Scientific investigations into the essence of matter

All the information we have about the world we live in is conveyed to
us by our five senses. The world we know consists of what our eye
sees, our hand feels, our nose smells, our tongue tastes, and our ears
hear. We never think that the "external" world can be other than what
our senses present to us, since we've been depending on only those
senses since the day we were born.
However, modern scientific research in many different fields points to
a wholly different understanding, creating serious doubt about our
senses and the world we perceive with them. This approach's starting
point is the notion that any "external world" is only a response
created in our brain by electrical signals. The red hue of an apple,
the hardness of wood, your mother, father, your family, and everything
that you own—your house, your job,—and even the lines of this article,
are composed of electrical signals only.
In this picture, we see someone who feels himself skiing on the
mountains, whereas there is really neither skis nor snow. This
illusion is artificially created.
Thanks to present technological developments, it's possible to have
realistic experiences without the need for an "external world" or
"matter." The incredible advancement in virtual reality technology has
come up with some especially convincing proofs.
To put it simply, virtual reality is the projection of
computer-generated three-dimensional images that appear to be real
with the aid of some devices. This technology, with its diverse range
of applications, is known as "virtual reality," "virtual world," or
"virtual environment." Its most important feature is that by the use
of some purposely constructed devices, it misleads the person
experiencing it into believing the experience to be real. In recent
years, the word "immersive'' has begun to be used in front of the term
"virtual reality," reflecting the way that witnesses are literally
immersed in the experience.
The rationale of any virtual reality system is based on our five human
senses. For instance, when the user puts on a special glove, devices
inside transmit signals to the fingertips. When these signals are
relayed to and interpreted by the brain, the user experiences the
sensation of touching a silk fabric or ornate vase, complete with all
of its surface details—without any such thing actually existing in the
environment.
One of virtual reality's foremost applications is in medicine.
Michigan University has developed a technology that trains assistant
practitioners—in particular, the personnel of emergency wards—to learn
their skills in a virtual reality lab, in which environment is created
by projecting the details of an operating room onto the floor, walls,
and ceiling of a room. The "picture" is completed by projecting an
operating table, complete with the patient to be operated on, onto the
center of the room. The surgeons-to-be put on their 3-D glasses and
begin their "virtual" operation. And anyone viewing the images
reflected on the 3-D glasses cannot distinguish a real operating room
from this virtual one.
Do We Live in a Holographic Universe?
New Scientistis one of the best-known science magazines. Its March 27,
2002 cover story was written by scientist J.R. Minkel, titled "Hollow
Universe." "Why we all live in a hologram" the cover headline
reported. To sum up the article, we perceive the world as a single
bundle of light. Therefore, it would be a mistake to consider matter
as the absolute truth by relying on our perceptions. Admits Minkel:
You're holding a magazine. It feels solid; it seems to have some kind
of independent existence in space. Ditto the objects around
you—perhaps a cup of coffee, a computer. They all seem real and out
there somewhere. But it's all an illusion.
Minkel's article states that some scientists call this idea the
"theory of everything," and that scientists consider this theory the
first step towards explaining the nature of the universe. This
magazine article explains scientifically that we perceive the universe
as an illusion in our brains and that, therefore, we are not
interacting with matter itself.
Perceptions Lost to the Senses, Recovered with Artificial Signals
In its March 11, 2002 issue,Time magazinepublished an article entitled
"The Body Electric," revealing an important scientific development.
The article reported that scientists melded computer chips with
patients' nervous systems to treat permanent damage to their senses.
With their newly developed systems, researchers in the USA, Europe and
Japan aimed to give sight to the blind and help paralyzed patients
recover. They have already achieved partial success with this new
system by planting electrodes into the relevant areas of the body, and
silicon chips were used to connect artificial limbs with living
tissue.
Following an accident, a Danish patient by the name of Brian Holgersen
was paralyzed from the neck down, except for very limited movement in
his shoulders, left arm and left hand. As is known, such paralysis is
caused by damage to the spinal cord in the neck and back. The nerves
are damaged or blocked, disabling neural traffic between brain and
muscles, and cutting off communication between the nerves that
transmit signals back and forth from the body to the brain. With this
patient, the aim was to bridge his spinal cord's damaged area with an
implant, letting signals from the brain bring back a little movement
to the arms and legs.
They used a system designed to recover basic functions of the left
hand, like grasping, holding and releasing objects. In an operation,
eight small coin-sized flexible cuff electrodes were implanted into
the muscles responsible for those movements in the patient's upper
left arm, forearm and shoulder. Later, ultrathin wires connected these
electrodes to a stimulator—a kind of pacemaker for the nervous system—
implanted in his chest. The stimulator was in turn linked to a
position-sensing unit attached to Holgersen's right shoulder—over
which he retains some motor control.
Now, when the patient wants to pick up a glass, he moves his right
shoulder upward. This movement sends an electrical signal from the
position sensor, worn under his clothing, to the stimulator in his
chest, which amplifies it and passes it along to appropriate muscles
in his arm and hand. They contract in response, and his left hand
closes. When he wants to release the glass, he moves his right
shoulder downward, and his left hand opens.
The University of Louvain in Brussels used a similar application of
technology in relation to eyesight. A patient's rod and cone cells had
degenerated, causing the retina to become insensitive to light.
Consequently, she became blind. An electrode implanted around her
right optic nerve enabled her to regain partial sight.
In this patient's case, the electrode was connected to a stimulator
placed inside a cavity in the skull. A video camera, worn on a cap,
transmitted the images to the stimulator in the form of radio signals,
bypassing the damaged rod and cone cells, and delivered the electric
signals directly to the optic nerve. The brain's visual cortex
reassembled these signals to form an image. The patient's experience
is comparable to watching a miniature stadium billboard, but the
quality is nevertheless sufficient to prove that this system is
viable.
This system is called a "Microsystem-based Visual Prosthesis," a
device permanently implanted into the patient's head. But to make it
all work, the patient needs to go to a specially designated room in
the University of Louvain and wear what looks like a badly damaged
bathing cap. The bathing cap is made of plastic with a standard video
camera installed on its front. The more pixels there are to form an
image on the screen, the greater the number of electrical
stimulations; therefore, the greater the resolution quality of the
image.
The same article referred to an interesting show by a performance
artist who made use of the same technology:
During one 1998 performance, Stelarc wired himself up directly to the
Internet. His body was dotted with electrodes—on his deltoids, biceps,
flexors, hamstrings and calf muscles—that delivered gentle electric
shocks, just enough to nudge the muscles into involuntary
contractions. The electrodes were connected to a computer, which was
in turn linked via the Internet to computers in Paris, Helsinki and
Amsterdam. By pressing various parts of a rendering of a human body on
a touch screen, participants at all three sites could make Stelarc do
whatever they wished.
These technologies, provided that they can be sufficiently reduced in
size and placed inside the body, will pave the way for radically new
developments in medicine. These developments demonstrate another
important fact: The external world is a copied image that we watch in
our minds…
TheNew Scientist's April 27, 2002 issue with its cover story, "Hollow
Universe" and headline, "Why we all live in a hologram."
TheTimearticle showed practical examples of how we can create
perceptions like sight or touch by artificially created impulses. The
most obvious proof is that a blind person was able to see. Despite the
patient's eye not being functional, she could see by means of
artificially created signals.
"The Body Electric," an article inTime magazine's March 11, 2002
issue, contained evidence proving that the external world is a copied
image in our mind.
Can the Virtual Worlds of Some Films Be Duplicated in the Real World?
In "Life is a sim and then you're deleted," an article published in
the July 27, 2002 issue of New Scientist magazine, Michael Brooks
states that we might well be living in a virtual world not unlike the
one in the filmMatrix: "No need to wait for Matrix 2 to come out. You
could already be living in a giant computer simulation... Of course
you thoughtThe Matrixwas fiction. But only because you were meant to."
Author Brooks supports his views by quoting philosopher Nick Bostrom
of Yale University, who believes that Hollywood movies come much
closer to reality than we realize. He calculates, too, that there is
some probability that we are living in a simulated or virtual world as
some movies depict.
The scientific fact, much better understood in recent years, that we
are not interacting with matter itself, causes people to reflect more
deeply. This situation, the frequent inspiration for movies, points
out that virtual environments recreate reality so realistically that
people can be fooled by these illusionary images.
Materialism, Like Every Other False Philosophy, Has Been Destroyed
The philosophy of materialism has existed throughout history. Its
adherents relied on the supposedly absolute existence of matter while
denying God, Who has created them from nothing and also created for
them the universe they live in. But the clear evidence leaves no room
for discussion. Consequently, matter disappears—on which they based
their lives and thoughts, pride and denial. By their own research,
strangely enough, materialist scientists discovered that everything
they see is not matter itself, but in reality a copy or image formed
in the brain. And thus, they themselves brought down their materialist
beliefs.
The twenty-first century is a turning point in history, in which this
reality will spread among all peoples, and materialism will be wiped
from the face of the Earth. Some, under the influence of the
materialist philosophy, who believed that matter is absolute, now have
come to realize that they themselves are illusions, that the only
absolute being is God, Whose Being encompasses all there is. This
reality is revealed in one of the verses:
God bears witness that there is no god but Him, as do the angels and
the people of knowledge, upholding justice. There is no god but Him,
the Almighty, the All-Wise.(Qur'an, 3: 18)