17. The Quantum Foam

Quantum theory postulates the existence of "quantum foam" at the Planck scale. All this usually means is that at this smallest possible scale reality is unresolvable. Because at that scale there can be no certainty about any kind of measurement.

What is generally missed about this is the nature of measurement. The reason for attempting to measure anything stems from the desire to learn something you don't know. It is by definition a present time action. It is a step into the unknown future.

The quantum realm is where the future resides. It is the part of Spacetime where time hasn't happened yet. The quantum foam is often characterized as being completely random. But this is only true in a very broad sense. 

On our usual scale of physical reality, many future events are quite predictable. We depend on this. In the language of quantum physics, it is called entanglement. On our everyday scale, we call it history.

The future holds everything that will ever be possible. The past holds everything that has already been actual. Every instant of now is an event of extracting a possibility out of the future and assigning its actualization to a new instant, which then becomes the past.  It becomes an instant in a chain of entangled events.

Within the quantum realm, the realm of possible futures, there are already probable entanglements. Likely links to events already in the past. When we arrive in an instant, we bring with us awareness of past entanglements. We bring with us hopes for favorable augmentations of these entanglements. Hopes that may lead to favorable futures.

These are not rare and mysterious ideas. Acts as mundane as opening a refrigerator door, hoping to find a carton of milk or a jug of orange juice, fit this model. Whatever you may be doing at this very instant fits this model.

The rarity is to pause for that instant and contemplate the act. To observe the way your possible futures link to your actual past. To know that your entire actual past is a history of such events. To know that even more mundane acts such as breathing, or swallowing a sip of milk, also fit this model. All tracing back to the quantum foam. Most moments are not momentous.

But when a momentous moment does come, it may be helpful to remember that all your earlier less momentous moments have prepared you for this one. In the meantime, you may pause now and then to consider how far that preparation has already taken you. You made it this far. All the way from a single thought in the quantum foam. Odds are good you will make it the rest of the way.





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