"The Cultural Influence of Physics"

Physics Final
Kate Maxey
04/10/07

The influence Physics has had on Culture is intertwined with the vast number of components that go into creating any culture. The discipline of Physics has given us the knowledge and vocabulary to discuss our own existence. As we internalize the concepts and theories of Physics and regurgitate them in the form of thought, expression, or invention, we in turn create our own world, or culture.

Some of the products of this synthesis can be seen on very surface levels. People make everyday decisions based on which physics ideas or representations have made their way into media, advertising and entertainment. This is ironic considering that most Americans probably don’t consider themselves to be contemplators of Physics. While in fact, we see more and more “cool” physics images of fractals and sacred geometry popping up as graphic designs and logos for the marketing world of clothing, cars, music, and home décor.

Besides “retail therapy” we also see the influence of physics in how people choose which kind of body therapy is best for them. As the healthcare system continues to integrate “alternative” practices into its medical repertoire, physics validates much of this energetic work that people have been performing for centuries. Electromagnetic and vibrational healing are examples of this. A slightly different impression, moving not from our natural roots, but from our modern efficiency-driven desires, has brought us such medical inventions as bionic limbs and implant chips that interact with the human body, blending the line between what is alive and what is robotic.

It seems to me that one of the highest priorities in the life of anyone with a career, family, or both is how to make time work to your advantage, especially when tasks seem to multiply in relation to time becoming more compressed. Some people choose to live in a state of “crunch,” while others search for ways like meditation and qi gong to practice creating the sense of time slowing down. Many physicists (or yogis) would advocate that even time is relative. They would challenge us to look beyond the numbers attached to our wrists and consider one’s relationship with time to be a mental, rather than physical, state of being.

As we approach our daily tasks, whether work or personal, we can easily deduce that the faster we go the more we can accomplish. I think that our culture’s obsession with speed and limitless travel parameters, be it with racecars, rockets or communication devises, largely stems from our desire to have control over space and time. Physics has cracked open an amazing world of wireless connections and infinite networking capabilities. There’s nowhere to go from here but up and out… time and space are on our sides….

Or are they? Sometimes things don’t happen the way we expect them to. In a second, life can go from a seemingly ordered state to an out-of-whack mess. Or, it could happen the other way around: everything could seem jumbled and un-fixable and then “out of nowhere” something completely unexpected happens that jars it all into place. This is the Chaos Theory. Physics has kindly given us an out so that we can honestly say, “I have no idea why that happened now.”

The beauty of chaos and moments of synchronicity within it have been like energy-packed morsels for many artists and writers to live off of. Physics is an inexhaustible source for representations of reality, forces of nature, our connection to the stars, or Time’s imprint on our lives, just to name a few. Who’s to say how many interpretations there are for one of life’s experiences? Whether it be a light show or a fine art piece, one person’s creativity can somehow inspire the very human reaction of “awe” in the viewer and ignite inside of her/him some deep feeling of recognition, even if it’s just “life is weird.”

The influence of Physics in our culture extends deep into our psyche, formulating our sense of Self. With its depiction of the Big Bang Theory, Physics gives each of us a lot to ponder about our own creation and what we are doing with the life ahead of us. If the particles that birthed the universe are the same kind that we are made up of now, it seems impossible for anyone to deny that we are connected to each other and this solar system by forces beyond our control.

Physics forms our consciousness. It influences how we transform information into reality. We can choose to see beyond the neural synapses of our brain to how our thoughts extend beyond the walls of our cranium out into a space that we all share. Physics brings a sense of connection to our culture that makes it possible for even an intention to affect another being.

The control of artificial limbs by thought alone:

These inventions sound amazing. It is incredible to me that humans can create instruments that eventually intertwine themselves with our physiology and, in part, become a part of us. For a person who has lost a limb or was born without one, I can only imagine how this would revolutionize their life. I see no issue with these inventions being available to such people. But, as we discussed in class, it is always scary to think about good things getting into the hands of bad people.

Would I support it?

Most definitely, yes. I'd love to say that restrictions should be placed on the procedures so that they will, one day, not be taken to an extreme, but I don't really believe that such regulations would apply to the US military and that's who scares me most. Oh, well... we can't live in fear, so as not to help better the lives of fellow humans. On an individual level, this advancement would bring happiness to many peoples' lives and i think that that is more important than no doing it because of some crazy war-programmed cyborg that might be produced down the line.

*Intention*

Intention is the first step in healing. In modern hospitals, sometimes people are healed (so that a problem doesn't return and a new one doesn't show up to take its place), but often this is more like being "fixed." the part that was broken or causing other problems is taken out, replaced, or repaired. not so often, is a holistic view taken at healing the whole body-- in fact, that is not the intention. when a doctor "fixes" someone, they've done just what they set out to do. I don't think that most Western Doctors consider the part that the intention of the patient or of the doctor her/himself plays in the perseverance of a disease.
The intention of Chinese Medicine is a bit different. It operates on the philosophy that a patient's body is made up of Yin and Yang forces/substances which can become out of balance. The intention, including thought, desire, and focus, and by both the patient and the acupuncturist are vital to strength of the healing session.
I don't think that most Western doctors (and perhaps not most acupuncturists) practice to quiet their minds and become centered in their own bodies before they touch their patients and reach their energy out in a way that conjures the same response in the patient. This kind of intention is the recognition energetic continuum between all living things and holds limitless possibilities.

Kirlian Photography

It makes sense to me. not to say that i totally "get" the process, but it doesn't come as any surprise to me at this point that people have energy centers in their bodies which waver depending on heat, emotion, mental state, or illness. It sounds beautiful that since Kirlian's innovation people can capture this light show on film. Part of enjoying life is getting to experience things from different approaches or views. While the concept of such biological energy centers or outpourings may sound new to a lot of people, i'm sure that indigenous and spiritual people of all backgrounds have been in touch with this reality since the beginning of time. Now, as it seems, some are hooking this practice up to computers and bringing it into the "Trauma Medicine" genres, so we will begin to witness "Energy talk" happening in unexpected places!

Is Acupunctue Energy Medicine?

When I attempt to define Acupuncture to anyone asking me, i certainly mention the words: Energy and Medicine, but i don't think that i've used this coined phrase as a way of delineating it from it's Western counterpart, "Trauma Medicine." Clearly "Energy Medicine" is not exclusive to Acupuncture, as it is any treatment that "deals with the electromagnetic fields generated by the living body." Once, many years ago, I believe that Acupuncture and Chinese herbology were used in trauma situations, as well, becuase what else was there to use?! Now, because of efficiency, availability, and success Western Medicine is the first choice in an emergency situation. I think as the years continue we will see that while these centers of focus will probably not change for "Energy" and "Trauma" Medicines, they will begin to broaden and incorporate each other.

I am...

...Biophysics and Biophysics is me. Wiki says: Biophysics (also biological physics) is an interdisciplinary science that applies the theories and methods of physics, to questions of biology. Physics deals with the elementary constituents of the universe, such as matter, energy, space, and time, and their interactions. Biology is the study of life. It is concerned with such topics as the characteristics, classification, and behaviors of organisms, how species come into existence, and the interactions they have with each other and with the natural environment.
I like this these endless combinations. Biophysics takes things that are often examined seperately and looks at the interaction between them. I think it's important (and interesting!) for me, as a student of Chinese medicine to take a similar approach of looking at things from different directions-- to learn to see that what's happening on a micorscopic level is a reflection of the universal Nature of things (whether TCM or scientific).

I am...

... a Living System for the following reasons: i walk around in and see a 3-Demensional Space, my nights and days are divided into hours depending on where the sun is in the sky, this giant flaming star also gives me the Energy to synthesize nutrients and grow, I live on the Earth which rotates around the sun and spins on a axis controled by the Moon, I therefore share the Earth's magnetic field and atmosphere which protect me from violent demolition by particles and/or radiation from space, it is necessary for me to ingest water regularly or I will die, and Carbon is at the core of my skeleton and most of the food that i eat.

EAST & WEST: A SYNTHESIS, sort-of

As we've discovered, East and West points of view can seem worlds a part: like Christianity and Buddism, a chesseburger and a california roll, a visit to your primary care physician and your favorite acupunturist, or an hour of seated meditation and a Sunday at a Pentacostal church service. All of these coupled things are very different from each other, it's true, but just as an Eastern minded person would say: within every Yin there is a bit of Yang, and in every Yang a bit of Yin," a Western physicist operates under the Law that for every particle there must be some form of an anti-particle. Both Christianity and Buddism teach to respect your body as a temple of God (Universe) and to treat your neighbor as you would want to be treated. A cheeseburger, while hot and greasy, and a california roll, cold and delicate, both provide sustinence and are complimented by something of their opostie Nature: a milkshake (cold) for the burger, and ginger (warming) for the sushi. Your family doc may listen to your physical ailments and send you over to a psychiatrist to prescribe something for your anxiety which is unrelated to your irritable bowel syndrome, while your acupuncturist will inquire about your emotional state as well as your physical before determining the pattern that is tied up in both. But, they both make their diagnosis by first looking at your symptoms with the intention of removing them through treatment. Both a seated meditation and a Sunday church service are participated in to conjure a sense of the Spirit that surrounds us and the connection we have to it.
Basically, I think now more than ever before there is a synthesis of the East and the West (catch-terms for all of the various Nature-based and Technology-based points of view), as travel and communication ALL over the place is more accesible than ever. As we are finding in our studies of Chinese Medicine, it is absolutely impossible to keep our minds and our practices seperate from Western thinking and descriptions of the "Western body," because they are one in the same. You can't have a full-specturm point of view if you are ignoring what's right in front of you. Difference and oppoistion always exist and it's in these spaces that things can become clearer. Ok, maybe easier said than done.

My E-Prime Day:

I thought i heard a loud beeping noise in my ears as i awakened this morning. i felt for the machine that seems to make that god-awful noise and pressed some button that appeared to make it stop. i thought about what day followed the previous one and deduced that today called for a quick gathering of my things, brushing of teeth, chugging of tea and chomping on toast (covered in my favorite combination of substances that i identified as butter, cinnamon and sugar). i then took my two-wheeled cycle-vehicle that i refer to as my "bike," out the door that we think of as the "front" of our house and pedaled in the direction my memory and intuition (or some combination of forces inside me that seems to guide me from one destination to the next) took me. what do you know? i ended up in front of just the building i thought i was supposed to enter at around the time the numbers 930 showed up on my cell phone. apparently, my agenda was insync wtih almost everyone else in my class because i heard a collection of "hellos" from my fellow students that looked quite familiar. once again, i made it to the right place at the right time. phew. i sat in a chair that looked available and waited for our teacher to begin speaking. seeing that we collectively agreed to fulfill the requirement of taking our final next week, we listened attentively and asked questions to clarify anything that we still felt confused about. after the clock came to the big hand on the 30 and the little hand on the 12, i left and cycled away. now, i just arrived at a place i refer to as a café (i exchanged some green bills for a bubbly beverage and sat down-- nobody seemed to mind). I'm planning on chilling here until the clock reminds me it's time to get up and go. how would i ever know when to go anywhere without those handy revolving numbers? i guess i'd figure something out.