No-Collapse Physics and Consciousness

Fang

Consciousness and Quantum Collapse: A Testable Physical Back-Reaction

Amit Goswami

Alin Christoph Cucu

This chapter asks whether consciousness-collapse interpretations of quantum mechanics can help interactive dualism even if they do not solve the conservation problem. It begins by explaining why consciousness-collapse theories are often considered vague or mysterious, especially because consciousness seems difficult to integrate into precise physical dynamics. This chapter then examines the proposal that consciousness can be connected to quantum theory through a physical correlate of consciousness and through superposition-resistant properties. On this approach, consciousness or its physical correlate resists quantum superposition and thereby contributes to wave function collapse. This chapter considers the strengths of this strategy, especially its promise of a lawful mind-matter connection, but also stresses major difficulties. Absolute superposition resistance faces the quantum Zeno problem, while weaker collapse models remain speculative. This chapter further argues that making consciousness-collapse dynamics precise may endanger libertarian freedom by placing conscious action under impersonal mathematical rules. It concludes that consciousness-collapse quantum mechanics is an intriguing research program, not a settled solution.

Subhash C. Kak

Lisa Doumbouya

This paper presents a structural corollary clarifying the relationship between physical collapse, time, and consciousness within a structure-first framework. Collapse is interpreted as coagulation: the resolution of under-constrained physical states into persistent configurations under structural and thermodynamic constraint. Time is understood not as a background parameter or a construct imposed by consciousness, but as the accumulated ordering of resolved physical structure. Within this framework, consciousness is included in a strictly non-causal, non-dynamical role. It does not cause collapse, influence probabilities, or act upon matter. Instead, consciousness provides a framing condition under which resolved structure is registered as an ordered, continuous history. Awareness operates locally and phenomenologically, giving rise to experienced agency through compatibility matching rather than physical selection. By separating causation from framing, the paper closes the collapse–time–experience loop without introducing new forces, mechanisms, or metaphysical assumptions. The work does not attempt to exhaustively define consciousness or delimit its possible roles beyond what is minimally required for structural coherence. It is intended as a conservative interpretive contribution, compatible with established physical theory and prior analyses of consciousness as a non-force condition within constrained systems.

Lana Tao, Subhash C. Kak, Roger Penrose +1 more