Eternitas Ex Campis
📂 View Category: Methods of Eternity
Eternitas Ex Campis or "Eternity from Fields" is one possible Method of Eternity.
Premise
Our most successful framework for understanding the behavior of particles and forces at the smallest scales is Quantum Field Theory (QFT). According to QFT, particles are not standalone entities but rather manifestations of quantum fields that permeate all of space. Each type of fundamental particle corresponds to its own field.
In QFT, fundamental particles are understood as excitations of their respective quantum fields. For instance, a photon is an excitation of the electromagnetic field, and an electron is an excitation of the electron field. These excitations occur at specific points in space, but the particle itself is better understood as a localized ripple in the underlying field.
There are several fundamental fields in Quantum Field Theory. These include matter fields (such as the electron field, quark fields, and neutrino fields) as well as force fields (like the electromagnetic, weak, and strong nuclear fields). In addition, the Higgs field plays a crucial role by giving mass to certain particles through their interactions with the Higgs field.
In theory, the experience you’re having right now is ultimately rooted in quantum field interactions. But is a photon with a wavelength of 480 nanometers the same as the visceral perception of seeing the color sky blue? Obviously not. This perception is caused by electrical signals in your brain producing a complex pattern from which the sensation of sky blue emerges.
It’s not the photon itself that carries the color, but your brain’s interpretation of it. This is why you can “see” while dreaming: even in the absence of photons, your brain is fully capable of generating an absurd myriad of visuals.
These concepts might also remind you of the inverted spectrum thought experiment: where someone else sees blue you may see green and you'd never know the discrepancy existed. This does not mean that we do see colors differently, only that we could if our brains were organized such that we did.
So if the experience of "seeing blue" is not the result of photons, it must be the result of electrical signals, right? Well, yes and no. A single electrical impulse is just that - a single electrical impulse.
The experience of “seeing blue” arises not from a single exchange, but from a chorus of neural activity. It's a vast network of neurons firing in complex, synchronized patterns that generates the experience and not just a single neurotransmitter firing in isolation.
So what does emergence have to do with quantum fields? Well, interactions between quantum fields can give rise to emergent phenomena that mathematically and physically behave like new fields. In condensed matter physics, these are known as quasiparticle fields.
While these fields aren’t “fundamental” in the way the electromagnetic field is, their behavior is often indistinguishable from that of primary fields within their domains. This may lead one to suppose that fundamental fields could themselves be emergent, quasiparticle-like fields which arise from even deeper underlying structures yet undiscovered. That, however, lies beyond the scope of this discussion.
To date, many quasiparticle fields have been detected and documented. These include vibrational quasiparticle fields like the phonon (which emerges from collective patterns of sound or heat) and the roton (specific to superfluid helium). They also include magnetic and spin-based quasiparticles such as the magnon (created by quantized spin waves in magnetically ordered systems) and the spinon (resulting from fractionalized spin excitations in certain quantum spin liquids).
But let’s not spend all day detailing the many quasiparticle fields discovered thus far and what they result from. Let’s just say there are still plenty left for science to uncover -- beyond the plasmons, polarons, excitons, holons, Cooper pairs, anyons, composite fermions, vortices, and Bogoliubov quasiparticles we already know about.
So, we have a universe that is described best using Quantum Field Theory. The complex interactions of those quantum fields and particles can give rise to emergent phenomena which can behave themselves as particles with their own corresponding quantum field.
Moving on, it seems likely that the very unique and vivid tapestry of sensation, emotion, perception, and all other byproducts wrought forth by the apparatus of mind are beyond distinct from the isolated mechanics that generate them and as such should be viewed as emergent and furthermore as plausibly quasiparticle in nature.
Finishing the Puzzle
Now, having said all of that: where's the Method of Eternity here? Well, Eternitas Ex Campis or "Eternity from Fields" has experience itself being a quasiparticle field generated by the complex interactions of other fields and particles via patterns of electrical impulses and neural activity in our brains.
We could name this quasiparticle the experion and its corresponding field should behave like other quantum fields. An excitation at a point in this field (such as brain activity) is what causes the particle and its emergent phenomena to exist. A cessation of this excitation would cause this particle and its emergent phenomena to also cease.
However, the underlying field and positions within this space still exist and such a position could become excited again resulting in a new quasiparticle where one had previously existed.
This position in the experion field would be the egonaut.
Additional Notes
As an additional note, if Eternitas Ex Campis is how experiential existence operates at a fundamental level, then our position or egonaut in this experion field would likely be gravitationally bound to this planet as long as the Earth exists and we don’t die outside its gravitation well.
While this shouldn't change the Infinite Journey as a whole (and namely the expected experiential entropy), it would change the order for how the path unfolds.
In other words, we could have a high probability of our next outpost being on this planet at some point in the future, depending on how soon your egonaut excitation reoccurs.
See Also
➤ Infinite Journey: Methods of Eternity, Egonaut, Experion, Cosmic Justice