HYPERSPACE - DR. MICHIO KAKU

'THE ONLY IMPORTANT THING IN A BOOK IS THE MEANING IT HAS FOR YOU'
W.SOMERSET MAUGHAM

Book Reference : Hyperspace – A Scientific Odyssey Through Parallel Universes – Dr. Michio Kaku.

This book is about a scientific revolution created by the theory of hyperspace, which states that dimensions exist beyond the commonly accepted four of space and time. There is a growing acknowledgement among physicist, that the universe may actually exist in higher dimension space.

For me personally although not a student of science, the Book provided deep insights into my religious belief, science seems to be finally starting to accept long held spiritual truths.

At the very onset of the Book in Chapter 1 Dr. Kaku gives a brilliant example from his childhood days, when he used to watch the carps, in the shallow pond in a Japanese garden.

‘Living their entire lives in the shallow pond, the carp would believe that their ‘universe’ consisted of the murky water and the lilies. Spending most of their time foraging on the bottom of the pond, they would be dimly aware that an alien world could exist above the surface. The nature of my world was beyond their comprehension. I was intrigued that I could sit only a few inches from the carp, yet separated from them by an immense chasm. The carp and I spent our lives in two distinct universes, never entering each other’s world, yet were separated by only the thinnest barrier, the water’s surface.

I often think that we are like carp swimming contentedly in our pond. We live out our lives in our own “pond”. We smugly refuse to admit that parallel universes or dimensions can exist next to ours, just beyond our grasp. (Great Spiritual Masters and mystics have experienced and visualised, and some have tried to convey the unseen dimensions and universes. Now scientists are accepting in theory )

Another striking example is given by Peter Freund, who has stated that laws of nature become simpler and elegant, when expressed in higher dimensions, which is their natural home (A’lam al Ibda – ten dimensional A’lam al Amr which came into existence by the Command ‘kun fayakun’ )

Freund, in explaining why higher dimensions are exiting the imagination of the scientific world, uses the following analogy. 

‘Think for a moment of a cheetah, a sleek beautiful animal, one of the fastest on the earth, which roams freely on the savannas of Africa. In its natural habitat, it is a magnificent animal. Almost a work of art, unsurpassed in speed or grace.

Now think of a cheetah that has been captured and thrown into a miserable cage in a zoo. It has lost its original grace and beauty, and is put in the cage for our amusement. We only see the broken spirit of the cheetah, not its original power and elegance. The cheetah likewise can be compared to the laws of physics, which are beautiful in the higher dimensions. However, because of human limitation, we can only measure the laws of physics, when they are broken and placed on display in a cage, which is our three dimensional laboratory. We only see the cheetah when its grace and beauty have been stripped away.

(From this I infer how the Spiritual Masters are able to experience the Higher Truths, as they can ‘home in’ to the higher dimensions, and be able to comprehend, whereas we laymen, miss the bus, as we have not the knowledge to comprehend, as we are used to seeing and understanding at our own level )

The advantage of ten dimensional space is that we have enough room in which to accommodate all the four fundamental forces.

The leading scientists like  Alan Guth and Freund are of the opinion that the energy scale necessary to investigate the higher dimensions is far beyond anything available on earth. The energy necessary to probe the tenth dimension is a quadrillion times larger than the energy that can be produced by our largest atom smasher!!

Introducing higher dimensions may be essential for prying loose the secrets of Creation. According to this theory, before the Big Bang, our cosmos was actually a perfect ten dimensional universe. (Is Dr. Kaku inadvertently referring to A’lam al Ibda)

However, this ten dimensional world was unstable, ( Interesting if one has read Sayedi Sadikali sahib Nashihat) and eventually it ‘cracked’ in two, creating two separate universes; a four and six dimensional Universe. The Universe in which we live was born in that cosmic cataclysm. Our four dimensional Universe expanded explosively (‘huboot’ tenebrosity according to our belief ) while our twin six dimensional universe contracted violently, until it shrank to almost infinitesimal... this six dimensional universe may ultimately be our salvation !! There you go

(Reading this made me wonder is this some theoretical physicist talking or a Spiritual savant. Science and Spirituality are coming so close. Hope in near future with the help of both, we will be able to understand Tawheed – ONENESS )

How fortunate are we in this internet age. Information on practically all topics under the Sun, for ordinary guys like me is so very easy to acquire. Just Google it – and hey presto! It is there.

Let me share with you an interesting story. How difficult it was for the best of minds in the bygone era. They had to sweat and burn midnight oil just to crave for information. But still the bottom line is that, they were original thinkers, and torch bearers.

Let me share with you an interesting story. Dr. Albert Einstein’s proudest piece of work, even more than is celebrated equation E = mc2 was the simple yet profound equation ‘ Matter – energy determines curvature of space- time’

This deceptively short equation is one of the greatest triumphs of the human mind. From it emerge the principles behind the motions of stars and galaxies, black holes, the Big Bang and perhaps the fate of the Universe itself.

Nevertheless Einstein was still missing the piece of the puzzle. He had discovered the correct physical principle, but lacked a rigorous mathematical formula powerful enough to express this principle. He spent 3 long frustrating years, from 1912 to 1915 in a desperate search for mathematical formula powerful enough to express the principle.

The world’s most powerful mind was in search for 3 long years. How I wish Google was there during his time, it would have made it a child’s play, and would have given him space to  concentrate on other weighty problems.

Einstein in desperation wrote to his close friend and mathematician Marcel Grossman, pleading “ you must help me or else I’ll go crazy !” Poor soul !

Fortunately Grossman, to help his friend, combed through library for clues to Einstein’s problem, and fortunately accidently stumbled upon the work of Riemann. His work had been ignored by physicist for over 60 years, but to Einstein joy he found the mathematical formula that was long evading him. The celebrated 1854 lecture by Riemann was the key to the problem.

He found that he could incorporate the entire body of Riemann’s work in the reformulation of his principle. Almost line for line, the great work of Riemann found its true home in Einstein’s principle.

Riemann’s great contribution was that he introduced the concept of metric tensor, a field that is defined at all points in space. The metric tensor is not a single number. At each point in space, it consists of ten numbers !! Now this piece of science  is exiting for me – ten numbers in all points of space. (The Tenth Intellect – Sayedi Sadik ali sahib in his Nashihat says “ aa duniya na A’shir ne havala chhe” )

Now let us look back on little Albert while he was growing up. The life of Albert Einstein appears to be one long series of failures. His mother was distressed at how slowly he learnt to talk. His elementary school teacher thought of him as a foolish dreamer. They complained that he was constantly disrupting classroom discipline with silly questions. He had few friends, and dropped out of high school.

He took special exam to enter College but he flunked and had to take it the second time. On graduation he applied for teaching jobs, but was rejected several times. Finally with the help of a friend, he landed a clerical job at the Swiss Patent office and the rest is history.

Likewise, the life struggle of Georg Riemann who gave the world the theory of higher dimensions, which Albert Einstein would use after six decades to explain the creation of Universe, also makes an interesting reading.

The core of Riemann’s work was the realization that physical laws simplify in higher dimensional space, the very theme of this book.

Riemann was born in 1826 at Hanover, Germany, the son of a poor Lutheran pastor, the second of his six children. Life was a day to day struggle.

At the very early age, Riemann exhibited his famous traits, fantastic calculation ability, coupled with timidity and life long horror of public speaking. He set out to become a student of Theology, but his thoughts always drifted back to mathematics.

He was an avid reader and he completed reading of a ponderous 859 page masterpiece Theory of Numbers in just under 6 days.

Beset by daily struggle to put food on the table, Riemann’s father might have sent the boy to do menial jobs and help the family finances. Instead he scraped together enough funds to send the 19 year to the renowned University of Gottingen, where he met and befriended the acclaimed Mathematician Carl Gauss.

Life for Riemann, however, was an endless series of setbacks and hardships, coupled with frail health. Eventually, Riemann was able to give his famous lecture on June 10, 1854 before the faculty of University of Gottingen and a new Geometry was born.

Riemann’s lecture exposed the world to the dazzling properties of higher dimensional space.