The Non-Local Universe

In The Non-Local Universe, Nadeau and Kafatos offer a revolutionary look at the breathtaking implications of nonlocality. They argue that since every particle in the universe has been "entangled" with other particles like the two photons in the 1997 experiments, physical reality on the most basic level is an undivided wholeness. In addition to demonstrating that physical processes are vastly interdependent and interactive, they also show that more complex systems in both physics and biology display emergent properties and/or behaviors that cannot be explained in terms of the sum of the parts. One of the most startling implications of nonlocality in human terms, claim the authors, is that there is no longer any basis for believing in the stark division between mind and world that has preoccupied much of western thought since the seventeenth century. And they also make a convincing case that human consciousness can now be viewed as emergent from, and seamlessly connected with, the entire cosmos.

In pursuing this groundbreaking argument, the authors provide a fascinating history of developments that led to the discovery of nonlocality and the sometimes heated debates among the great scientists responsible for these discoveries. They also argue that advances in scientific knowledge have further eroded the boundaries between physics and biology, and that recent studies on the evolution of the human brain suggest that the logical foundations of mathematics and ordinary language are much more similar than we previously imagined. What this new knowledge reveals, the authors conclude, is that the connection between mind and nature is far more intimate than we previously dared to imagine. What they offer is a revolutionary look at the implications of nonlocality, implications that reach deep into that most intimate aspect of humanity--consciousness.

Contents

• Introduction.......................................................vii
• CHAPTER 1 Quantum Nonlocality: An Amazing New Fact of Nature........1
• CHAPTER 2 Leaving the Realm of the Visualizable: Waves,
• Quanta, and the Rise of Quantum Theory..............................17
• CHAPTER 3 Quantum Connections: Wave-Particle Dualism...............41
• CHAPTER 4 Over Any Distance in "No Time": Bell's Theorem and
• the Aspect and Gisin Experiments....................................65
• CHAPTER 5 Ways of Knowing: A New Epistemology of Science...........83
• CHAPTER 6 The Logic of Nature: Complementarity and the New
• Biology............................................................105
• CHAPTER 7 The Evolution of Mind: The Symbol-Making Animal.........125
• CHAPTER 8 Mind Matters: Mego-Narratives and the Two-Culture
• War................................................................147
• CHAPTER 9 Mind Matters: Metaphysics in Quantum Physics............177
• CHAPTER 10 Mind Matters: Poets of a New Reality...................195
• Notes..............................................................219
• Index..............................................................229