How helpful might the Yi Jing be in exploring and understanding our universe?

Harvard physicist Juan Maldecena is a string theorist who conflated information theory and the mathematical concept of superstrings to bring Stephen Hawking around to accepting that information is more fundamental than energy/matter!

Recognizing the primacy of information bolsters the possibility that the Yi could provide deep insight into cosmic questions. The Yi, after all, is an information-generating engine. (And, you will recall, that the 18th century German mathematician Gottfried Leibnitz found confirmation of his binary arithmetic in the Yi Jing; so, there is a venerable tradition in the West of investigating universal values with the Yi.)

According to Maldecena's theory, all information is preserved on the boundary surfaces (the event horizons) of black holes ... and that the universe itself is something like a giant black hole. Billions of light years away, at the boundary surface of the expanding universe, string interactions configure reality and project into the volume of the universe the hologram that we take for actuality. In this theory, the world we see around us is a projection -- an illusion! The constituents of reality (of you and me, as well) are billions of light years away, interacting merrily and generating everything around us from the quasars to the monitor on which you’re reading this.

This puts added emphasis on the Vedantic notion of sunyata (formlessness) and maya (illusion). And so, I thought I’d put this very strange concept to the Yi and asked, “What merit is there in the holographic theory of the universe?”

The reply I received is 6.1.5 transforming to 38 – and I am hoping to better understand this response with help from the community, or at least from those who might share my interest in weird science.

Hexagram 38 clearly relates to the strangeness of the concept. I think 6.1 suggests that this idea provokes much contention – and 6.5 that the theory is promising. Is this a legitimate way to interpret these lines?

I’m also wondering if there are perhaps better ways to frame such cosmic questions -- or even if posing queries of this magnitude is an appropriate approach to the Yi. Is it hubristic to ask the Yi to vet scientific theories about the ultimate nature of reality?

“What merit is there in the holographic theory of the universe?”

The reply I received is 6.1.5 transforming to 38

line 6.1 suggests that the subject is not worth debating, drop the subject before it gives you a headache.

Line 6.5 leave it too the "professionals" to decide one way or the other, as it is only a theory afterall.

Hex 38 Opposition, lots of people see no merit whatsoever in this theory, me for one.

Flexiverse

Thanks, Willowfox, for clarifying these lines from your perspective. Your aversion to this theory is perfectly understandable and natural. I also feel that way when I read about scientific issues of ultimate reality, most of which are counterintuitive. Evolution has simply not designed us to wrap our heads around these cosmic questions, and we often find ourselves flummoxed by the implications of our research. Einstein himself could not accept some of the weirder consequences of his theories.

Even more peculiar than the holographic theory of the universe is the cosmological concept of the flexiverse. At the moment of the big bang, the cosmos occupied a space smaller than an atom and thus qualified as a quantum event. That means that in the beginning the universe existed as a wave function, a “probability cloud” in which every possible universe that can exist does exist.

The idea of the flexiverse may actually help explain something about the prognosticative nature of the Yi Jing, because one of the implications of the universe beginning as a quantum event is that the present determines the past – and what we call our future is deciding our present. How’s that for counterintuitive?

This reversal of our usual way of thinking about time emerges from the fact that consciousness influences and even determines how a wave function collapses, that is, what emerges from a “probability cloud” depends on how we look at it. And, as the cosmos itself is a quantum event, how we choose to observe it plays a role in determining the universe’s history. Consequently, there is no immutable past, no single 14 billion year history of evolution we can retrace. Instead, there are many possible histories, and the universe has lived all of them!

If that’s not bizarre enough, you and I (in this theory) get to play a role in deciding the history of the universe: we can choose the past by how we see the present! And, of course, our future is choosing us right now – and that may offer some insight into how the Yi Jing works. What will happen has already happened ... and is choosing us.

I put this idea to the Yi Jing and inquired, “What is the merit of the flexiverse theory?”
I received – again! – hexagram 6. This time with three moving lines, 6.3.5.6 changing to hexagram 32. Ignoring the individual lines and simply reading the hexagrams, I suppose the Yi is saying something like, this is a contention with no end. That is, there is no way to know.

So, in asking about “merit,” I am turned back on the merit of my own humanity, which resides in our biological and epistemological limits. “Know thyself” is what the Delphic oracle admonished, not “Know thy cosmos.” Looks like the Yi is in agreement with Willowfox: it is only a theory, after all. Or, maybe, more like science fiction…

radix said:

Or, maybe, more like science fiction…

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Not more like, it is science fiction.

I was reading recently how some physicists are saying, the evidence is now pointing to there having been multiple big bangs, a never-ending expansion and contraction.

It seems to be playing havoc with the Christian ideas of origin.

Sincere Inquiry

Seems like Willowfox has some deep cosmological insights to share with Stephen Hawking and other top-ranked physicists!

As I am sincerely interested in these cosmic questions, I would love to hear how anyone can be certain the flexiverse (or the holographic universe) is definitely science fiction? From where does this certainty arise?

Bear in mind, evolution has endowed us with intellectual capacities adapted for exploiting those aspects of physics helpful to the survival of our hominid ancestors, such as accurately guesstimating the ballistic trajectory of thrown rocks. So, if we take a look beyond our human parameters, we should expect to see a breakdown in our intuitive expectations. And, sure enough, at very high speeds, time slows down; on really tiny scales, particles exist in two places simultaneously; and at extreme temperatures, colliding particles change identity. Obviously, if we cavalierly dismiss the weird, we jeopardize our deeper understanding of reality.

How, then, do we know for sure that the flexiverse and the holographic universe are indeed science fiction?

Well, yes and perhaps no, but I see no point in debating this subject because there is no way to prove for or against but if you wish to indulge yourself with this theory, then feel free to waste your time.

Sometimes the weird is just too weird for any reality.

Hi Radix

“What merit is there in the holographic theory of the universe?”

The reply I received is 6.1.5 transforming to 38

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Great Question. Verging on asking the meaning of life the universe and everything. Have you triede that one yet. When I did I got Hex42 I think the Yi is taking a kindly step backwards here empowering you. She knows but she ain't going to tell you just like that.

For what it's worth here is how the Yi spoke to me from your divination, mostly through Nigel Redmonds work.

6 - I can't tell you (tough love). You have to figure this out for yourself - struggling with the concept wll help with knowing and understanding.

Nigel Redmond : Experiencing this situation has a learning effect in our personality, our personal self, in dealing with the problems of our manifest reality. Here we are very much out in the world and struggling with its inconsistancies.

6.1 The difficulties are with the unawareness at this time. We can do nothing about this unawareness at this time. Be gentle with yourself. Things will change and all will be revealed in the fullness of time.

6.5 - Look at this from a wider intuitive aspect not just the science. An open mind allows a bigger picture to be seen and awarenesses to overlap.

38 - Nigel Redmond says: There is outer activity but we are not accepting this. There is no activity of intuitive feeling but we are looking for it.... Such activity that there is is in opposition to our circumstances.

Keep on trucking.

Take Care

Mike

That rings true. Thanks, Mike!

I have read almost all of the bookstall books on quantom physics available .I think i have a basic entry level understanding of both quantom physics and the i ching.I believe the answer relates to the following fact.Eventually we will return to the single point of a single atom -then go through the process all over again.Expansion-Hex 32 line 1-then return to the single point atom .Perhaps the end is the begining and the begining is the end .Hex 6 line 6- never ending conflict is perhaps the nature of all things.Will we do this all over again billions of years from now.

I have read almost all of the bookstall books on quantom physics available .I think i have a basic entry level understanding of both quantom physics and the i ching.I believe the answer relates to the following fact.Eventually we will return to the single point of a single atom -then go through the process all over again.Expansion-Hex 32 line 1-then return to the single point atom .Perhaps the end is the begining and the begining is the end .Hex 6 line 6- never ending conflict is perhaps the nature of all things.Will we do this all over again billions of years from now.

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That's a great picture to have. So it's a bit like a never ending Hokey Cokey.
"You put your left leg in, left leg out, left leg in and you shake it all about. You do the hokey cokey and then you turn around. That's what it's all about."

Take Care
Mike

I've just come across this quote which seemed appropriate

"If we think we can picture what is going on in the quantum domain, that is one indication that we've got it wrong. "- Erwin Schrödinger

Divine Intercourse

Eminent physicists share a deep and abiding respect for the incomprehensible nature of reality, and there are a number of stunning quotes similar to Schrödinger’s. One of my favorites is attributed to the English astrophysicist Arthur Stanley Eddington: "Not only is the universe stranger than we imagine, it is stranger than we can imagine."

There is and always will be something missing from our rational understanding of the universe, because the cosmos exceeds our ability to grasp it rationally. (Check out Werner Heisenberg, Kurt Gödel and Ludwig Wittgenstein.) But the Yi Jing is not a rational walk in the park. Conversation with the Yi is divine intercourse.

That is why I wonder if perhaps the Yi might provide some (irrational yet comprehensible) insight into the cosmic questions on the mind of 21st century science. How truthful and accurate are the answers that we can derive from questions posed to the Yi Jing about the nature of the cosmos? I asked the Yi this question and received: 12.1.4 becomes 42.

Anyone care to opine on this reply from the Yi?

radix said:

That is why I wonder if perhaps the Yi might provide some (irrational yet comprehensible) insight into the cosmic questions on the mind of 21st century science. How truthful and accurate are the answers that we can derive from questions posed to the Yi Jing about the nature of the cosmos? I asked the Yi this question and received: 12.1.4 becomes 42.

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Line 12.1 says that disbelievers will find nothing of interest in the IC to satisfy their idle curiosity because the answers will just be incomprehensible to them but to the believer it will help.

Line 12.4 says that the IC "obeys the will of heaven", and therefore is innocent of any guile or selfishness, so to believers it will give correct answers.

Hex 42 The IC increase one's knowledge and is therefore of great benefit to all that believe. This hex takes the knowledge of the cosmos and gives it to the querants on earth, so the IC can traverse both time and space. So, if you can understand the answers, then you will find the truth, but your mind has to be able to encompass the universe.

Encouraged

That interpretation helps me see the Yi’s response from a different and perceptive angle, which I hadn’t considered. Thank you.

Here is how I have been contemplating what the Yi has said: The first line, about pulling up thatch-grass with intertwined roots, and its mention of predicted good fortune [“zhen ji”], implies uprooting deep connections successfully. And the fourth line, imaging cultivated lands arranged and ordered [“chou li”] as well as a declaration of a goal’s gratifying attainment [“zhi”], strongly suggests that the Yi is indeed a useful medium for the purpose of figuring out our intimate connections with the order of the universe. The resulting ideogram (“Yi”], showing a vessel filled to the brim with water, portrays the possibility of being ‘full-filled.’

Consequently, I’m encouraged to approach the Yi with cosmic questions – and, as Willowfox notes, a sincerely receptive attitude.