note 2

Note 2

In Natural Science it is attempted to reduce all macroscopic phenomena to microscopic phenomena, as to a lowest level, and this is the quantum level (whether this 'reductionistic dream' will ever come true, nobody can say yet). At that level we have arrived at a 'granular' substrate, in which the grains cannot be divided further anymore, in virtue of the fundamental quantum of action, h, Planck's constant. At this level the world looks quite different, showing very strange phenomena.
At the macroscopic level the quantum of action (i.e. the fact that there is a smallest quantum of action) is insignificant, because of the smallness of this quantum. At the macroscopic level it is the bulk ( = large quantity of matter ) which is predominant, resulting in the emergence of properties, which are absent at the microscopic level, but nevertheless originate from that level. They are 'bulk properties' like "(being) liquid", "warm", "green". And, ..."greenness disintegrates".... (namely while descending into the microscopic domain, and thus (finding one self) in (the context of) the explanation of "greenness". See HOFSTADTER, D., Metamagical Themas : Questing for the Essence of Mind and Pattern, 1985 (1987), Chapter 20 : Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle and the Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics, especially p. 475--477).

******************

back to main text