8/8/2019 The Infinite Complexity of Our Immediate Environment

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Despite our natural reluctance to assume that our senses are not sensitive to themajority of the reality around us, there is a very strong arguement from basicprinciples that the universe (even in our immediate surroundings) could be far morecomplex than we can imagine.

One has only to compare the amount of man's knowledge obtained (or which could havebeen obtained) by his unaided senses with the enormous increase provided by thedevelopment of such devices as telescopes, microscopes, radio receivers and X-raymachines, to realize how very limited we are. Note that the purpose of each of these is toreceive energy which is too weak or of the wrong form to be detected by any of the senses,and to amplify or convert the information in that energy to a form or level which is within thecapacity of one of them. Study of a list of such artificial aids shows that they can be separatedinto two distict categories. Telescopes, microscopes and similar "magnifying" techniques forma continuous and open-ended chain of development. The urge to see farther and smaller hasalways existed, and is fundamental to the extent of being instinctive. No matter how powerfulan instrument is built, there will always be some object of interest which is barely visible, andso an awareness of things still beyond its range and an incentive to improve it. This hasencouraged the development of the necessary technology (lenses, etc.).

On the other hand, such developments as radio communication and X-ray examinationrequired the positive discovery of radio waves and X-rays before they could even becontemplated. Only then could the requisite technology be developed so that they could beused to gain further knowledge. One would expect any "extra" dimensions to come into thiscategory, and there could well be other equally fundamental "unknowns." Until an initiatingdiscovery is made, it is extremely difficult to conceive of their existence, speculate on their characteristics or imagine the consequences.

The particular case of radio waves and X-rays are also excellent examples of the limitationsof our senses in other ways, since they are two examples of electromagnetic radiation. Suchwaves have been used or studied with wavelengths extending over a range of 10 16

(10,000,000,000,000,000) although our senses respond only to visible light, which covers a

range of barely 2:1 in wavelength, and outside this range we must rely entirely on aids. On adark night, it is possible to see the light from a small torch bulb (radiating about a fiftieth of awatt of energy of visible light) at a range of about half a mile. On the other hand, you couldstand within a few feet of an aerial radiating over a million watts of radio-frequency energyand be unaware that the transmitter is switched on.