The Sleepwalkers (259 page)

"The
stuff
of
the
world
is
mind-stuff.
The
mind-stuff
is
not
spread
in
space
and
time;
these
are
part
of
the
cyclic
scheme
ultimately
derived
out
of
it.
But
we
must
presume
that
in
some
other
way
or
aspect
it
can
be
differentiated
into
parts.
Only
here
and
there
does
it
rise
to
the
level
of
consciousness,
but
from
such
islands
proceeds
all
knowledge.
Besides
the
direct
knowledge
contained
in
each
self-knowing
unit,
there
is
inferential
knowledge.
The
latter
includes
our
knowledge
of
the
physical
world."
¹⁸

Jeans
went even further:

"The
concepts
which
now
prove
to
be
fundamental
to
our
understanding
of
nature
–
a
space
which
is
finite;
a
space
which
is
empty,
so
that
one
point
[which
appears
to
us
occupied
by
a
material
body]
differs
from
another
solely
in
the
properties
of
the
space
itself;
four-dimensional,
seven
and
more
dimensional
spaces;
a
space
which
for
ever
expands;
a
sequence
of
events
which
follows
the
laws
of
probability
instead
of
the
laws
of
causation
–
or,
alternatively,
a
sequence
of
events
which
can
only
be
fully
and
consistently
described
by
going
outside
space
and
time,
all
these
concepts
seem
to
my
mind
to
be
structures
of
pure
thought,
incapable
of
realisation
in
any
sense
which
would
properly
be
described
as
material."
¹⁹

And
again:

"Today
there
is
a
wide
measure
of
agreement,
which
on
the
physical
side
of
science
approaches
almost
to
unanimity,
that
the
stream
of
knowledge
is
heading
towards
a
non-mechanical
reality;
the
universe
begins
to
look
more
like
a
great
thought
than
like
a
great
machine.
Mind
no
longer
appears
as
an
accidental
intruder
into
the
realm
of
matter;
we
are
beginning
to
suspect
that
we
ought
rather
to
hail
it
as
the
creator
and
governor
of
the
realm
of
matter..."
²⁰

Thus
the
medieval
walled-in
universe
with
its
hierarchy
of
matter,
mind
and
spirit,
has
been
superseded
by
an
expanding
universe
of
curved,
multi-dimensional
empty
space,
where
the
stars,
planets
and
their
populations
are
absorbed
into
the
space-crinkles
of
the
abstract
continuum
–
a
bubble
blown
out
of
"empty
space
welded
onto
empty
time".
²¹

How
did
this
situation
come
about?
Already
in
1925,
before
the
new
quantum
mechanics
came
into
being,
Whitehead
wrote
that
"the
physical
doctrine
of
the
atom
has
got
into
a
state
which
is
strongly
suggestive
of
the
epicycles
of
astronomy
before
Copernicus."
²²
The
common
feature
between
pre-Keplerian
astronomy
and
modern
physics
is
that
both
have
developed
in
relative
isolation
as
"closed
systems",
manipulating
a
set
of
symbols
according
to
certain
rules
of
the
game.
Both
systems
"worked";
modern
physics
yielded
nuclear
energy,
and
Ptolemaic
astronomy
yielded
predictions
whose
precision
bowled
over
Tycho.
The
medieval
astronomers
manipulated
their
epicyclic
symbols
as
modern
physics
manipulates
Schroedinger's
wave
equations
or
Dirac's
matrices,
and
it
worked
–
though
they
knew
nothing
of
gravity
and
elliptic
orbits,
believed
in
the
dogma
of
circular
motion,
and
had
not
the
faintest
idea
why
it
worked.
We
are
reminded
of
Urban
VIII's
famous
argument
which
Galileo
treated
with
scorn:
that
a
hypothesis
which
works
must
not
necessarily
have
anything
to
do
with
reality
for
there
may
be
alternative
explanations
of
how
the
Lord
Almighty
produces
the
phenomena
in
question.
If
there
is
a
lesson
in
our
story
it
is
that
the
manipulation,
according
to
strictly
self-consistent
rules,
of
a
set
of
symbols
representing
one
single
aspect
of
the
phenomena
may
produce
correct,
verifiable
predictions,
and
yet
completely
ignore
all
other
aspects
whose
ensemble
constitutes
reality:

"...
Science
deals
with
but
a
partial
aspect
of
reality,
and
...
there
is
no
faintest
reason
for
supposing
that
everything
science
ignores
is
less
real
than
what
it
accepts...
Why
is
it
that
science
forms
a
closed
system?
Why
is
it
that
the
elements
of
reality
it
ignores
never
come
in
to
disturb
it?
The
reason
is
that
all
the
terms
of
physics
are
defined
in
terms
of
one
another.
The
abstractions
with
which
physics
begins
are
all
it
ever
has
to
do
with..."
²³