Quantum explanations of consciousness: A “Just So” story?

George J. Williams III

In this paper, I explore the link between consciousness and quantum mechanics. Often explanations that invoke consciousness to help explain some of the most perplexing aspects of quantum mechanics are not given serious attention. However casual dismissal is perhaps unwarranted, given the persistence of the measurement problem, as well as the mysterious nature of consciousness. Using data cumulated from experiments in parapsychology, I examine what anomalous data with respect to consciousness might tell us about various explanations on quantum mechanics. I examine three categories of quantum mechanics interpretations that have some promise of fitting with this anomalous data. I conclude that explanations that posit a substratum of reality containing pure information or potentia, along the lines proposed by Bohm and Stapp, offer the best fit for various categories of this data.

Paavo Pylkkänen

Huping Hu, Maoxin Wu

Many experiments have shown that quantum entanglement is physically real. In this article, we will discuss its ontological origin/nature, implications and potential applications by thinking outside the standard interpretations of quantum mechanics. We argue that quantum entanglement originates from the primordial spin processes in non-spatial and non-temporal pre-spacetime, implies genuine interconnectedness and inseparableness of once interacting quantum entities, play vital roles in biology and consciousness and, once better understood and harnessed, has far-reaching consequences and applications in many fields such as medicine and neuroscience. Then, we will recall our journey into the field of consciousness studies and the inception and development of the spin-mediated consciousness theory.

David L. Wilson

The Institute for Applied Ontological Mathematics

This document merges strict mathematical proofs with a speculative science-fiction narrative to make complex abstract concepts more accessible and to vividly illustrate their implications. Part I: The Speculative Fiction ('The Window in God') The first section is a sci-fi short story that translates the mathematical constraints of Group Field Theory and Bohmian trajectories into a narrative about a deterministic, AI-governed empire and a rebellion of 'Monads' achieving collective consciousness. This narrative dramatizes the consequences of the mathematical findings. For example, the mathematical theorem proving that the quantum model's integer-based carrier cannot support a 'halving' operation is reimagined as a catastrophic engineering failure where a starship engine seizes because it asks the system for 'half of one'. Similarly, the mathematical discovery of a 'one-bit' deficit in the overlap of two structural charts becomes a literal loophole in the empire's 'Oracle' AI, allowing human consciousness to slip through. Part II: The Technical Companion ('The Trajectory is the Free Part') The second section strips away the fictional elements and presents the formal, finite mathematics underpinning the story. It clearly separates the verified theorems—such as the exact cohomological cost of determinism and the unnatural splitting required by a preferred foliation—from the narrative's mythological and physical inventions. By pairing the two, the document aims to show how a restricted mathematical representation, when incorrectly treated as an exhaustive truth, can have profound philosophical and real-world engineering consequences. The story stimulates the imagination regarding observer-device coupling and consciousness, while the technical companion grounds the reader in exactly what the mathematics does (and does not) prove.