Needless Knots
Detangling the unnecessary tension between ourselves and the physical world around us.
If quantum physics is good for anything, it’s for bending our perspective of how the world works, and really rubbing the limits of perception into our face.
Outside of laboratories, the quantum world doesn’t typically carry the torches too far beyond the shortening shadows of our imagination.
But when we apply principles of physics to our conscious interactions with reality — in how we move through our surrounding world — we can at least unravel some unnecessary knots in the tangles of expectation.
Because a big source of friction in the way we interact with our environment comes from the imposition of our human experience onto the natural order of things.
We tend to over-personify the nature of reality and over-refine chaos into order; all the while we echo-locate atop our own reverb of assumptions and desires.
In such a way, we create an immense amount of unneeded tension as we cling to constancy or control in a dynamic and uncontrollable world.
If we pick the right battles, embrace ambiguity, prioritize focus, or zoom out every now and again, we can move through life with a lot less friction. If we look at the curious happenstance of atoms and galaxies — if we realize that we’re also the spooky actions at a distance — we can at least scrape some of the unneeded barnacles from the bottoms of our voyage.
In so doing, we can maybe even open up the playbooks of potentiality just a bit more.
Below is an application of concepts out of physics (from quantum to classic) onto our conscious movement that serve to reshape some perspective.
Superposition
“The boundless contains all opposites , and from it, they come into being.” - Anaximander
The idea is that particles exist in all possible states simultaneously until measured, at which point they collapse into a singular state.
Superposition challenges our classical intuition about reality, suggesting that possibilities coexist until a definitive event occurs. It completely redefines the way that consciousness interacts with possibility.
Likened to the dualism of Buddhism — whereby reality is often described as transcending binary distinctions (self vs. other, existence vs. non-existence) — the process of filtering the world via a state of superpositioned agency creates a wildly different interaction between the subjective and the objective, of causality and of many other variables like determinism and relativity.
Superposition’s coexistence of states mirrors this idea that reality exists beyond any fixed categories. In applying this to a capacity for consciousness, it can be seen how a transcendence of binary states is possible.
This affords an embrace of the multiplicity of perspective - I.e. uncertain yet confident, happy yet melancholy.
Many Worlds Interpretation
“The eternal hourglass of existence is turned upside down again and again, and you with it.” - Nietszche
Proposed by Hugh Everett, MWI posits that every event spawns parallel universes in a limitless occurrence of infinite outcomes.
Extravagant and untestable, it’s nonetheless a staple theory in numerous quantum spheres, one from which we can extract some hefty propositions from.
If every choice creates a new universe, our actions are both significant (shaping our world) and inconsequential (meaninglessly infinite). Our causal spins around the torus loops of existence mean nothing to everything. All or nothing.
This carries some baggage.
Clinging to one “correct” path essentially becomes futile in the face of an infinitude of avenues; such infinity also prompts inexhaustible levels of possibility.
Because all choices are realized somewhere, we could do better: allocate focus on the present actualities rather than the hypothetical potentialities.
Holographic Principle
“There are things known and there are things unknown, and in between are the doors of perception.” - Huxley
Proposed by Gerard 't Hooft and Leonard Susskind, the idea goes that the universe is a 2D projection encoded on a cosmic surface, with our 3D reality emerging like a hologram. It’s rooted in black hole physics, where all information is preserved on the event horizons of existence.
The concept that our reality is a projection challenges our perception of space and matter. While a stretch to over-impose a theory of what happens in a black hole to all of reality, there’s an intuitive proposition that taps its roots all the way to the times that Plato made allegories about caves.
If reality is a hologram, our experiences may be an illusion derived from deeper, encoded information, prompting questions about free will and existence.
The Hindu concept of Maya describes the world as an illusion veiling ultimate reality (Brahman), and our fascination with simulation theory delineates a fascination with the concept - at the very least.
Our brains construct reality based on incomplete data, often leading to misinterpretations that cause friction between the actuality of reality and what’s expected of it.
When navigating the discrepancies, it may be one arena whereby we’d want to shift from subjective to objective frames of reference, examining projections more closely to foster a greater sense of detachment from the causal chains or existence.
To not take things so personally.
Wheeler’s Participatory Universe / Observer Effect
“No phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon.” - Bohr
Wheeler proposed that the universe requires observers to exist, as quantum measurements shape reality retroactively (e.g., delayed-choice experiments). This suggests a participatory cosmos where consciousness co-creates existence.
It runs opposite of the last two points and, instead, recommends some subjectivity.
If reality is co-created, perceptions and choices play a cosmic role. Beliefs shape reality.
Wheeler’s theory could thus encourage intentional focus on positive participation to avoid creating undesirable outcomes.
It’s from such a premise that we build the self-fulfilling philosophies and laws of attractions - all the untenable but marketable ways by which we can ‘manifest’ reality.
Without being so dramatic, we can simply be mindful of how our thoughts and observations shape experience or enact possibility; how we navigate towards the outcomes we orient towards, subconsciously or not.
String Theory
“Learn how to see. Realize that everything connects to everything else.” - Da Vinci
String theory proposes up to almost a dozen dimensions, with most curled up at subatomic scales. Fundamental particles are vibrations of tiny “strings” in these dimensions.
While the supra-dimensionality is unobservable, and while string theory lacks testable predictions, many appreciate its ability to unify some of the loose threads to our existence (friction via relativity and gravity, or quantumelectrodynamics).
If a multitude of extra dimensions do exist, our reality is a wrinkle in a structure much more vast, one that urges humility and openness to unseen possibility.
It could also mean that the unseen layers of reality hold a greater influence over our specific streams of existence, encouraging us to not only trust and revere the unknown, but to lean into it more actively.
Entanglement
“The total number of minds in the universe is one.” - Schrodinger
Entangled particles exhibit physics-defying behaviour, violating classical notions of locality and distance. Nonlocality challenges our understanding of space and causality, implying many things forbidden by relativity.
Depending on how it’s absorbed, it either carries some frustrating baggage or opens up some wild possibilities.
Entanglement suggests an interconnected universe, where separation is an illusion. The divides that we seem all too quick to carve out - internal and external of ourselves - seem too unnatural to justify.
Seeing as how we’re all vulnerable mites breeding atop an orbiting speck of dust in a vast and unknowable cosmos - it puts things into perspective, one of an incomprehensible but still appreciable totality.
Entropy
“Nothing endures but change.” - Heraclitus
Entropy measures the tendency of systems to move toward disorder over time. In a closed system, energy disperses and chaos increases unless an external influence is applied to maintain order.
Resistance to change and clinging to control creates tension because of this inevitable trend towards disorder. Accepting that intended outcomes can unravel reduces the unneeded tension that comes with fighting inevitability.
Discerning what could/should be influenced and employing a selective focus helps to temper expectations and carve out some subjective semblance of order in an otherwise disordered world.
Conservation of Energy
“The sum total of things remains the same, though nature works by constant change.” - Lucretius
Energy can’t be created or destroyed, only transformed or transferred. In any system, the total amount of energy remains constant, but its distribution matters.
Personal energy (cognitive, physiological) is finite. Exerting it on unnecessary conflicts, overthinking, or unproductive habits would obviously deplete capacity for other, more meaningful pursuits.
How we allocate our resources matters. How our dispositions influence our neurochemistry and our psycho emotional states; how our foods impact our biochemistry and how our attitudes shape our behaviour systems.
Miraculously, despite limits to our bandwidth, we’re still able to exert some measure of choice over the whole affair.
Inertia
“Every body continues in its state of rest, or of uniform motion, unless it is compelled to change that state by forces impressed upon it.” - Newton
An object at rest stays at rest, and an object in motion stays in motion.
Habits, mindsets, or emotional states (i.e. procrastination) persist due to inertia. Tension arises when we remain stuck in harmful patterns or resist necessary change.
This speaks to the dynamism of reality, and that stagnation can plague us in more ways than we realize, along with the fact that momentum applies to endeavors both constructive or destructive.
Relativity
“Time and space are modes by which we think, not conditions in which we live.” - Einstein
Time and space are relative, shaped by perspective and context (e.g., time dilation near massive objects or at high speeds).
Our subjective frames reference are always at odds with what we expect the objective frames to be.
Perceptions of problems or stressors are entirely subjective and often magnified up-close vantage points. What feels significant in one singular point of space or time could be insignificant in a broader context; what may seem insignificant or negative now could be seen as a catalyst for something incalculably more positive later.
Temporary setbacks should be regarded in a larger context or in relation to the grander patterns at play, and the subjectivity of a position shouldn’t always be so quickly disregarded for the sake of objectivity.
Wave-Particle Duality
“In everything, there is a portion of everything.” - Anaxagoras
Particles exhibit both wave-like and particle-like behavior, depending on how they’re observed.
By some standards, it’s thus be deduced that reality is inherently flexible and shaped by perspective; or to quantum-devotees, possibilities are enacted via the observer effect.
This malleability is something that can be leveraged as opposed to admonished. Rigid thinking—insisting on any given "right" way to live, to work, or to solve problems—creates tension because much like a quantum system, life is multifaceted.
Embracing ambiguity allows for adaptability; moving with the waves enhances our ability to tread water in the seas of probability.
Equilibrium
“To go beyond is as wrong as to fall short.” - Confucius
Systems naturally seek balance, like a settling pendulum or fading wind gust; forces in opposition always work toward a stable state.
It could then be implied that any given tension often stems from imbalance—overworking, neglect, or compulsion.
Moderation and balance often seems to be the only answer for disciplined continuity, and a well-paced, homeostatic approach will often see greater odds of success.
These theories all work to reveal a universe that is interconnected (entanglement), multifaceted (superposition, MWI), layered (holographic principle, extra dimensions), participatory (Wheeler’s universe), and vast (multiverse). They challenge rigid, singular views of reality, which often cause tension when we cling to control, certainty, or isolation.
They guide us to some valuable revelations:
To Embrace ambiguity and hold multiple possibilities lightly;
To trust that all choices play out somehow or somewhere, allowing us to keep an open periphery while focusing on the present;
To question reality and see stressors or agonists as projections, not absolute truths;
To explore the hidden layers and look at the extra dimensionality of things while reflecting on the subconscious drivers of tension;
And to zoom out once in a while, bending perspective on things and not viewing everything so subatomically or cosmically.
