Substratum

I recently read a book published this September by a professor from Vanderbilt University. The guy has such dry academic writing style that reading the book was like eating sawdust. Nevertheless, there was a grain of interesting thought in it that provoked my thinking.

As I mulled over the idea from his book and others I thought of a hypothesis which might be interesting food for thought. Most of this idea is borrowed; I have attempted to link them together and see if there is a pattern.

Thought 1: The Table

I was wondering the other day the function of a table. It provides support. It is made of wood (or metal or whatever) and can withstand a fair bit of weight. The adjective that comes to mind when you think of a table is strength, support etc.

If a table can support a whole lot of weight, then I wonder how strong the earth is to support the ‘weight of the world’ as it were. And then I ask what is the ‘table’ that supports this entire universe? Clearly, table is a metaphor for support. But the question is how ‘strong’ is this table that supports the entire universe? Hence the title of this essay – substratum.

So my first thought is what is the strength and nature of the substratum of this universe.

Thought 2: Empty space

I directly borrow from endless (one way!) conversations with my Dad, who as many of you know is a physicist, on this second thought – empty space. Going back to the example of the table. It is strong and it supports. However it is all emptiness. The table is made of ‘wood’ molecules to put it simplistically. Each molecule is separated by atoms and a bond between them. A molecule is mostly space. And then within the atom, with the nucleus and electrons – it is also mostly space.

So the entire damn table (pardon the French) is mostly empty space that happens to be bonded to gether with molecules and atoms. So the second thought that I postulate for your thinking is that what we grossly perceive as matter is indeed energy occupying space.

Connect thought 2 to thought 1, the substratum is energy in space.

Thought 3: Dynamo

I borrow this thought 3 from the book by the Vanderbilt University professor. The act of writing this email to you is an act of creation. An artist paints a picture. An architect constructs a building. These are all acts of creation. The world is not static, it is dynamic. Also it is fair to hypothesize, I suppose, that it is also not random, but indeed coherent.

If the world were random, then you would not have ‘wood’ and ‘iron’ for the table example discussed above. These are two distinct entities throughtout earth. Wood is not random. Iron is not random. If the world were random, we would not have wood and iron, but rather, goo!

This third and final thought is that there is creative energy in the universe that creates flowers, music, trees, ideas etc.

The universe is not static but a dynamo that ‘creates’.

IV. Summary: Substratum

So I draw you to this hypothesis that I am mulling over – the substratum of this universe is one that supports all in the most subtle sense of the word – ‘support’. It is a form of energy that we sometimes grossly perceive as matter. And it is not static, but an intensively creative dynamo that creates in meaningful ways the universe that we physically see and experience.