Unified Reality and Field Physics

Key Insight

Insistence on determinism was an inevitable consequence of a commitment to a 'unified reality,' where all things, including individual minds, are 'woven together in a seamless, self-consistent tapestry.' This perspective saw existence not as bleak imprisonment but as an 'uplifting intuition of being interwoven with all things,' stating 'Life is a great tapestry; the individual is only an insignificant thread in an immense and miraculous pattern.' The implication was that if all things were truly One, then the thesis of free will was fundamentally flawed, as a human being, while an exquisite part of existence, was a part all the same.

A complete reconceptualization of physical reality through 'pure field physics' was proposed. It was demonstrated with E = mc2 that mass and energy are equivalent, allowing all existence to be conceived as a 'single energetic substrate manifesting in so many different forms.' The distinction between matter and field was concluded to be 'a quantitative rather than a qualitative one,' and 'something artificial and not clearly defined,' as matter is simply 'a great concentration of energy into a comparatively small space.' In this new physics, field would be 'the only reality,' with matter regarded as regions where the field is extremely strong, explaining all natural events through universal laws.

Extending this unified vision, the synthesis of space and time into a single unified spacetime was established, arguing that the 'superficial' classical causal principle, confined to 'one time-section,' failed to grasp the 'harmonious whole' where 'every little morsel of matter and every ephemeral moment of time was related to every other.' Furthermore, it was highlighted that inexplicable inner impulses and inborn inclinations also fetter human freedom. Concurring with Schopenhauer, it was believed that 'we can do what we wish, but we can only wish what we must,' attributing these powerful, elemental drives and moods to 'physiological factors, especially our endocrines,' which fundamentally control destiny.