THE UPPER AND LOWER SCALES AS UNIFICATION SCALES

The solar wisdom specifies two important scales below the half measure corresponding to 10^-12 centimeters and 10^-16 centimeters. We may view both of these as particle unification scales—but they pertain to particles of matter and force respectively.

We may view the scale of 10^-12 centimeters as the scale of nuclear unification in which protons and neutrons (both of which are matter particles) are unified in the form of a single atomic nucleus. The scale of 10^-16 centimeters, on the other hand, is the scale of electro-weak unification in which electromagnetic and weak particles (both of which are force particles) are unified in the form of a single electro-weak particle. We can view the upper scales as unification scales, but instead of giving rise to microscopic particles, they give rise to cosmological wholes represented by the sun and the heliosphere. On the scale of 10¹¹ centimeters, all the particles from which the sun is composed are correlated nonlocally into a single whole: the sun. On the scale of 10¹⁵ centimeters, all the particles from which the heliosphere is composed are similarly correlated nonlocally into a single whole: the heliosphere.

The difference between the two types of unification above and below is that the lower scales are dominated by the local analytic power of consciousness, which gives rise to the conception of microscopic parts, while the upper scales are dominated by the nonlocal synthesizing power of consciousness, which gives rise to the conception of macroscopic wholes. Yet both involve a form of unification.