David Peat

From Object to Process 53empty space filled with colliding atoms. Then atoms broke apart intonuclei, nuclei into elementary particles, and finally, elementary particlesinto symmetries, transformations, and processes in the quantumvacuum. Understanding this new reality required a change in thinkingso deep that it reached down into the very language we speak. In placeof nouns and concepts we must now dialogue in terms of verbs, process,and flux. Once again, this change in our approach to reality mirrorssimilar revolutions that have taken place in art, literature, philosophy,and social relations.Permanence and ChangeWhat is the nature of this “stuff” of the world? What are the buildingblocks of reality? Of what substance are the foundations of all matterconstructed? All cultures have grappled with this problem. It is particularlypuzzling because of the apparent discrepancy between, on theone hand, the world’s permanence and, on the other, its transitory nature.Compared to a human life, rocks and mountains exist forever. Setagainst geological ages our own lives are as contingent as the windsand weather, foods, and harvests.Take, as an example, water. It is the most familiar and necessary ofall substances. Water is always in movement and transformation. Itadjusts to the shape of a vase, a cup, a swimming pool, or a dam. Itfalls from the sky, flows in rivers, surges in oceans, and, in a pond, itssurface is rippled by the wind. On an extremely cold day this samewater will freeze solid into ice; then, when the sun comes out again,this same ice melts back into water. Put some of that water into a potover the fire and it turns into steam; place a cold spoon over the boilingwater and steam condenses back into droplets of water.Three distinct states of matter—solid, liquid, and gas—transformback and forth into each other with such perfect ease that it is naturalto assume that behind these particular physical manifestations theremust lie a fundamental essence common to ice, liquid water, and steam.It is as if that essence is primary, while its particular manifestation, assolid, liquid, or gas, depends on external circumstances.