The more I study the subatomic world of quantum physics, the more I realize that we are all the same, small parts of the one universe. Despite the sure solidity that this evokes in me, I always come back to this question: if we are all made fundamentally of the same, why do we feel so separate? That really would be anyone’s guess; here are mine:

The only reason that we live in such a fragmented world is because we have a fragmented worldview. People often made a point early in their lives to commit to a particular worldview and hold on for dear life and, as individuals, this means that we will (and obviously have) always disagreed on some fundamental issues.

Consider the story of the Native American chief and Christopher Columbus. Legend has it that the chief looked out to the water for several days noticing ripples and waves that he couldn’t explain in open and otherwise calm waters. Finally, after several days of this, sailing ships began to come into view and it became obvious that they were causing the disturbance. Christopher Columbus and the crew of the Nina, the Pinta and the Santa Maria landed shortly thereafter. It has been speculated that perhaps the chief reported an inability to see the ships simply because the ships exceeded the limitations of his worldview to such a degree that his brain and senses needed time to adapt.

No need to take that story seriously; just think of it as an analogy. What could we begin to see if we opened our minds to the possibility?

A second and more scientific theory is that, given that our brain takes in 40 billion bits of information per second and processes only 2000, our brains are simply limited by their biology. We see everything, every possibility, and our brains (due to biology and a closed mind within) simply chooses to ignore the things that exceed the limits of our own collective worldview. 2000 out of 40 billion – just imagine.

Given that second theory, I think that it is likely that, in the light of further technological advances and scientific discoveries, there will be a very large-scale paradigm shift within the next 50 years. Would that paradigm shift allow us to perceive more of the true reality of nature than we do now? Would that necessarily be a good thing?

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