Using Swedenborg to Understand the Quantum World III: Thoughts and Forms
By Ian Thompson, PhD, Nuclear Physicist at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
从史威登堡来理解量子世界（三）：思想和形式
作者：伊恩·汤普森
劳伦斯·利弗莫尔国家实验室核物理学家
翻译：迂夫
In this series of posts, Swedenborg’s theory of correspondences has been shown to have interesting applications for helping us to better understand the quantum world.
这一系列的文章，证明史威登堡的对应理论在帮助我们更好地理解量子世界方面有着值得关注的用途。
In part I, we learned that our mental processes occur at variable finite intervals and that they consist of desire, or love, acting by means of thoughts and intentions to produce physical effects. We in turn came to see the correspondential relationship between these mental events and such physical events that occur on a quantum level: in both cases, there will be time gaps between the events leading up to the physical outcome. So since we find that physical events occur in finite steps rather than continuously, we are led to expect a quantum world rather than a world described by classical physics.
在第一部分，我们了解到，我们的心理过程发生在不同的有限间隔，它们由欲望或爱组成，它们是通过思想和意图来产生物理效果的。我们反过来又看到了这些心理事件和发生在量子层面上的物理事件之间的对应关系：在这两种情况下，导致物理结果的事件之间都会有时间间隔。因此，由于我们发现物理事件是以有限的步骤而不是连续发生的，所以我们被引导去期待一个量子世界，而不是一个被经典物理学所描述的世界。
In part II, we saw that the main similarity between desire (mental) and energy (physical) is that they both persist between events, which means that they are substances and therefore have the capability, or disposition, for action or interaction within the time gaps between those events.
在第二部分中，我们看到欲望(心理)和能量(物质)之间的主要相似之处在于它们在事件之间持续存在，这意味着它们是物质，因此具有在这些事件之间的时间间隔内采取行动或相互作用的能力或倾向。
Now we come to the question of how it is that these substances persist during the intervals between events. The events are the actual selection of what happens, so after the causing event and before the resultant effect, what occurs is the exploring of “possibilities for what might happen.” With regard to our mental processes, this exploration of possibilities is what we recognize as thinking. Swedenborg explains in detail how this very process of thinking is the way love gets ready to do things (rather than love being a byproduct of the thinking process, as Descartes would require):
现在我们要讨论这些物质是如何在事件之间的间隔中持续存在的问题。事件是对发生之事的实际选择，所以在起因事件之后，和结果效应之前，发生的是对“可能发生的可能性”的探索。在我们的心理过程中，这种对可能性的探索就是我们认识到的思维。史威登堡详细解释了这个具体的思维过程中，爱如何做好准备去行事(而不是像笛卡尔所设定的那样，爱是思维过程的副产品)：
Everyone sees that discernment is the vessel of wisdom, but not many see that volition is the vessel of love. This is because our volition does nothing by itself, but acts through our discernment. It first branches off into a desire and vanishes in doing so, and a desire is noticeable only through a kind of unconscious pleasure in thinking, talking, and acting. We can still see that love is the source because we all intend what we love and do not intend what we do not love. (Divine Love and Wisdom §364)
每个人都看到，洞察力是智慧的容器，但没有多少人看到意志是爱的容器。这是因为我们的意志本身什么也不做，而是通过我们的洞察力行事。意志首先产生一个欲望，在此过程中它自己沉寂下来，而欲望只有在无意识的思考、交谈和行动的乐趣中才能被察觉出来。我们进一步可以看到，爱是根源，因为我们都意愿我们所爱的东西，而不意愿我们不爱的东西。(圣爱与圣智第364节)
When we realize we want something, the next step is to work out how to do it. We first think of the specific objective and then of all the intermediate steps to be taken in order to achieve it. We may also think about alternative steps and the pros and cons of following those different routes. In short, thinking is the exploration of “possibilities for action.” As all of this thinking speaks very clearly to the specific objective at hand, it can be seen as supporting our motivating love, which is one of the primary functions of thought. A focused thinking process such as this can be seen, simplified, in many kinds of animal activities.
当我们意识到我们想要什么的时候，下一步就是想办法去做。我们首先考虑具体目标，然后考虑为实现这一目标而要采取的所有中间步骤。我们还可以考虑其他步骤，以及遵循这些不同路线的利弊。简而言之，思维是对“行动的可能性”的探索。由于所有这些想法都清楚地讲述当前的具体目标，于是可以被看作是对我们的生动之爱的支持，这是思想的主要功能之一。像这样集中思考的过程，其简化形式，可以在许多动物活动中看到。
With humans, however, thinking goes beyond that tight role of supporting love and develops a scope of its own. Not only do our thoughts explore possibilities for action, but they also explore the more abstract “possibilities for those possibilities.” Not only do we think about how to get a drink, but we also, for example, think about the size of the container, how much liquid it contains, and how far it is from where we are at that moment! When we get into such details as volume and distance, we discover that mathematics is the exploration of “possibilities of all kinds,” whether they are possibilities for action or not. So taken as a whole, thought is the exploration of all the many possibilities in the world, whether or not they are for action and even whether or not they are for actual things.
然而，对于人类来说，思维超越了支持爱的密切职能，并发展出了自己的领域。我们的思想不仅探索行动的可能性，而且探索更抽象的“那些可能性的可能性”。例如，我们不仅在考虑如何得到饮料，而且我们还会考虑容器的大小、它能容纳多少液体，以及它离我们当时的位置有多远！当我们深入到诸如体积和距离这样的细节时，我们发现数学是对“各种可能性”的探索，以及探索行动与否的可能性。因此，从整体上看，思想是对世上各种可能性的探索，不管它们是否关于行动，甚至是否关于实际事物。
For physical things (material objects), this exploration of possibilities is spreading over the possible places and times for interactions or selections. Here, quantum physics has done a whole lot of work already. Physicists have discovered that the possibilities for physical interactions are best described by the wave function of quantum mechanics. The wave function describes all the events that are possible, as well as all the propensities and probabilities for those events to happen. According to German physicist Max Born, the probability of an event in a particular region can be determined by an integral property of the wave function over that region. Energy is the substance that persists between physical events, and all physical processes are driven by energy. In quantum mechanics, this energy is what is responsible for making the wave function change through time, as formulated by the Schrodinger equation, which is the fundamental equation of quantum physics.[1]
对于物质事物(物质物体)，这种对可能性的探索正在扩展到相互作用或选择的可能地点和时间。在这里，量子物理学已经做了很多工作。物理学家发现，物质相互作用的可能性最好用量子力学的波函数来描述。波函数描述了所有可能的事件，以及发生这些事件的所有倾向和概率。根据德国物理学家马克斯.伯恩的说法，在特定区域发生事件的概率可以由该区域上波函数的一个积分性质来决定。能量是在物理事件之间持续存在的物质，所有的物理过程都是由能量驱动的。在量子力学中，这种能量是使波函数随时间变化的原因，正如薛定谔方程所表述的，它是量子物理学的基本方程。
Returning now to Swedenborg’s theory of correspondences, we recognize that the something physical like thoughts in the mind are the shapes of wave functions in quantum physics. In Swedenborg’s own words:
现在回到史威登堡的对应理论，我们认识到，像心智中的思维这样的物理事件，具有量子物理学中波函数的形状。用史威登堡自己的话说：
When I have been thinking, the material ideas in my thought have presented themselves so to speak in the middle of a wave-like motion. I have noticed that the wave was made up of nothing other than such ideas as had become attached to the particular matter in my memory that I was thinking about, and that a person’s entire thought is seen by spirits in this way. But nothing else enters that person’s awareness then apart from what is in the middle which has presented itself as a material idea. I have likened that wave round about to spiritual wings which serve to raise the particular matter the person is thinking about up out of his memory. And in this way the person becomes aware of that matter. The surrounding material in which the wave-like motion takes place contained countless things that harmonized with the matter I was thinking about. (Arcana Coelestia §6200)[2]
当我一直在思考的时候，我思维中的物质意念已经出现在波状运动中。我注意到，这波浪只不过是由一些想法组成的，这些想法已经依附在我记忆中我正在思考的特定事物上，灵所看到的人的整个思维都呈现为这种方式。但是，此时除了在其中呈现为物质意念的东西之外，没有别的东西进入人的意识里。我把这波比喻成大约就像灵性的翅膀，它把人正在思考的特定事物，从他的记忆中提升出来。以此方式，人意识到了这件事。这种波状运动发生的周围物质中包含着无数与我正在思考的事情相和谐的东西。(arcana Coelestia§6200)[2]
Many people who have tried to understand the significance of quantum physics have noted that the wave function could be described as behaving like a non-spatial realm of consciousness. Some of these people have even wanted to say that the quantum wave function is a realm of consciousness, that physics has revealed the role of consciousness in the world, or that physics has discovered quantum consciousness.[3]
许多试图理解量子物理学意义的人已经注意到，波函数可以被描述为一种非空间意识领域的行为。有些人甚至想说量子波函数是一个意识的领域，物理学揭示了意识在世上的作用，或者说物理学已经发现了量子意识。
However, using Swedenborg’s ideas to guide us, we can see that the wave function in physics corresponds to the thoughts in our consciousness. They have similar roles in the making of events: both thoughts and wave functions explore the “possibilities, propensities, and probabilities for action.” They are not the same, but they instead follow similar patterns and have similar functions within their respective realms. Thoughts are the way that desire explores the possibilities for the making of intentions and their related physical outcomes, and wave functions are the way that energy explores the possibilities for the making of physical events on a quantum level.
然而，用史威登堡的思想来指导我们，我们可以看到，物理中的波函数与我们意识中的思维相对应。它们在事件的发生过程中扮演着相似的角色：思想和波函数都在探索“可能性、倾向性和行动的可能性”。它们是不一样的，但它们却遵循相似的模式，在各自的领域内具有相似的功能。思维是欲望探索意图形成的可能性及其相关的具体结果的方式，而波函数则是能量探索在量子层级上产生物理事件的可能性的方式。
The philosophers of physics have been puzzled for a long time about the substance of physical things,[4] especially that of things in the quantum realm. From our discussion here, we see that energy (or propensity) is also the substance of physical things in the quantum realm and that the wave function, then, is the form that such a quantum substance takes. The wave function describes the shape of energy (or propensity) in space and time. We can recognize, as Aristotle first did, that a substantial change has occurred when a substance comes into existence by virtue of the matter of that substance acquiring some form.[5] That still applies to quantum mechanics, we now find, even though many philosophers have been desperately constructing more extreme ideas to try to understand quantum objects, such as relationalism[6] or the many-worlds interpretation.[7]
物理学哲学家们长期以来一直对物质事物的实质，特别是量子领域的事物的实质感到困惑。从我们在这里的讨论中，我们看到能量(或倾向)也是量子领域中物质事物的实质，而波函数就是这种量子物质所取的形式。波函数描述空间和时间中能量(或倾向)的形状。我们可以认识到，正如亚里士多德最初看到的，当一种物质由于获得某种形式而存在时，它就已经发生了实质性的变化。[5]我们现在发现这仍然适用于量子力学，尽管许多哲学家拼命地构建更极端的思想来试图理解量子物体，例如关系论[6]或多重世界的解释。
So what, then, is this matter of energy (desire, or love)? Is it from the Divine? Swedenborg would say as much:
那么，到底什么是能量(欲望，或者爱)？它是来自神吗？史威登堡这么说的：
It is because the very essence of the Divine is love and wisdom that we have two abilities of life. From the one we get our discernment, and from the other volition. Our discernment is supplied entirely by an inflow of wisdom from God, while our volition is supplied entirely by an inflow of love from God. Our failures to be appropriately wise and appropriately loving do not take these abilities away from us. They only close them off; and as long as they do, while we may call our discernment “discernment” and our volition “volition,” essentially they are not. So if these abilities really were taken away from us, everything human about us would be destroyed—our thinking and the speech that results from thought, and our purposing and the actions that result from purpose. We can see from this that the divine nature within us dwells in these two abilities, in our ability to be wise and our ability to love. (Divine Love and Wisdom §30)
因为神的本质是爱和智慧，所以也是我们生命的两个本能。我们从其中一个获得洞察力，从另一个获得意志。我们的洞察力完全来自上帝的智慧浇灌，而我们的意志则完全来自上帝之爱的灌注。这两大本能不会因为人没变成真正的爱与智慧就被拿走，只是被关闭了而已。被关闭时，尽管觉知仍被称为觉知，意愿仍被称为意愿，却名不符实。因此，这两大本能若真被取走，人之为人的一切将会消失。因为人的特性在于，能通过思维思考和言谈，能通过意愿发愿和行动。由此清楚可知，神居于人的这两大本能之中，即变得智慧的本能和去爱的本能。(圣爱与圣智第30节)
When seeing things as made from substance—from the energy (or desire) that endures between events and thereby creates further events—we note that people will tend to speculate about “pure love” or “pure energy”: a love or energy without form that has no particular objective but can be used for anything. But this cannot be. In physics, there never exists any such pure energy but only energy in specific forms, such as the quantum particles described by a wave function. Any existing physical energy must be the propensity for specific kinds of interactions, since it must exist in some form. Similarly, there never exists a thing called “pure love.” The expression “pure love” makes sense only with respect to the idea of innocent, or undefiled, love, not to love without an object. Remember that “our volition [which is the vessel of love] does nothing by itself, but acts through our discernment.”
当我们看到事物是由物质构成的-即来自于事件之间的能量(或欲望)，从而产生更多的事件-我们注意到人们倾向于猜测“纯粹的爱”或“纯粹的能量”：一种没有形式的爱或能量，它没有特定的目标，但适用于万物。然而这是不可能的。在物理学中，从来不存在任何这种纯能量，只有特定形式的能量，如波函数描述的量子粒子。任何存在的实际能量都必须以某种形式存在，故必须具有特定类型相互作用的倾向。同样，从来没有所谓的“纯粹的爱”。“纯粹的爱”这句话只对纯真或纯洁的爱有意义，而不是没有对象的爱。请记住：“我们的意志(这是爱的容器)本身什么也不做，而是通过我们的洞察力行事。”
Ian Thompson is also the author of Starting Science from God, as well as Nuclear Reactions in Astrophysics(Univ. of Cambridge Press) and more than two hundred refereed professional articles in nuclear physics.
[1] Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schrodinger_equation.
[2] Secrets of Heaven is the New Century Edition translation of Swedenborg’s Arcana Coelestia.
[3] See, for example, https://quantum-mind.co.uk.
[4] Howard Robinson, “Substance,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/substance.
[5] Thomas Ainsworth, “Form vs. Matter,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/form-matter/.
[6] Michael Epperson, “Quantum Mechanics and Relational Realism: Logical Causality and Wave Function Collapse,” Process Studies 38.2 (2009): 339–366.
[7] J. A. Barrett, “Quantum Worlds,” Principia 20.1 (2016): 45–60.