Scientific Investigations Into the Essence of Matter

All the information we have about the world weNow, when the patient wants to pick up a glass,
live in is conveyed to us by our five senses. Thehe moves his right shoulder upward. This
world we know consists of what our eye sees,movement sends an electrical signal from the
our hand feels, our nose smells, our tongueposition sensor, worn under his clothing, to the
tastes, and our ears hear. We never think thatstimulator in his chest, which amplifies it and
the "external" world can be other than what ourpasses it along to appropriate muscles in his arm
senses present to us, since we've been dependingand hand. They contract in response, and his left
on only those senses since the day we werehand closes. When he wants to release the glass,
born.he moves his right shoulder downward, and his
However, modern scientific research in manyleft hand opens.
different fields points to a wholly differentThe University of Louvain in Brussels used a
understanding, creating serious doubt about oursimilar application of technology in relation to
senses and the world we perceive with them.eyesight. A patient's rod and cone cells had
This approach's starting point is the notion thatdegenerated, causing the retina to become
any "external world" is only a response created ininsensitive to light. Consequently, she became blind.
our brain by electrical signals. The red hue of anAn electrode implanted around her right optic
apple, the hardness of wood, your mother,nerve enabled her to regain partial sight.
father, your family, and everything that youIn this patient's case, the electrode was
own—your house, your job,—and even theconnected to a stimulator placed inside a cavity in
lines of this article, are composed of electricalthe skull. A video camera, worn on a cap,
signals only.transmitted the images to the stimulator in the
In this picture, we see someone who feels himselfform of radio signals, bypassing the damaged rod
skiing on the mountains, whereas there is reallyand cone cells, and delivered the electric signals
neither skis nor snow. This illusion is artificiallydirectly to the optic nerve. The brain's visual
created.cortex reassembled these signals to form an
Thanks to present technological developments, it'simage. The patient's experience is comparable to
possible to have realistic experiences without thewatching a miniature stadium billboard, but the
need for an "external world" or "matter." Thequality is nevertheless sufficient to prove that this
incredible advancement in virtual reality technologysystem is viable.
has come up with some especially convincingThis system is called a "Microsystem-based Visual
proofs.Prosthesis," a device permanently implanted into
To put it simply, virtual reality is the projection ofthe patient's head. But to make it all work, the
computer-generated three-dimensional imagespatient needs to go to a specially designated
that appear to be real with the aid of someroom in the University of Louvain and wear what
devices. This technology, with its diverse range oflooks like a badly damaged bathing cap. The
applications, is known as "virtual reality," "virtualbathing cap is made of plastic with a standard
world," or "virtual environment." Its mostvideo camera installed on its front. The more
important feature is that by the use of somepixels there are to form an image on the screen,
purposely constructed devices, it misleads thethe greater the number of electrical stimulations;
person experiencing it into believing the experiencetherefore, the greater the resolution quality of the
to be real. In recent years, the word "immersive''image.
has begun to be used in front of the term "virtualThe same article referred to an interesting show
reality," reflecting the way that witnesses areby a performance artist who made use of the
literally immersed in the experience.same technology:
The rationale of any virtual reality system isDuring one 1998 performance, Stelarc wired
based on our five human senses. For instance,himself up directly to the Internet. His body was
when the user puts on a special glove, devicesdotted with electrodes—on his deltoids, biceps,
inside transmit signals to the fingertips. Whenflexors, hamstrings and calf muscles—that
these signals are relayed to and interpreted bydelivered gentle electric shocks, just enough to
the brain, the user experiences the sensation ofnudge the muscles into involuntary contractions.
touching a silk fabric or ornate vase, completeThe electrodes were connected to a computer,
with all of its surface details—without any suchwhich was in turn linked via the Internet to
thing actually existing in the environment.computers in Paris, Helsinki and Amsterdam. By
One of virtual reality's foremost applications is inpressing various parts of a rendering of a human
medicine. Michigan University has developed abody on a touch screen, participants at all three
technology that trains assistant practitioners—insites could make Stelarc do whatever they
particular, the personnel of emergencywished.
wards—to learn their skills in a virtual reality lab,These technologies, provided that they can be
in which environment is created by projecting thesufficiently reduced in size and placed inside the
details of an operating room onto the floor, walls,body, will pave the way for radically new
and ceiling of a room. The "picture" is completeddevelopments in medicine. These developments
by projecting an operating table, complete withdemonstrate another important fact: The external
the patient to be operated on, onto the center ofworld is a copied image that we watch in our
the room. The surgeons-to-be put on their 3-Dminds…
glasses and begin their "virtual" operation. AndThe New Scientist's April 27, 2002 issue with its
anyone viewing the images reflected on the 3-Dcover story, "Hollow Universe" and headline, "Why
glasses cannot distinguish a real operating roomwe all live in a hologram."
from this virtual one.The Time article showed practical examples of
Do We Live in a Holographic Universe?how we can create perceptions like sight or touch
New Scientist is one of the best-known scienceby artificially created impulses. The most obvious
magazines. Its March 27, 2002 cover story wasproof is that a blind person was able to see.
written by scientist J.R. Minkel, titled "HollowDespite the patient's eye not being functional, she
Universe." "Why we all live in a hologram" thecould see by means of artificially created signals.
cover headline reported. To sum up the article,"The Body Electric," an article in Time magazine's
we perceive the world as a single bundle of light.March 11, 2002 issue, contained evidence proving
Therefore, it would be a mistake to considerthat the external world is a copied image in our
matter as the absolute truth by relying on ourmind.
perceptions. Admits Minkel:Can the Virtual Worlds of Some Films Be
You're holding a magazine. It feels solid; it seemsDuplicated in the Real World?
to have some kind of independent existence inIn "Life is a sim and then you're deleted," an
space. Ditto the objects around you—perhapsarticle published in the July 27, 2002 issue of New
a cup of coffee, a computer. They all seem realScientist magazine, Michael Brooks states that we
and out there somewhere. But it's all an illusion.might well be living in a virtual world not unlike the
Minkel's article states that some scientists call thisone in the film Matrix: "No need to wait for Matrix
idea the "theory of everything," and that2 to come out. You could already be living in a
scientists consider this theory the first stepgiant computer simulation... Of course you thought
towards explaining the nature of the universe.The Matrix was fiction. But only because you
This magazine article explains scientifically that wewere meant to."
perceive the universe as an illusion in our brainsAuthor Brooks supports his views by quoting
and that, therefore, we are not interacting withphilosopher Nick Bostrom of Yale University, who
matter itself.believes that Hollywood movies come much
Perceptions Lost to the Senses, Recovered withcloser to reality than we realize. He calculates, too,
Artificial Signalsthat there is some probability that we are living in
In its March 11, 2002 issue, Time magazinea simulated or virtual world as some movies
published an article entitled "The Body Electric,"depict.
revealing an important scientific development. TheThe scientific fact, much better understood in
article reported that scientists melded computerrecent years, that we are not interacting with
chips with patients' nervous systems to treatmatter itself, causes people to reflect more
permanent damage to their senses.deeply. This situation, the frequent inspiration for
With their newly developed systems, researchersmovies, points out that virtual environments
in the USA, Europe and Japan aimed to give sightrecreate reality so realistically that people can be
to the blind and help paralyzed patients recover.fooled by these illusionary images.
They have already achieved partial success withMaterialism, Like Every Other False Philosophy,
this new system by planting electrodes into theHas Been Destroyed
relevant areas of the body, and silicon chips wereThe philosophy of materialism has existed
used to connect artificial limbs with living tissue.throughout history. Its adherents relied on the
Following an accident, a Danish patient by thesupposedly absolute existence of matter while
name of Brian Holgersen was paralyzed from thedenying God, Who has created them from
neck down, except for very limited movement innothing and also created for them the universe
his shoulders, left arm and left hand. As is known,they live in. But the clear evidence leaves no
such paralysis is caused by damage to the spinalroom for discussion. Consequently, matter
cord in the neck and back. The nerves aredisappears—on which they based their lives and
damaged or blocked, disabling neural trafficthoughts, pride and denial. By their own research,
between brain and muscles, and cutting offstrangely enough, materialist scientists discovered
communication between the nerves that transmitthat everything they see is not matter itself, but
signals back and forth from the body to the brain.in reality a copy or image formed in the brain.
With this patient, the aim was to bridge his spinalAnd thus, they themselves brought down their
cord's damaged area with an implant, lettingmaterialist beliefs.
signals from the brain bring back a littleThe twenty-first century is a turning point in
movement to the arms and legs.history, in which this reality will spread among all
They used a system designed to recover basicpeoples, and materialism will be wiped from the
functions of the left hand, like grasping, holdingface of the Earth. Some, under the influence of
and releasing objects. In an operation, eight smallthe materialist philosophy, who believed that
coin-sized flexible cuff electrodes were implantedmatter is absolute, now have come to realize that
into the muscles responsible for thosethey themselves are illusions, that the only
movements in the patient's upper left arm,absolute being is God, Whose Being encompasses
forearm and shoulder. Later, ultrathin wiresall there is. This reality is revealed in one of the
connected these electrodes to a stimulator—averses:
kind of pacemaker for the nervous system—God bears witness that there is no god but Him,
implanted in his chest. The stimulator was in turnas do the angels and the people of knowledge,
linked to a position-sensing unit attached toupholding justice. There is no god but Him, the
Holgersen's right shoulder—over which heAlmighty, the All-Wise.
retains some motor control.