Ether Substances Research Articles

Quantum State Function, Platonic Forms, and the Ethereal Substance

Werner Heisenberg, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, argued that the quantum state function for elementary particles should be understood as belonging to the realm of Plato’s idealized Forms. In this paper, I suggest that this connection between two concepts of fundamental importance in our understanding of reality, from science and philosophy respectively, can be plausibly further correlated to concepts from the knowledge system of religion, as described in the Bahá’í Writings. I argue here that ethereal substance (maddiy-i-athiriyyih) as described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and alluded to by Bahá’u’lláh also belongs to Plato’s idealized realm. Further, the description of ethereal substance in the Bahá’í Writings resonates with the modern understanding of a quantum field, which itself is derived from the concept of a quantum state function. The paper also considers the implications of apparent parallels drawn in the Bahá’í Writings between the ethereal substance and the human spirit, and concludes with reflections on the possible relationship between consciousness and quantum mechanics.

Quantum State Function, Platonic Forms, and the Ethereal Substance

Werner Heisenberg, one of the founders of quantum mechanics, argued that the quantum state function for elementary particles should be understood as belonging to the realm of Plato’s idealized Forms. In this paper, I suggest that this connection between two concepts of fundamental importance in our understanding of reality, from science and philosophy respectively, can be plausibly further correlated to concepts from the knowledge system of religion, as describedin the Bahá’í Writings. I argue here that ethereal substance (maddiy-i-athiriyyih) as described by ‘Abdu’l-Bahá and alluded to by Bahá’u’lláh also belongs to Plato’s idealized realm. Further, the description of ethereal substance in the Bahá’í Writings resonates with the modern understandingof a quantum fi eld, which itself is derived from the concept of a quantum state function. The paper also considers the implications of apparent parallels drawn in the Bahá’í Writings between the ethereal substance and the human spirit, and concludes with refl ections on the possible relationshipbetween consciousness and quantum mechanics.

Re-mapping the mind: a probe into the nature and extent of mind

ABSTRACTThis essay describes a long-standing conceptual impasse regarding the ontological status of “mind” at least since the time of Descartes. That impasse has roots in a mind–body dualism that casts the mind as an “ethereal substance,” or nonphysical entity located somewhere in the brain that translates sense data into thoughts-qua-representations, which then move the body accordingly. This outlook lost traction toward the end of the 20th century. However, a newly emboldened preoccupation with certain technological apparatuses has directed attention back onto the biological substrate of the brain. This article argues that this more purely physicalist stance that seeks to relocate representational features of memory, cognition, and consciousness in the brain confuses efforts to understand the nature of mind. After briefly describing representationalist and nonrepresentionalist theories of mind, a more nuanced, “nonlocalized,” or “extended representionalism” is proffered. This outlook, which was promoted by Gregory Bateson, J. J. Gibson, Marshall McLuhan, and other iconoclastic thinkers of the mid-20th century, is gathering legitimacy in the early 21st. The re-emergence and utility of this is then discussed as a conceptual fix to the localized, and much more reductive, representational theories now in vogue.

The Method of On-Line Detection of Antiicing Additive Concentration in Jet Fuel

Ethylene glycol methyl fan is the main components of Anti icing additive of jet fuel. the volume percent of Anti icing additive in fuel is 0.1～0.15%. It is a typical detection problem of trace substances in complex organic phase to detecting the content of only 0.1 to 0.15% of the ether substances in jet fuel comprising of by hundreds of kinds of organic matter , so there is no on-line measurement method by now. In this paper , a means is offered that combine micro extraction technology and on-line optical spectroscopy technique . by this way, anti icing additive concentration can be real-time measured and the precision can reach 5%, can meet the need of oil blending control and quality detection.

Growth of Our Knowledge of the Nebuæ

OUR present knowledge of those celestial bodies which we term nebulæ may be said to date from a paper by Sir William Herschel on nebulous stars, published in 1791 (Phil. Trans., vol. Ixxxi. p. 71). It is perfectly true that we have not here the first recorded observations of nebulas: several observers before Sir William Herschel, and Sir William Herschel himself, had previously referred to them. All observers previous to Sir William Herschel, among whom we may include Kepler, Tycho Brahé, Halley, and others, were of opinion that the nebulæ were composed of something differing entirely in its essence from stars. There was no question whatever of their being simply clusters of stars considerably removed. Tycho Brahé, in the record of his observations of the new star observed by him in Cassiopeia, suggested that it was in some way generated from an ethereal substance, and to him the Milky Way was composed of the same material. This ethereal substance was liable to dissipation by light and heat, and in this way he accounted for the ultimate disappearance of the star. Kepler shared this opinion, and it may be stated that it was generally accepted at the time that Sir William Herschel began his observations of I nebulæ about the year 1780. His first important paper, however, did not deal with these objects: it had reference to the motion of the sun in space (Phil. Trans., vol. Ixxiii., published in 1783). In this memoir he points out the universal sway of gravitation in the celestial spaces; and the infinite possibilities opened out by such an all-prevailing and pervading cause seem, although he does not state it in terms, to have led him to the conclusion that such ideas as Brahé's and Kepler's were invalid. His first real survey of the nebulæ appears in his paper of 1784 (Phil. Trans., vol. Ixxiii.) He began by observing those bodies which had already been recorded in the Conuaissance des Temps for 1783, and then those further afield; and it is not a little remarkable that in this first paper he describes almost every distinct form of nebulae which has been observed from that day to the years about 1846, when Lord Rosse brought a still more powerful instrument than Herscllel's largest to bear upon these objects. He noticed that in certain parts of the heavens there was a marked absence of stars, and that this was so invariably followed by the appearance of nebulæ on the confines of the empty region that he records in his memoir that after passing over one of them he was in the habit of giving the word to his assistant to “prepare for nebulæ.”This strengthened his view as to the power of gravitation, and as to nebulæ being masses of stars produced by it.

The Matter of Space

WILL you permit me to express my thanks to Prof. Herschel for his flattering review of my paper on “The Matter of Space,” in NATURE, vol. xxvii. p, 349? It is certainly gratifying to find that the views which I deduced from the ordinary relations of moving matter are confirmed by the results of mathematical analysis, and it is a source of satisfaction to me to have called forth such a studied and thorough treatment of the subject as Prof. Herschel has given it. I cannot but retain my view of the unity in character of all substance, to which he object, yet in that respect our opinions diverge but slightly, since I replace ether with excessively disintegrated matter, and he considers the particles of ponderable matter to consist of aggregates of ethereal substance. An ether whose condensation yields particled matter answers all the requirements of unity of substance.