Spencer Heath Archive

Item 319

Penned notes and title by Heath on lined notepad paper.

Transcribed August 8, 1958

 

 

Knowing

     The first requisite for knowledge is a knower; for a science, a scientist.

     The sole subject-matter of experience is events — actions

     In all knowledge, the basic datum is self-hood, conscious­ness of self as differentiated from yet immersed in environment, and of interaction between the self and the environment — objective experience. Through this interaction, environment exhibits to consciousness interactions within itself — happenings, events. That which interacts, all that happens and that can be experienced is called energy-in-action, or simply action. And in all inter­action, action and reaction are equal and opposite; quantity is conserved; only proportions and forms change.

 

     Action, or energy-in-action, is composed of three elements or aspects. These may be separately and abstractly considered or conceived, but they are experienced only in their three-fold unity or entity as action or events. The three different elements that together constitute energy-in-action or events are separately conceived (but not experienced) as (1) mass (2) motion and (3) time — whose usual units of measurement are gram (or dyne), centi­meter, second or such as pound, foot, minute. Note that the element of time enters twice, once to establish the rate at which energy acts, and again to measure the quantity of actual energy or of energy-in-action by multiplying its rate by its period — the number of time units through which the unit stretches or extends.

 

     Any number of units of mass (or of force inherent in mass) conceived as moving through some number of units of motion (or of length) per each one unit of time is called a rate (or ratio) of energy or of energy-in-action. The product of the rate of any action or event multiplied by its period of time is called either energy, meaning a particular quantity of energy-in-action, or it is called simply so much action, the more technical term.

 

     Energy-in-action, or events, in their various over-all magnitudes or dimensions and in their various qualities or kinds, according to the proportions in which their elements are combined, constitute the subject-matter of all objective experience. But the human capacity for this experience is not unlimited, not infinite or absolute. It is restricted to a single octave, so to speak, in the long range between zero and infinity, between two unattainable and impossible extremes. Because of this, there must be a minimum over-all magnitude in which or in whole multiples of which and not otherwise any event or train of events can be objectively experienced. This unitary event, this almost infinitesimal fraction of an erg-second (6.5 x 10^-27 erg-seconds) having a constant over-all magnitude — however its three elements may be among themselves proportioned or composed — is called the quantum of action.

 

     Quanta of action have a dual character. They manifest them­selves now as moving corpuscles and now as moving waves, the rate of motion of the corpuscle or particle, when distinguishable, being always less than that of the wave. The two aspects, particle and wave are, apparently, always inversely associated. Hence it may be supposed that at low velocities the wave is contained mainly within the particle as a “stationary wave” (deBroglie 1955, p. 23) or “spin” while at very high velocities such as the speed of light the particle appears to be absorbed within the wave. This inverse relationship is called “complementarity” between the particle and wave. This may account for the motion and hence the velocity of the wave being in part longitudinal and in part transverse to to the axis of propagation, and if at the velocity of light these should be equal it would account for the difference between E = ½ mv² at low velocities and E = mc², where C is the velocity of light.

 

     It is well established that the quantum of action is an action or event whose over-all magnitude is not less than nor fractionally greater than 6.5 x 10^-27 erg-seconds, and this regardless of its internal proportions — as in the erg-second itself, in which its constituents, mass, motion and time are combined. Either rational or not. However, if it be conceded that these constituents are in definite proportions, then there must be in each quantum of action a definite whole number of mass (or force) units per each unit of motion, a definite whole number of motion units per each unit of time, and a definite number of time for each quantum event.

 

     These assumed definite quantum proportions are, like the definite chemical proportions in the molecule, not to be directly observed or experienced. They are only a logical deduction unless confirmed by the generally observed behavior of large numbers of quanta in similar manner as large numbers of molecules confirm the chemical law. Assuming that the well-established discontinuity of action into discrete quantal units may be in consequence of a similar discontinuity pertaining no less to the elements, respec­tively of mass, motion and time of which the quantum units are rationally composed, then the limiting or extreme ratios in which these three quantum elements can combine are those in which only a single unit of any one constituent element is combined with a sufficient number of units of the other two.

 

     Now there are at least three kinds of aggregate or macroscopic quantum behavior that seem to exemplify these extremes.

 

1. When the quanta are organized predominantly as waves without any discernible particle aspect …

 

/Breaks off, but this same article was continued on another occasion with appropriate pagination, as per succeeding pages here attached:/

 

     Supposing this hypothetical rationality actually to exist in the quantum-constituent world, it should, in some manner, be manifested in the world of sensory experience — at the level of single-quantum and multi-quantum organization.

 

     Take, for example, a right-linear, monochromatic, polarized wave bearing a single quantum of energy.

 

     It has two kinds of motion: rectilinear and transverse. It has, therefore, two velocities. When these two velocities are equal, then, mass being taken as m, the combined momentum is 2 mv and the energy is ½ 2 mv² = mv²   E = mv²

 

     Since the quanta of action are all of the same over-all magnitude — product of mass, velocity and time = h, then when velocity increases mass must diminish. Thus when mass is reduced to its ultimate unit, then velocity must be at its ultimate maximum.

 

     Since mass and velocity are necessarily inverse in all changes of proportion in the quantum composition, it follows that when the quantum contains only one least unit of either of these two elements it is bound to contain the greatest possible number of ultimate units of the other. The quantum mass (particle aspect) is a function of velocity, and velocity is a function of mass. Hence, when, through inter-action with other quanta, there is any change of proportion in the quantum composition, the smaller the mass the greater the velocity and when the mass is reduced to its least or imperceptible compositional unit the velocity component is at its utmost extreme — as in the velocity of light. Conversely, when the velocity aspect approaches its least perceptible unit (where temperature begins) there remains the mass aspect alone.

 

     In like manner, /when/ the durational is at its minimum in a single unit, then the mass (or force) units times the motion units per unit of time must be at their maximum, hence the highest rate of action, as manifested in atomic fission or explosion.

 

     Since all objective events are taken as organizations of quanta in enormous numbers and are objectively experienced only in their statistical effects, the direct and indirect sensory experiences of them should be as varied qualitatively as the possible proportions in the quantum compositions themselves — besides being quantitatively perceptible throughout the whole range of quantitative perception, direct and indirect..

     When quanta, such as two photons come into mutual encounter they either mutually repel or mutually attract, depending on the like or unlike direction of their “spin.” In the latter case they are prone to form mutual orbits like those of a double star, binding themselves into particular organizations such as elec­trons having themselves “spin” or “stationary waves” and thus, greater transverse and correspondingly lower linear velocities. By a similar process, quanta of less velocity than light quanta transform themselves into particles having greater internal and less linear

     While all quanta are precisely alike in the strictly quantita­tive sense they are nonetheless, qualitatively, vastly variable according to the proportions in which their elements are composed. Those having the lesser velocities and therewith the greater aspect as particle or mass, such as electrons, in which a greater portion of the motion takes the form of transverse including rotary motion and “transverse waves.” Such particles have a mutual affinity or antipathy, attraction or repulsion, according as their “spin” is of unlike or of like direction.

     Though all quanta of action have been found to be precisely alike so far as their over-all magnitude is concerned, they are nonetheless vastly variable in their qualities according

                                                 [Breaks off]