SIUe shared his mind and thoughts with me regarding my ideas, and expressing those concepts in writing. Although Dennis’ insights to quantum theory became an astute sounding board for my ramblings, his depth of knowledge, in the pursuit of understanding our collective ownership of uncertainty, has contributed much more to what is within these pages than he knows. Dennis introduced me to Quantum Enigma, which paved the road to my thought-experiments in physics. I am certain we will continue to share thoughts and ideas for as many years as the fates allow. Thank you, Dennis, for your friendship and contributions to the whole of what I continue to attempt to accomplish.

My thoughts regarding human memory are an essential element to that which follows. Mervyn E. Goldbas, a former PhD Professor of Psychology at New York State University, Syracuse, opened my mind to the myriad possibilities of memory-interpretation as each of us sought a greater understanding of human memory capacity and our individual access to those memories. We spent many hours discussing our thoughts regarding memory in an attempt to attain a more complete understanding of the core of our being. As Marilou Awiakta reminds us: most of us, down deep, yearn for relationship, connection and meaning.¹ I hope our intellectual connection allowed me to make a meaningful contribution to Merv’s pursuits. He certainly influenced my processing of ideation regarding memory. Sadly, I have lost contact with Merv. Thank you Merv, wherever you are.

Dr. Robert Stanley Andersen graciously shared his time and thoughts in pursuit of this same knowing. I had the privilege of sharing his mind in his quest to illuminate a more tangible meaning of being. Doc opened his mind to me in discussions of Becker, Durant, Hegel, Hocking, Kant, Kim, Russell, and Spinoza, to name but a few he called friends in our collective search for a more enlightened explication of our illusive eternal-being identity. It was never enough that he would read these authors and know their thoughts. He always pursued the wisdom within those pages with a passion that demanded he digest and own their seeds of thought within his being. This model of method, and commitment to purpose, serves as an example for me each moment of my pursuit of the same. Sadly, Doc passed from this world on 22 September 2022. Meta-Quanta thus becomes metaphorical interest on his investment in my life. Thanks, Doc.

Within this same realm of discovery, discussions with PhD psychologist David Klein have been most interesting and rewarding. Dave has listened to my thoughts with great patience; although, from the look on his face at times, I suspect he may have been wondering if I was adrift in the ethereal mist of some distant star system, or perhaps embracing the companionship of Peter and Wendy in Never Land. Nevertheless, he has offered insights that have contributed to what I hope will become a more articulate presentation of my thoughts. Thank you, Dave.

Ron Milam, PhD professor of history at Texas Tech University, and the TTU Fulbright Scholar to Vietnam, had a greater influence than he knows in my quest to present my thoughts in book form. At a point in time when I was still uncertain of my ability to write comprehensively, he helped me know and better understand some of my capabilities. Ron, thank you for all that you have brought to my life, and my pursuit of universal knowledge.

I must also thank my wife Debby and our children, Zeb, Abbi, and Sarah, for their continuous support and patience in this process. They have graciously endured my ramblings as I transitioned through multiple iterations of idea and concept. Each of them, and Zeb’s wife Tana, listened with open-minded tolerance as I trod this uncertain trail of discovery, my pathway of thought evolution in the pursuit of knowing our meaning, our purpose, in earth-being existence, within our shared universal experience of consciousness. I know that at times this has been unsettling for each of you as I was emotionally absent on many occasions. Many of your needs were ignored. There were questions asked, and repeated time and again, as I nodded listening, but not really hearing, meals that grew cold waiting for me to complete just one more paragraph, and other inconveniences that challenged our relationships. Nevertheless, each of you were graciously tolerant of my single-minded focus. Debby, you have been particularly understanding and kind during this time. You were often a captive audience, patiently listening, time and again, as I attempted to refine my thoughts in the process of discovery. I hope the long hours of anticipation and frustration have been worth your commitment to me as there now appears to be an end in sight. Thank you, each of you. I love you dearly!!

And, last but certainly not least, I must thank my sister Terri for her patience in reading the multiple permutations of my original essays and the tomes that followed. Her questions and suggestions became significant contributors to the end-product. This book is better because of her efforts, and I hope it reflects her contributions. Thank you, Terri.

In addition to those mentioned above, I have tossed my ideas on the winds of thought to those who would patiently listen, and discuss the merits, or lack thereof, of what I was trying to formulate. Although there are too many to name each one, you know who you are. I thank you, each and every one of you.

FOREWORD

In the process of researching materials for Meta-Quanta, I frequently encountered the idea that our journey over this uncertain path is in many ways guided by things that we know and, perhaps more importantly, by things we know that we do not know. Although this concept has its roots in multiple sources, Robbert Dijkgraaf is the individual who impressed me with his presentation of humanity knowing that we do not know the answers to multiple questions regarding who and what we are, even though we already are that which we do not know that we are. This single statement presents an interesting conundrum in our search for reality.

When we use the idiom we know, as an absolute confirming a particular observational perspective regarding our universe, and our place in that universe, we must do so with the knowledge that what we deem as reality, at this point in time, is a reflection of the evolution of human thought over millennia. An excellent example of this can be found by observing what we know regarding the speed of light and what this means to our perception of universal reality. Our understanding of the speed of light, and the effects of light speed within our universe, has undergone significant change over time. From 1676 to 1905 and beyond, Ole Römer, Sir Isaac Newton, James Clerk Maxwell, Albert Michelson, Edward Morley, and Albert Einstein have each played an instrumental role in our understanding of the speed of light. The evolution of thought regarding the speed of light orchestrates the geometry of special and general relativity. The speed of light as a constant, is but one of the knowns we use to understand what we believe we know.

When we use the phrase we know that we do not know we must realize this engenders ideas that become thought-experiments in our attempt to discover the hidden reality underlying all that is. It seems that our continual discovery of knowns exhumes more unknowns—unknows that are realities—even though we know that we do not know what those realities are. The hidden realities we hope to discover already exist, awaiting our intellectual evolution to disinter them from the bowels of philosophy, physics and science. This cannot be denied.

Knowns and Unknowns

• We know that the speed of light is constant.

• We know that nothing, no object, no signal, no information of any kind, can travel faster than the speed of light.

• We know that light is