Michio Kaku, String Theory, and his Goldfish
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We are certain - absolutely positive - we are right. For some of our beliefs, nothing can penetrate the unrippled Surface of our Pond of thoughts and existence. Until we see water droplets on that surface. Seeing the droplets, we might ask ourselves, what if we’re wrong?
Theoretical physicist Michio Kaku changed my life. I was listening to him on a talk show decades ago. I was raptured by story, the mind experiment he had as a child. His childhood mental experiment also shifted my world. His excellent book, Parallel Worlds, repeats the story I heard that day on the radio.
Imagine fish swimming in a shallow pond, just below the lily pads, thinking that their “universe” is only two-dimensional. Our three-dimensional world may be beyond their ken. But there is a way in which they can detect the presence of the third dimension. If it rains, they can clearly see the shadows of ripples traveling along the surface of the pond. Similarly, we cannot see the fifth dimension, but ripples in the fifth dimension appear to us as light.
In Kaku’s childhood mind experiment, the goldfishs’ big clue that anything existed outside their known Universe - the water, plants, rocks, food, and gravel - was raindrops on the surface of the pond. They could generally be certain only of their immediate experience: except for the raindrops.
Hopefully, our certainty about our beliefs is malleable enough that when we see the raindrops on the surface of the water above us, we can begin to ask why. Maybe our certainty isn’t worthy of our assurance. Maybe there’s something we don’t understand.
But only if we can suspend our limiting beliefs long enough to ask questions. What are three ideas you are absolutely certain of? How certain are you? Are there any raindrops hitting the surface of your pond that might cause you to question these certainties?
P.S. When I ask about certainties, I’m not asking about certainties like: There’s someone who loves me. I probably don’t know you. But, I’m pretty certain someone loves you. Heck, as I write this, I’m sending you thoughts of kindness. In some way, you are the drop on the surface of my pond and I’m graeful for that.
So, I’m not asking you to doubt that. I am asking you to explore ideas about the world in which you live and the beliefs you hold. Tomorrow (or the next day), beliefs Kaku’s book corrected. I’ll tell you how Michio Kaku broke down some walls of belief.