Experiments at the Large Hadron Collider seem to indicate that a Quark-Gluon Plasma (QGP) dominated the universe 0.000001 second after the Big Bang. * If the finding is true, then we now have a “picture” of what the earliest form of our universe looked like in its finest detail before inflation (expansion) began cooling it enough for quarks to coalesce as gluons did their sticky thing. That we have achieved such a detailed look is remarkable since we weren’t present during that moment when all that came to be was becoming all that came to be. Before the LHC experiments gave us such high-def views, we had only our mathematical descriptions on the probable makeup one-millionth of a second after the Big It was born. To understand the Big Picture of the Cosmos, LHC scientists are looking at individual pixels of ever-deceasing sizes.
Have you noticed that you and others rely on different levels of resolution to understand? Resolution can be coarse, fine, or any quality or quantity between. When we nitpick, for example, we use fine resolution. “You missed a spot,” we might hear or say in a criticism of cleaning prowess. “Can’t see the forest for the trees,” also. Details abound in fine resolution.
We can’t, however, keep our focus on all the details in life. So, we accept coarse resolution on which to base judgments, opinions, and assessments. We prefer by convenience to see the forest that we don’t see by examining every tree, all the bark, the woodpeckers on the trunk, the insects within, the lichens in their component parts of fungi and algae, the cells—you get the picture, the fine-resolution. If you pay attention to a single tree down to its component atoms, you miss the forest that surrounds you. But missing the forest is a key human endeavor on the personal level. Seeing every tree, by contrast, is a common practice in interpersonal relationships.
You’re always making that selection among levels of resolution. For those with whom you disagree, fine resolution satisfies you. For those with whom you agree, coarse resolution works.
It’s equivalent to the history of science which took us from Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, those fundamental elements of the Greeks, to hydrogen through uranium and the trans-uranium elements of the Periodic Table and from analysis to synthesis and back again. Having identified the details, we go back to seeing them as a whole when we can. The quarks become the hadrons; the hadrons become the molecules, and so on till we get to the coarse resolution that dominates our perspective. We just don’t have the time to examine everything and everyone in detail.
Coarse resolution saves time in interpersonal relationships. Do I know that my adversary is composed of quarks? Certainly, but I’d rather not focus on all those diverse constituents of his belief system or personality. A glance gives me the big picture I want. And, by the way, can I really tell the difference between 1080p and 4K resolution when I’m absorbed in the story? Is a refresh rate of 60 Hz going to spoil what I’m seeing? Do I need a refresh rate of 120 Hz?
Details of the lives of others can get in the way of my continued perspective. Do I desire to know those details? Knowing them would get in the way of my easy assessment of their personalities, beliefs, and actions. I know the story of Achilles that Homer tells. But do I need this?
And Iris in a race with the wind veered off as Achilles, who was Zeus’s favorite warrior, stood up. Then Pallas put the shield over his powerful shoulder, that great storm-shield with all its tassels moving in the wind. The goddess crowned his head with a golden cloud in which she lit a blazing fire that shone across the field of battle. As smoke rises like a tower in a distant island city enveloped by a siege with enemies battling around it, the defenders all the day exchanging blows with their enemies… YadaYadaYadaYadaYada. (My translation; not literal)
Call that the HD, nay QLED, resolution of Homer’s time. I imagine it served its purpose in an age without TV or movies, an age when people sat around the hearth to hear the traveling blind bard’s entertaining details. And why not give that descriptive resolution, that resolution ironically detailed by a blind poet? What profits a bard by singing a short song without details? If you’re the bard in ancient Greece, you stay around for a week or 24 weeks to sing the verses of each of the Iliad’s books. And if the audience is willing to provide more honoraria, including some wine, then stick around also to sing all the books of the Odyssey laden as the Iliad is with details like the rising of the rosy-fingered dawn.
Watch today as you swing from coarse to fine resolution and back according to your bias and learning, your desires and tastes, and your beliefs and perspectives. You know that you’ll never see the world as it appears in the Large Hadron Collider. Such a view has taken billions of dollars and thousands of scientists to acquire. You don’t have the resolution to break down the origin of another person or group to one-millionth of a second and an individual quark. You can’t see the details of enjoined quarks until they accumulate to the macro level of matter that makes up individuals and social groups.
My advice? Before you assess, judge, or act, consider your level of resolution.
*Niels Bohr Institute. 21 May 2021. Study reveals new details on what happened in the first microsecond of Big Bang. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-reveals-microsecond-big.html
Have you noticed that you and others rely on different levels of resolution to understand? Resolution can be coarse, fine, or any quality or quantity between. When we nitpick, for example, we use fine resolution. “You missed a spot,” we might hear or say in a criticism of cleaning prowess. “Can’t see the forest for the trees,” also. Details abound in fine resolution.
We can’t, however, keep our focus on all the details in life. So, we accept coarse resolution on which to base judgments, opinions, and assessments. We prefer by convenience to see the forest that we don’t see by examining every tree, all the bark, the woodpeckers on the trunk, the insects within, the lichens in their component parts of fungi and algae, the cells—you get the picture, the fine-resolution. If you pay attention to a single tree down to its component atoms, you miss the forest that surrounds you. But missing the forest is a key human endeavor on the personal level. Seeing every tree, by contrast, is a common practice in interpersonal relationships.
You’re always making that selection among levels of resolution. For those with whom you disagree, fine resolution satisfies you. For those with whom you agree, coarse resolution works.
It’s equivalent to the history of science which took us from Earth, Air, Fire, and Water, those fundamental elements of the Greeks, to hydrogen through uranium and the trans-uranium elements of the Periodic Table and from analysis to synthesis and back again. Having identified the details, we go back to seeing them as a whole when we can. The quarks become the hadrons; the hadrons become the molecules, and so on till we get to the coarse resolution that dominates our perspective. We just don’t have the time to examine everything and everyone in detail.
Coarse resolution saves time in interpersonal relationships. Do I know that my adversary is composed of quarks? Certainly, but I’d rather not focus on all those diverse constituents of his belief system or personality. A glance gives me the big picture I want. And, by the way, can I really tell the difference between 1080p and 4K resolution when I’m absorbed in the story? Is a refresh rate of 60 Hz going to spoil what I’m seeing? Do I need a refresh rate of 120 Hz?
Details of the lives of others can get in the way of my continued perspective. Do I desire to know those details? Knowing them would get in the way of my easy assessment of their personalities, beliefs, and actions. I know the story of Achilles that Homer tells. But do I need this?
And Iris in a race with the wind veered off as Achilles, who was Zeus’s favorite warrior, stood up. Then Pallas put the shield over his powerful shoulder, that great storm-shield with all its tassels moving in the wind. The goddess crowned his head with a golden cloud in which she lit a blazing fire that shone across the field of battle. As smoke rises like a tower in a distant island city enveloped by a siege with enemies battling around it, the defenders all the day exchanging blows with their enemies… YadaYadaYadaYadaYada. (My translation; not literal)
Call that the HD, nay QLED, resolution of Homer’s time. I imagine it served its purpose in an age without TV or movies, an age when people sat around the hearth to hear the traveling blind bard’s entertaining details. And why not give that descriptive resolution, that resolution ironically detailed by a blind poet? What profits a bard by singing a short song without details? If you’re the bard in ancient Greece, you stay around for a week or 24 weeks to sing the verses of each of the Iliad’s books. And if the audience is willing to provide more honoraria, including some wine, then stick around also to sing all the books of the Odyssey laden as the Iliad is with details like the rising of the rosy-fingered dawn.
Watch today as you swing from coarse to fine resolution and back according to your bias and learning, your desires and tastes, and your beliefs and perspectives. You know that you’ll never see the world as it appears in the Large Hadron Collider. Such a view has taken billions of dollars and thousands of scientists to acquire. You don’t have the resolution to break down the origin of another person or group to one-millionth of a second and an individual quark. You can’t see the details of enjoined quarks until they accumulate to the macro level of matter that makes up individuals and social groups.
My advice? Before you assess, judge, or act, consider your level of resolution.
*Niels Bohr Institute. 21 May 2021. Study reveals new details on what happened in the first microsecond of Big Bang. https://phys.org/news/2021-05-reveals-microsecond-big.html
RSS Feed