Vinaire's Blog

Reference: Disturbance Theory

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Historically, there has been confusion between matter and emptiness because it is difficult to conceive of emptiness. Matter is substance. Emptiness is absence of substance. It is impossible to visualize absence of something.

Aristotle viewed things as made of matter. To him, matter and thought were complementary principles.

Later Descartes argued that the inherent properties of bodies were limited to extension, and the so-called secondary qualities, like color, were only products of human perception. Thus, he conceived of matter as a thing in itself that was independent of thought. He arbitrarily postulated matter to be some abstract, mathematical substance that occupies space.

Newton developed Descartes’ notion of matter by attributing to it the intrinsic properties of extension, hardness, impenetrability, mobility, and inertia. To him, “secondary” qualities, such as color or taste, were those that were not amenable to mathematical description. Newton was, however, troubled by the notion of gravity as “action at a distance.”

Einstein then explained “action at a distance” by developing Faraday’s concept of field. He made a critical summary of the development of his ideas in a paper Relativity & Problem of Space near the end of his life.

Einstein’s paper explains the following among other things.

• The electromagnetic field is a substance more basic than matter.
• The concept of space is derived from the extensions of substance.

The Disturbance Theory develops these concepts further.

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Reference: Disturbance Theory

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For a long time, in Physics, the basic substance was thought to be MATTER. Everything was matter. But this changed at the beginning of the 20th century. It was finally established that the electromagnetic phenomena consisted of a substance that was finer than matter. This substance was the electromagnetic field. The concept of substance suddenly expanded from matter to electromagnetic field consisting of a wide spectrum of frequencies.

The disturbance theory postulates that the actuality of substance is represented by inertia. Atomic matter is a substance of “high level” of inertia. Electromagnetic field is a substance of “low level” of inertia. Thus there is a spectrum of inertia. The lower part of this spectrum is occupied by the field. The upper part of this spectrum is occupied by matter. The field has its own spectrum that includes the electromagnetic spectrum. The matter also has a spectrum, that includes gases, liquids, solids, plasma, and the substances of neutron stars and black holes.

The zero on the spectrum of inertia is the theoretical point of zero inertia, which means complete “absence of substance”. We may label it as EMPTINESS. Emptiness is also be a point of non-actuality because actuality comes from the presence of substance. The disturbance theory postulates that actuality of substance appears in the form of a “disturbance”. It has a characteristic frequency. Thus, frequency is an indication of inertia. This is supported by the fact that frequency of radiation maintains itself until it is forced to change through some interaction.

Matter appears on this spectrum when the frequency has become so high that it collapses into mass. The appearance of nucleus within an atom is an example of this phenomenon. The Disturbance theory looks at atom as a whirlpool within the field where frequency is rapidly increasing toward the center. At the center, the frequency  becomes so high that it collapses into mass. Infinity of inertia indicates an extremely dense substance, such as that of the neutron star or black hole.

Space and time are characteristics of substances. They are not substances themselves.  Therefore, the presence of space and time indicates that there is some underlying substance. Thus matter has the characteristics of rigid space and enduring time.  On the other hand, field includes the whole electromagnetic spectrum and it behaves like the rough surface of a sea with its dynamically changing frequencies. The space of field is not rigid, and its time is fluctuating. The space that we see around us, has field underlying it. It is full of frequency gradients and force. This explains the presence of dark energy and dark matter in space. It is incorrect to think that space is something that matter occupies.

Thus, the spectrum of inertia ranges from theoretical zero frequency of EMPTINESS to “infinitely complex frequency” of extremely dense substance. This spectrum covers the range of all possible substances including so-called thought substance.

The spectrum of inertia is a brand new concept. It provides a structure to describe all possible substances. Its usefulness shall be ascertained with the unfolding of the disturbance theory.

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