The Nature of Change

“And these children that you spit on

As they try to change their worlds

Are immune to your consultations

They're quite aware of what they're going through

Ch-ch-ch-ch-Changes”

Changes, David Bowie

You change your mind. You change your mood. You change your clothes. But what exactly is change and why do things change? It may seem so simple because we can’t imagine a world without change. Change is the single most important thing in the universe and will strive to discuss in some detail why that would be so Since I’m trying to see if hope (which we’ll get to eventually) is part of the “fabric of the universe” we’ll need to look at some things that are not just human-based, but physics-based. We need to spend some time looking at change - how it comes about and the implications of change – so we’ll start with some basics.

It is pretty incredible how much change is part of our existence. Have you ever thought about what would happen if nothing changed? (I’m not talking about stopping time like in the Twilight Zone episode – “A Kind of a Stopwatch” - where the boorish guy had a stop watch that stopped everything around him but he was still able to move around. That was way cool, but impossible. I’m talking about NOTHING changing.) I’m not sure about you, but I can’t imagine it. If absolutely nothing changed there would be no rocks, no trees, no birds, no earth and no us – yikes! Change is so much a part of not only our reality, but it is ingrained into the very fabric of the universe. The old saying goes something like – “change is the one constant in life.” (I tried to look up this quote and found every variation of it except this one and no one to attribute it to.) Like most of these “true-isms”, it makes a lot of sense. (I was going to say it has a ring of truth to it, but I’ll have some things to say about truth later on so I’m trying to avoid that word for now.)

Did you ever stop and ask yourself why things change? (Probably not, but now that you’re here and reading this, take a moment to ask yourself - What is it about the universe that makes it change all the time and never stand still?) Is there a purpose to the changes or are they just random events. (Will I ever stop asking questions and start answering them? Yes!) I’d like to first talk about how change takes place. Examples work best here and we’ll go with three examples:

Example 1: Atomic Particles

Atomic particles interact by exchanging particles (the type of particle depends on the type of interaction). Richard Feynman came up with a diagram that allow you to visualize the interaction. (Do a web search on Feynmann Diagrams and you'll see) In this simple sort of interaction, particles (let's call them x and y) get close enough to exchange a particle and after the exchange they go off. What's interesting about these simple interactions is that they could go forward or backeards and stillmake sense. In these diagrams, time moves from left to right in this diagram but it could also move from right to left and still make perfect sense. That is not at all how things at the human level work. If you take a movie and run it backwards you know it is running backwards because things look different. There is a good reason why Feynman Diagrams can go backwards and forwards in time and still make sense, while larger “diagrams” cannot. More on that later.

In order to think about something changing, you also need to know what it changes from and what it changes into. In the world of particle physics the nucleons from above, x and y, are described by their state. Most atomic particles are described by their position (latitude, longitude and altitude – i.e., their three dimensional location), their speed and direction of their movement (together known as velocity), charge and spin. (Different particles have different characteristics, but the state of a particle is always the collection of all of their characteristics.) Some particles can be described using a half-dozen or so characteristics. Physicist’s ability to describe the interaction of only a few particles is limited. For example, we have no way to distinguish one elementary particle from another. If two protons have the same charge and spin then they are the same. They are even more identical than identical twins, since identical twins share only their DNA. Identical twins do not share mitochondrial DNA so they are still pretty different.) I sometime wonder if protons can tell each other apart. “Say, do you think Proton Betty will go with me to the Atom Smasher Ball?” Imagine how this scales up to a human who is made up of so many atomic and sub-atomic particles that there are no reasonable ways to describe the number. This complexity is a big part of how the universe works and we’ll spend some time on this concept in a little bit.

3-Way Light Switch: In an attempt to make things just a little more complicated, but more meaningful, let’s look at the system consisting of two 3-way light switches and one light bulb. A 3-way light can be controlled by wither of the two switches. In this system, each of the light switches can be up or down and the light can be on or off. Let’s say we start with the light off and both light switches down. If you move on of the switches up, the light goes on. If you then change with of the two switches, the light goes off. Let’s look at a sequence of light switch interactions and their effect on the light bulb.

Switch 1	Switch 2	Light
Down	Down	Off
Up	Down	On
Up	Up	Off
Up	Down	On
Down	Down	Off

In this example, if the switches are in the same position (both up or both down) the light is off. If they are opposite (one up and one down) then the light is on. In the example above, after 4 “interactions” the state of the system is back to where it started – both light switches down and the light off. There are also a very limited number of states and interactions that can occur. As in first example, the above sequence could go in either top to bottom or bottom to top order and it would make sense. In this small little universe of light bulb and two switches, time can go forward or backwards and still make sense. Let’s look at an example where this is not the case.

Human example of change: You’re feeling blue; you are in a “lowered mood state,” also known as depressed. You’re at home, in bed, with the lights out and soft lite-jazz playing on the radio. (My, aren’t you depressed!) It’s Friday, early evening and you had a horrific day at work. Nothing you did was right and if you had been fired it would have been better than living with your unknown job status over the entire weekend. (Will I have a job when I show up to work on Monday? What if they fire me via fax over the weekend? That would be the worst!) The phone rings and you check the caller ID and see it’s that guy/girl at work that has caught your eye. You thought about asking them out tonight, but the day went so poorly you just couldn’t get the strength to ask – the rejection would have been too much to take. You answer the phone and get asked out for dinner that night. Your mood perks right up and, “job be damned,” you’re out into the night with a smile on your face.

A lot went on to change your mood but without getting into all of the details, you had an interaction with someone and it changed you. In this case, if you played this movie backwards you would notice it made no sense. It is important to notice that simple interactive systems seem to have the ability to go forwards and backwards in time but complicated systems do not. We’ll talk some more about this in a little bit.

Looking at all of the examples, you see that every change comes about because of an interaction. An interaction can be simple, as in the first two cases or something complicated - a conversation, a text message, an e-mail or even a glance. What’s important in an interaction is something needs to be exchanged between you and the other person. (or thing – dogs make great mood changers)

So I’m saying that interactions are the only things in the universe that cause change. These interactions start from the simplest things that we know of (quarks and other sub atomic particles) and result in some of the most complex things (humans). You should be asking yourself, “How can something as complex as the Earth or humans come about from simple interactions between sub-atomic particles?” The short answer is – we have no idea. However, the facts are pretty compelling. If you have some spare time (perhaps a few months or so) take a look at Stephen Wolfram’s book, "A New Kind of Science." In it he shows how simple interactions can lead to complex behavior. His models are surprising simple and the tools to model the interactions are a PC. The results are startling and give a glimpse into how the universe has come into being.

At the atomic level, the interactions I’m talking about are the 4 (or three) basic forces of the universe – weak nuclear, strong nuclear, electromagnetic and gravity. (Both Special and General Relativity Theory describes gravity and a curvature or space, not as an actual force. Others have proposed a special particle, the graviton, which carries the gravitational force. No one has ever seen a graviton but a number of experiments agree with the hypothesis that gravity can be described as a curvature of space.) The strong nuclear force is what holds the nucleus together. Since the nucleus is composed of neutrons (no charge) and protons (positive charge) is must overcome the electromagnetic repulsion of the protons to hold everything together. It is very strong indeed but acts over a very short range (about the diameter of a nucleus of an atom.) The weak nuclear force governs radioactivity. In a weak interaction, a neutron decays into a proton (which remains in the nucleus), an electro0n (which is emitted from the nucleus) and a neutrino. This interaction allows heavy atoms to transform into lighter atoms so it is in some ways a repulsive force. The electromagnetic force can be both attractive (remember opposite charges attract) and repulsive. And then we have gravity, which leads to things getting closer together so we can look at it as an attractive force. (At very close range gravity can be repulsive. But since those conditions only occurred at the beginning of the universe and we can assume gravity works to attract things together.) So there you have it, the recipe for a universe:

0. Start with some small sub-atomic particles and add

1. The strong nuclear force to bind things into a nucleus.

2. The weak nuclear force to allow the nucleus to morph from one state to another.

3. The electromagnetic force to allow nucleus and electrons to bind together into atoms and allow atoms to bind together into molecules, which can build up into even larger groups pf molecules.

4. Gravity which has little effect at atomic scale, takes over at the macro-molecular scales to bring things together.

5. As things come together, new interactions are created and can effect the way things change. It may take a whilem but over time, you'll get everything in the universe.

If we assume the universe is built up from simple things interacting we can conclude at least two things:

1. Sequencing and Causality - Since interactions require an exchange, there is a basic causality to the universe. Things cannot “just change” for the heck of it but only when something is exchanged. The something that is exchanged is constrained to travel at less than or equal to the speed of light. Since the two interacting objects are separated by some distance (even if they are very, very close) the interactions cannot all happen at the same time. Changes occur one after the other in a serial fashion and cannot all happen simultaneously. Since change is preceded by an interaction and only after that interaction is complete can another interaction which leads to an ever more different state. Causality is a big deal, as we shall see, and appears to be integrated into the very fabric of the cosmos. Lee Smolin, physicist and author, wrote in his book “The Trouble with Physic” wrote about relativity and the notion of spacetime (Spacetime is the where you think of the universe as a four dimensional space with the three space dimensions and time as the 4^th dimension.) He says, “These days, many of us working in quantum gravity believe that causality itself is fundamental – and thus meaningful even at a level where the notion of space has disappeared.” We’ll return to this discussion a little later on, since it has a lot to do with our notion of time.

2. Non-Computability - After you go through a lot of interactions, say many hundreds of millions or billions or more, you arrive in a state that is different from where you started. In the case of a human, made up of so many atomic particles, atoms, etc. the number of interactions that go on in a second is truly mind boggling. If you look back and see how you got to your current state, you will be amazed at how your path evolved and some of the truly incredible twists and turns you went through. People sometimes misconstrue this as meaning there is some intelligent force guiding their life and interactions towards a pre-determined fate. I believe I can make the case that while there is something guiding you the path is neither pre-determined nor pre-ordained. We’ve seen that simple things (interactions which are the exchange of something) can lead to amazingly complex systems and behavior. It has been shown that these sorts of systems are non-computable. There is no way to know how the future will unfold without actually waiting for it to unfold. It isn’t a matter of not being smart enough (or omniscient enough) to “see the future” because is there is no future to see. We’ll look at this situation a little later. Obviously, people do predict the future and we can determine how some things will turn out. We need to reconcile the non-computability of the universe with our ability to do at least some prediction. We would not be able to survive very long without the ability to predict.

Summary: Change is so simple that it seems odd to even discuss it. However, I propose that although simple, change – through interactions – is the only thing that matters in the entire universe. The way things change is the same from the simplest sub-atomic particles to the most complex thing we can imagine. Change is accomplished through interactions and the type of interactions change dramatically depending on who is interacting. The interactions of sub-atomic particles are very different from human interactions, but the results is the same – change. We also discussed that because interactions cause change we can refer to these interactions as carrying a force. So we conclude that interactions carry a force which leads to changes in the things (people, particles, etc.) that are interacting. Interaction – communication - change - force all are just different ways of saying the same thing. Now you can see why actors and great communicators are so popular and powerful! We found that although simple, interactions can lead to amazingly complex systems and behaviors. But don’t be fooled, the rules behind everything are very simple. We ended with two ideas that fall out of interactions – causality and non-computability. Causality implies that things change because of an interaction and things don’t change for “no” reason. Non-computability means no one, not even an omniscience being who created the world, knows how things will turn out.