Nikola Tesla and Chinese cosmology

Einstein’s theory resists integration with the standard atomic model and the development of a unified model. Nikola Tesla, the maverick scientist who disagreed with the basic assumptions of quantum theory, developed an aether-based theory of the cosmos and came remarkably close to the Chinese view of nature.

“I hold that space cannot be curved, for the simple reason that it can have no properties,” he said.

Surprisingly, Einstein was sympathetic to Tesla’s argument. He pointed out that Relativity doesn’t require the aether, but doesn’t exclude its possible existence.

Today, hardly any quantum physicist accepts the possible existence of the aether and asserts that Einstein was wrong.

In the past 100 years, physicists have proposed a slew of new theories that build on Einstein’s relativity and quantum theory. Using mathematical extrapolations, they have proposed wormholes, dark matter, black holes, string theory, and other mathematical abstractions that take them ever further away from experiential knowledge.

Recent advances in neurophysiology have fueled an interest in consciousness in recent decades and have brought science and the humanities a bit closer. The idea that the universe itself is conscious resonates with both scientists and the general public. More likely is that the universe created the conditions that made the development of consciousness possible.

Either way, Tesla’s aether theory offers a better framework to explore these and other existential questions than conventional theoretical quantum mechanics. Tesla had a human-centric vision of science.