What is matter? Is matter real? Where does it come from? What is nothingness? From relativity and quantum field theory to Buddhism and our objectification of Nature; this video explores the process through which science found out that matter is not really made out of matter. Materialism: The world view that physical matter is the only reality or that matter is the fundamental substance in Nature, and that all phenomena - including thoughts, feelings, emotions, consciousness and intent - can be explained in terms of material interactions. Full script here: http://crackingthenutshell.com/the-fall-of-materialism Summary: - Materialism vs physicalism - What is matter? - Classical idea: particles possessing properties such as extension, shape, density, location, momentum or impenetrability - Three main blows to materialism. First one: special and general relativity brought matter and energy into a kind of equivalence. No fundamental ontological division between matter and energy. - Then came quantum physics' wave-particle duality: the idea of a realm of possibility only becoming actuality upon the act of measurement / observation. Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty principle also applies to the pair time-energy, which allows energy of the vacuum to fluctuate in such a way that unobservable ‘virtual’ particles can pop in an out of existence all the time - Atoms mostly empty space - Third blow came from quantum field theory. In this model, material particles can only be understood as the properties of an underlying field, a field which manifests differently at different points in space-time. Sean Carroll's and Bernard d'Espagnat explain the idea - Quantum field theory is based on the idea that reality, at its core, is ultimately just this one thing. That matter emerges from “something” that we can’t even begin to comprehend, even less describe - Lawrence Krauss. Something from Nothing? His use of the word “nothing” is rather ambiguous - in no way this “nothingness” denotes the absence of anything, nor it describes a state of utter non-existence - Very interesting to see the parallels between the way current science is trying to describe this nothingness, attempting to explain the creation of something from nothing, and the way humanity has tried to explain these same concepts in Eastern philosophical traditions such as Buddhism, Taoism or Hinduism - .The concept of Nothingness in Buddhism for instance is usually translated as Emptiness: it means no-thing-ness. The state of emptiness has no names, no attributes, no qualities, no differentiation. It is ineffable, formless, meaning it cannot be described in any terms at all, it cannot be conceptualised, it cannot be objectified. It precedes differentiation, it precedes form - The idea that matter is the ultimate reality has been completely crushed by modern physics models - Further examples: quantum tunnelling. neither the supposed material particle can be said to follow a defined trajectory nor can it be said to travel through the wall. No, it turns out that the so-called material particle simply disappears from one side of the wall and then magically reappears on the other side, without having to physically cross the barrier! - Then came the ideas of dark matter and dark energy. And the ideas behind string theory, which describe matter as nothing but the vibration of invisible, unmeasurable strings - It seems that the only things we have left to cling onto in modern science are nothing but our own conceptual, abstract ideas which, for better or worse, are the only tools we have left when it comes to describing the immateriality of that which we cannot directly measure, the immateriality of that which seems to appear out of nowhere - “Matter is not made of matter.” Hans-Peter Dürr, Physicist - Time for the West to start looking at reality through a different, more mature lens. - Could it be that matter is nothing more than our own subjective experience of solidity, extension and locality? What if matter is just a conceptual construction derived from a familiar experience within consciousness? Perhaps the ultimate reality is indeed just this indescribable, undifferentiated Something-ness, or shall we say this No-thing-ness, this Void, this Emptiness, this realm of formless, unbounded potentiality, a realm from which all experiences and forms ultimately arise - including our own conscious experience, including our own conceptualisation of this immaterial thing we love to call matter - “As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such.” - Max Planck, Das Wesen der Materie - “Materialism is the philosophy of the subject who forgets to take account of himself" - Arthur Schopenhauer

• published: 25 Nov 2014
• views: 10543