My friend is expecting a response on it, so I'd better go ahead and keep track of my responses.
@00:08:00
Science has told us that we're some sort of genetic mistake.
A mistake implies fault, or something that failed to meet a certain standard; this is loaded framing. Humans evolved naturally, yes, but essentially this is neither a good thing or a mistake.
This separateness is the cause of everything wrong with the world.
This is flawed reasoning. The world suffered murder, rape, usury, war, and other horrible conditions for most of human history, and these all predated the Enlightenment and modern science, accused as the progenitor of this spiritual "separatism". Atrocities, some unique to religion, occurred during periods of theocracy in many countries and periods of human history, such as Europe under the Papacy. This is scapegoating science for humanity's frailties.
@00:08:31
(Paraphrased) We need a new spirituality, because the old mythologies, as well as the old scientific way of doing things, are dead.
Humanism has you beat by decades, buddy, and it's not a spirituality. Also, why are you talking about quantum physics while sitting inside what appears to be a religious library?
@00:08:42
We have to go beyond our senses to create a new paradigm.
We shouldn't be "creating" anything. We are rational thinkers and scientists. We
study the world.
We know nothing about reality. All of what we know about reality out there is filtered through our sense organs.
Yes, and sense organs are designed to help an organism perceive reality in order to survive.
@00:11:00
(A doctor appears to talk about eyes. The computer in his office has Siddharta Buddha as a screensaver.)
In other words, your credibility as an educator of science just went down a few notches.
@00:14:45
(Paraphrased) Sight works by processing tons of information, which the brain accepts as real and allows the organism to act upon. But what constitutes reality?
So far, this has just been a vague endorsement of solipsism, with a hint of "do you know what you're seeing? Science can't explain that, so, SPIRITUALITY!!!
"
Also,
@00:17:15
(Paraphrased) Classical physics suggest determinism and no free will. Quantum physics open up the possibility of some degree of free will.
I can agree with this, although I'm not surprised that the speaker here is the most credible looking person interviewed yet.
@00:17:55
(Paraphrased) Subatomic physics are an utter fantasy of mad scientists trying to explain micro-phenomena. We need a new discipline of quantum physics to really understand.
This person is terrible at the scientific method and recognizing that the scientific corpus changes in response to new evidence. He's not doing a good service to science by painting it this way. It's almost able to hear him say without saying, "we need quantum theory because it allows for my spiritualist ideas!!"
@00:21:10
(Paraphrased) Because of quantum mechanics, all things are connected.
I'm afraid all things were "connected" before quantum mechanics, since earth is not a closed system. The interviewee didn't offer any real applications for this interconnectivity he's selling, but I'm almost willing to bet it's used to some spiritualist end down the road. He didn't link the innterconnectivity to any hard quantum mechanics concepts or phenomena, but someone before talked about entanglement, so perhaps we'll get a little dishonest science going that way.
@:00:25:11
(Paraphrased) The vacuum in a hydrogen atom has so much energy that creating the Big Bang is no problem.
No idea where he's going with this, and I'm not prepared to fact-check his science right now. It sounded like they were about to go into dark matter, but then this guy popped in with his hydrogen bomb.
Okay, the woman afterwards confirms that what they're talking about is dark matter, except they aren't calling it by that name. This movie came out in 2004, and I thought dark matter and dark energy had been established by then...?
@00:26:23
(Paraphrased) The more scientists study physics, the most abstract it gets. The universe is connected by a unified field of pure, abstract consciousness.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have arrived to pseudoscience and spirituality. "Pure abstract consciousness"? What does that even mean?
He just stole a little piece of string theory, too. Cute!
@00:27:15
Objects never actually touch each other.
Someone fact-check this.
@00:31:12
(Paraphrased) A brain experiment demonstrated that physical stimulus instantly was recognized by the brain, but direct stimulation of the brain produced stimulus with a small delay. That, coupled with T-symmetry, means quantum mechanics can influence the past or travel back in time.
There are studies showing that when people begin to move their hand, their brains are already aware of it even if they are'nt consciously aware of what they're tryiing to do.
The former point is obviously psueodoscience, but he asserts that the scientist who conducted that brain experiment believed it was time travel, so a fact-check would be nice to get the real story. The latter point is ridiculously weak support for this pseudoscientific idea, discounting the role of the subconscious and involuntary movements. I have done things before I was aware of them in fast, heated games of racquetball. This happens all the time, even when you try to avoid stumbling over a roadblock that you were only peripherally aware of.
@00:32:33
Quantum physics says we're all just waves of information. Is that how it is? I hope so!
I'm starting to see their angle. If everything exists on the quantum level, then it's all "abstract" and controllable from consciousness. Wishful thinking, just like religion and spirituality.
@00:33:00
(Double slit experiment)
Here comes the fish hook.
@00:39:11
(Paraphrased) Scientists disagree on quantum phenomena because they're observing it from different angles of perception, leading to different results.
I know where this is going. It's similar to "scientists disagree on global warming" and other canards built around the idea that scientists are normally supposed to agree on everything and have all the answers. But they don't in this case, which means this Zsa Zsa Gabor-like spiritualist lady does have all the answers! (Not to mention what she said is kind of a
lie...)
@00:40:10
(Paraphrased) There's no way we'll ever describe in mathematical terms the act of observing and "collapsing the waveform".
I can't speak with authority on quantum mechanics, but this sounds like defeatist gap-thinking.
@00:45:07
(Paraphrased) (Discussion of entanglement) Since everything was entangled at the Big Bang, everything is still entangled and connected.
Oh-hoh. That's going a little
far, pun allowed.
@00:55:00
(Paraphrasing the last few minutes) Because intention produced noise in random number generators, voila, thought can control the cirucmstances of your life.
Wishful thinking. They're about to start talking about that Japanese guy who claimed intentions produced variations in ice crystals. Total bullshit. This hurts to watch.
@00:58:40
(Armin Shimmerman appears as part of the scene to reinforce the water thought thing)
A new nadir for DS9: one of its former actors supporting pseudoscience. Quark, you son of a bitch.
~
I can't go on. This is so depressing, because it's tailored to people desperate for spirituality or religion. It's a new kind of religion wrapped in pseudoscience in order to make it seem less bullshit than the old religions, which are too riddled with antiquities and contradictions.
Fuck this. The truth is my master. Truth is beauty, and beauty truth. That is all ye know on this earth, and all ye need to know.