Science aims to reveal what the world really is.  Not what we think it should be or what we wish it to be but what it truly is.  Science seeks the true nature of nature.  But scientists have become increasingly aware that the world we see is only a shade of reality.  That the true nature of nature is an elusive entity.

An excerpt from my screenplay:
"No, the universe doesn't scare me.  In fact, it is the universe’s expanse that entices me.  I find solace in its enormity.  Looking out at the night sky, I see that I am just part of a bigger whole.  And through studying the rules and laws that govern it, I feel connected to it.  No, I don’t fear it.  I cherish it.  But what I do fear?... is the world within.  Because everything that occurs out in this sprawling universe is only revealed to me by my mind.  The entire universe might as well be squished between my ears... every burning star and every spinning galaxy."
-by Brett Vollert


     It is true that the world is revealed to us by our minds.  And one thing that continually is forgotten is that we did not evolve to see the world as it actually is, but instead in a way that best allows us to function within it.  We are here to survive and our sensory organs and central nervous system evolved to ensure just that.
       One example of this disconnect between reality and our mental image is colors.  There are no colors out in the world, only different wavelengths of light (most of which our mind cannot even recognize at all).  Colors are simply mental tags used by our minds to create a mental map of our environment.  Many people might not even see colors in the same way within their minds.  It is also theorized that bats, who see the world through echolocation, use color to create their mental map, even though their visual mapping system is not based on light but instead sound.  Once we realize that colors are only the mind's representation of waves, we begin to realize that our senses are merely meant to filter relevant data and our mind to organize that data to make it usable.
      The universe is a network of waves.  Quantum mechanics has taught us that down at the very small scales of reality, matter acts more like a wave than a thing.  Scientists call it a quantum cloud or a realm of possibilities, which is a very vague way of the scientific community saying, "we have no clue."  We have so many answers but we are still unable to tell what our world is made of.  And even so, life goes on.  Perhaps this lack of information is too little to distract us from the little things in life.  But once in a while, something small might catch our eye.  And we might wonder what the stuff of stuff is.
      Similarly, we cannot definitly define our consciousness scientifically and we are also finding that a conscious observer has a huge role to play in our universe.  For example, quantum physics has discovered that the universe might actually be observer affected and controlled.  This means that our universe is affected and changed by simply our act of observing it.  (see videos below)  We fell further into paranormal activity when Bells theorem discovered that objects can be affected instantaneously at a distance.  Indicating that the universe is non-local, everything is connected instantly.
      Magic was once used to explain unknown phenomena.  But now when a scientist speaks about the strangeness of the world it seems more like magic than logic,  more like philosophy than science.  With these recent discoveries, science has seemed to cross into the realm of magic.  The true nature of nature is much stranger that any could have imagined.  And a logical scientific community is scratching their heads in disbelief of a seemingly irrational reality.
-by: Brett Vollert


Dual Slit Experiment:

Quantum Consciousness:

 

   All men have looked up at the sky in wonder, but a few have looked down at the sky in awe.  Few have been wrapped in the dark arms of the universe.  And even fewer have seen all of mans existence shrink into a pale blue dot as Carl Sagan so eloquently put it.  These men, through the help of our government were the pioneers of a new frontier.  And their efforts have paved the way for hundreds of new space fearing innovations like satellites, orbiting telescopes, and private space flight.  But even though this innovation has redefined the skyline, it still has found a glass ceiling encircling the earth.  This ceiling was once broken by the 12 men of Apollo who once miraculously took a stroll on the lunar surface.   But men have never flown farther or reached beyond our moon, possibly the budget is not there or the risk is too great.  So we satisfy our need for exploration with machines.  We send out probes to our neighboring planets and moons. And our robotic friends have sent back scientific data and shown us images of incredible foreign worlds.  But have they grasped the publics hearts and prodded at the core explorer's spirit of humanity?  No, they have had their 15 minutes of robot fame and they have keep us nerds occupied in this age of exploratory drought.  Apollo changed the world and inspired a whole generation of youth, it gave not only America but the whole world with it a feeling of invincibility.  "If we can put a man on the moon then what else can we do?"  Anything instantly became achievable and, in the decades following giving rise to the modern age, if you had asked a man on the street when we would land a man on Mars he might have responded, "10 maybe 20 years from now...anything is possible."  And he might have been right if we had not lost JFK's vision to, "go to the moon and do the other things, not because they are easy but because they are hard."
    Our world is crying out for change; we see it in our elections, in our media, and in our daily lives.  But change is not achieved through reorganizing the cards, but instead by reaching out and grabbing a new deck.  Our people need inspiration, man needs a frontier.  And there is one staring at us every night when the sun falls behind the horizon.  Perhaps we miss it in our beds at night under our warm covers. But man will not stay still for long.  Like a rebellious grounded child we will soon sneak out into the night sky.  Even tonight there might be a child dreaming of a stroll on mars, to be the first man or woman to stand on the red Martian soil.  On that day we will once again be reminded of humanity's limitless capability and people on every planet will realize that they have not yet reached a ceiling.  That the universe keeps on going and going.  And so should we.

-by: Brett Vollert


Here is a INCREDIBLY INTERESTING Panel discussing the future of space exploration at TAM convention featuring: Bill Nye, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Pamela Gay, and Lawrence Krauss

***If you want to skip forward past introductions, the core discussion begins at around minute 5:30***

Our goal here at DEEPS is to inspire thought. To not simply provide information, but to ignite imagination.  We challenge you to doubt, to question, and to ponder.  As the world is revealed we fight to understand it and search for a place within it's expanse.  Here at Deeps we aim to question what we know and dream of what might next be illuminated.

This first post will be a trial run in the form of a back and forth debate. We plan to have plenty of individual posts authored by both ourselves and guest authors but this will be hopefully the first installment in a series of monthly debates between the two of us on a variety of different topics.

The topic we plan on covering in September is the future of technology and its role in society:

Brett:  Technology has become such a integral part of human life and society it is almost as though it has evolved with us and its existence is now vital for the survival of the human race.  Without the current technology the population of the world would find themselves without the resources to live and the means to survive.  Has technology become the crutch that man stands with? Has it become so integral with our society that we would cease to be human without it?  And where does its involvement in society bring us to a different future?  Man has been unique that it is able to adapt the world around it to ensure its survival and, apart from fire, there has never been a bigger leap in technology than in modern times.  My great grandmother saw over the past 100 years man go from horse and buggy, to the automobile, to walking on the moon.  We have reached a point of no return, technology is exponentially becoming more and more powerful and its reach has entered all facets of humanity.  But where do we see it go from here?  What is the new world that technology will create?

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Ryan: Love the topic. Way to kick this off. We have been given the unique opportunity to be raised right into the middle of the technology boom.  Our generation has seen changes that have never been seen before and are likely to only escalate as the next decade unravels. Think about it. We owned one of the first home video game systems ever as kids. We were the first users to adapt social media into our every day lives. We have revolutionized efficiency by allowing employees to work, get this, more efficiently by working remotely from mobile devices and tablets. Technology has now even taken over music as we see less live instruments and more insane production reliant upon the precise timing of the technologies that support it. It's safe to say we're beyond the point of "technology has changed the way we live our lives" and are quickly approaching "our lives would be irreversibly changed if these technological luxuries ceased to exist."

My question to you is, does this technology make us better off? Here's an interesting way to think of things that occurred to me while spending time with my precocious 9 year old brother, Nolan. I could make a legitimate argument to you right now that in a job that requires technological adaption or knowledge, I would hire Nolan over a 60 year old man with no experience in that area 95 times out of 100. I played a fun game the other weekend when I was back visiting my family. I asked my dad and my baby brother a question that neither of them knew the answer to. I wrote down the question, gave them each a copy and had them open it at the same exact time and told them I was taking the first one to answer the question out to lunch. The question read, "Where was President James Knox Polk born?" My father immediately walked over to his bookcase and removed a monstrous 700 page behemoth from amongst hundreds of historical databases while my brother quickly slipped over to my dad's iPhone, unlocking it with the swipe he could determine based on the fingerprint marks left on the glass. He proceeded to open the Safari app and search "James Knox Polk birthplace." My brother had given me the answer before my dad even had the book open to the appropriate chapter. Our youth are better served in that KNOWLEDGE is now instantly available. Unfortunately, I think this will have an inverse effect on the amount that these kids actively use their brain for proactive problem solving. I know I didn't answer half of your questions but I figured you got to start so I wanted to put in my 2 cents before the ball got rolling.

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Brett:   Technology does seem to be changing the way we learn.  The amount of available information even seems to at times allow for people to be experts in anything.  But does this access of information make us intelligent?  How does instantly being able to regurgitate information from a website make us more equipped for a job?  Well it can allow you to have exposure to worlds and ideas never otherwise attainable.  Yes, technology is a remarkable tool.  And for a person to remain vocationally relevant and competitive, they must stay somewhat technologically savvy.  The world once judged intelligence by the amount of information in a individuals mind, I believe we are now moving to a world where intelligence is what the the individual can do with the information in the global mind.  Can they comprehend concepts?  Can they apply trends?  Can they use what they've learned?  Yes your brother could find the answer to your trivia question but what can he do with that information?  Your father might instead be able to use the information he finds to form a strategy or comprehend a situation.  The issue is he must also stay technologically capable enough to attain the information in the first place.  Because what we do agree on is that without the ability to obtain the information, it doesn't matter what you could possibly do with it.

     The opening of the Large Hadron Collider at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland in 2008 was paired with grandiose predictions of a glimpse of the early universe and the elusive Higgs particle.  “The particle that gives all other particles Mass.”  Or so they thought as they dubbed it “the God Particle,” giving rise to the first transatlantic particle physics holy war between CERN in Geneva and Fermilab in Chicago, IL.  Fermilab was home to the Tevatron particle accelerator that had been in operation since 1983, and with the creation of the LHC at CERN they were immediately dwarfed as technologically outdated.  CERN’s LHC was the 10 billion dollar experiment sports car that was to change the face of particle physics forever by sending protons off at 99.9% of the speed of light around the great circle in Geneva.  And when these protons collided with oppositely moving protons physicists were treated to a glimpse of the conditions of the Big Bang.  But the Higgs Boson remained elusive.  And it has remained in hiding for 4 years as the two warring facilities raced to be the first to confirm the existence of the Higgs.  You could imagine that the researchers at Fermilab might have thought they had a chance with a great head start but they were working on borrowed time and they were finally shut down due to lack of funding and public support in September 2011.  It seemed that the LHC had won the war but the Higgs Boson remained silently elusive until July 4th, 2012 when the existence was confirmed with sigma 5 accuracy.  This independence day was no longer an American holiday but instead the world gained independence from the American scientific community.  And America had so easily given over the reins.

        What happen to the America that constantly was pushing new frontiers, that was dreaming to reach the moon and be the first to split the atom?  Have we become numbed to scientific discovery?  Have we forgotten we are a country founded on innovation, raised through the industrial revolution and refined in the modern technology boom?  Giving up scientific prowess is giving up our identity as pioneers.  Possibly our country has matured and we are attempting to be team players on the global field.  But budget cuts to particle physics, NASA, and other exploratory sciences can leave us crippled.  History has taught us that the civilizations with the most advanced technology always prevail. But with the recent years' recession and the economic downturn of the country many people have thought scientific research an unnecessary cost, a cuttable expense.  And with the cutting of funding given to scientific facilities like Fermilab or the space program we have set our eyes on only reasonable, small, short term endeavors.  Perhaps the Higgs boson was too abstract an idea to grab America’s attention.  Perhaps something more tangible is needed to stir the minds of the American people.  But without leadership with vision and courage, the challenge of scientific discovery will be met by men and women across the seas and beyond our grasp.  Can we sit idly by? Can we forget our roots?  Are we not still America the brave? Brave enough to plunge into uncharted territory and overcome all doubts, an America that pushes past boundaries and excites the world by doing so.  I believe that we can be and we must be, or someone else will be.

-by: Brett Vollert

      

There is a great divide between science and religion.  And these two groups have never had a more polarizing topic than the origin of man.  Evolutionists vs. Creationists has become a misconstrued bifurcation.  But this battle royal is an unnecessary one and this divide can be easily bridged.  There can be a peaceful union of church and science.

     Evolution through natural selection is a theory for a mechanism of positive change in organisms.  Simply put it states that the organisms that survive are the ones that have properties that encourage their survival.  This idea is a theory, much like the theory of gravitation or quantum mechanics, and although it is a theory it has been used to make predictions and is the most accurate model for describing the physical world.  We have seen multiple events of new species evolving in modern times and also organisms adapting to their environments by altering their genetic code.  The fossil record also points to an evolutionary pattern of gradual adaptation and modification.  Scientifically, evolution is the most complete theory of the how life diversified. 

     However, this theory causes many Christians to feel that scientists are pushing God out of the equation.  And many scientists find that this theory causes god to be irrelevant.  But both of these ideas are drawn from unfounded assumptions.  If God created the universe could he not have done it through the creation of standard laws that give rise to complex organisms?  Many people see the universe as something that God has to interact with to impose his will.  But if he truly is the creator of the universe why would he have to change anything?  Are we confining the power of the creator by thinking from too human of a perspective?  The theory of evolution could just as easily be apart of God’s creation as the theory of gravity.  To God the universe is a clock he has wound from the beginning (even though from God’s perspective there is no time). 

      I see God in the laws of nature and evolution is no different.  Evolution is simply a part of the creation story, which much like the Bible ends with man.  Just as the laws of physics allowed for stars, galaxies, and solar systems to form, these same tenets seem to allow for Man to be created.  I see a universe that reflects its creator, with constant laws that give rise to unique attributes.  The universe does not reveal a God who is constantly tinkering with his creation but a God who has planned out his creation from the beginning, and it was good. 

      The Bible states that all of existence was created in seven days and this has often been criticized.  This first of all was written over 2000 years ago and the language of a day did not define a day as 24 hours but instead as day and night.  And with the general theory of relativity proposed by Albert Einstein, even science has redefined time itself as a relative and changing dimension.  So simply because the simplified version of the creation of the universe in the bible only comprises seven days does not infer that it is incorrect. 

    We must be careful not to jump to soon to conclusions, or to too hastily think ourselves understanding of an omnipotent creator.  There are forces at work beyond our understanding or control, and that is something that science and religion can both agree upon.  

-by: Brett Vollert

Dr. Gerald Schroeder: Genesis and the Big Bang

        

        We are as specks on a cosmic fabric, a vapor in the celestial wind.  However, our species have become conscious not only of our existence but also of the happenings of the universe we inhabit.   How is this revelation of existence evolutionarily significant?  Or is this question a leading one due to the assumptions imbedded?  There is strong fossil, genetic, and experimental data to support the selfishness of genes.  Meaning that genes that survive are the ones that promote the reproduction of the organism.  Or in some rare cases simply the reproduction of the gene itself.  This is not a complex idea, for something to exist it must have properties that support its continual existence.  However, these properties are conditional to the environment that the organism is in.  So it would make sense for an organism to contain a gene network that is meant to observe its environment so that the organism can adapt.  But this is astringent to aspects of the environment that will actually effect survival.  It would seem the events occurring in the outer reaches of the solar system would not be of evolutionary significance to man but still we gaze into the abyss, possibly for a new world to call home or extraterrestrial life to interact with.  This means somehow this network of genes has become so complex that the happenings of celestial bodies have become of interest to man, well at least some men.  Every step man takes forward is a brand new frontier and the new environment we are just beginning to get a taste of is beyond the thin atmosphere of the earth.  Man has become in awe of the heavens and claws at the sky to find what it hides.  But is this a product of mans genetic code or some higher calling?   

-by: Brett Vollert

Carl Segan describes how "life searches for life" in his book, The Pale Blue Dot

Video: The Segan Series

          What can we not doubt? What can we be certain of? It seems all that we can be entirely certain of is that we are in fact experiencing something, even though we do not quite know what it is.  In the words of Decartes, “cogito ergo sum” or  “I think therefore I am.”  Our experience is our reality, and our thoughts are our souls.  So how does this consciousness, capable of experiences, stem from matter.  “Well whatever matter is made of it clearly isn’t matter” (misquoted and source unknown).  At least not as defined by common understanding.  We see matter as inanimate, lifeless and solid.  The stuff that stuff is made of.  But in reality, matter is mostly empty space.  An atom is like a basketball being circled by marbles miles away.  Physically, not a whole lot there.  Except for the fact, that that isn’t even true.  Are we confused yet? A physicist’s best description of an atom, to meet what it is in reality, is a value in a wave function.  A value, meaning that there is no “thing” really there.  Quantum physics describes atoms as possibilities of existence or a likelihood of interacting with other values…Starting to make absolutely no sense?  Well the truth is that this is the real world.  And we did not evolve to see the world as it is but instead to see the world in a way that allows us to function and survive.  

-by: Brett Vollert

"Primacy of Consciousness" - Peter Russell