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The Timing of Conscious Experience: A Causality-Violating, Two-Valued, Transactional Interpretation of Subjective Antedating and Spatial-Temporal Projection 1

Fred Wolf

Published Jan 1, 1998• 11 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

Abstract Ð Quantum systems in the time interval between two events, so-called two-time observables (TTO), are known to behave in a manner quite different from expectations based on initial value quantum mechanics. Ac-cording to the transactional interpretation (TI) of quantum physics, wave functions can be pictured as offer and echo waves Ð the offer wave passing from an initial event, i, to a future event, a, and the echo wave, the complex conjugate of the offer wave, passing from a back in time toward i. TTO and the TI have been used to explain certain quantum physical temporal anom-alies, such as non-locality, contrafactuality, and future-to-present causation as explicitly shown in Wheeler’s delayed choice experiment, an experiment wherein the history of the objects under scrutiny are not determined until the final observation. Experimental evidence involving neurological function-ing and subjective awareness indicates the presence of the same anomalies. Here I propose a model based on TTO and the TI wherein two neural events are ultimately responsible for backwards-through-time wave function col-

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This paper explores the relationship between consciousness and future information from a quantum mechanical perspective and proposes an experimental framework for empirical validation. Classical causality suggests that future events do not influence the present; however, non-locality and time symmetry in quantum mechanics suggest that future states may exert an influence on the present.We introduce a probabilistic framework and investigate the inequality P(C_t | F) \neq P(C_t), which suggests that future information influences present consciousness. The theoretical model is supported by the following considerations:1.Delayed-Choice Quantum Effects: Future measurements in quantum systems have been shown to influence past states, suggesting a possible analogy for consciousness.2.Wave Function Evolution and Future Constraints: The state evolution equation is modified by a correction term proportional to future constraints, described as \hat{H}^{\prime} \Psi (t) = i \hbar \frac{d}{dt} \Psi (t) + \lambda F.3.Experimental Framework: We propose an experimental methodology to test this hypothesis through EEG measurements, delayed stimulus presentations, and statistical analyses of brain activity under predetermined future conditions.This work lays the foundation for testing the causal influence of future information on consciousness and provides a new perspective on the intersection between quantum mechanics and cognitive science.

•Mar 14, 2025•3 citations
Abstract Ð Quantum systems in the time interval between two events, so-called two-time observables (TTO), are known to behave in a manner quite different from expectations based on initial value quantum mechanics. Ac-cording to the transactional interpretation (TI) of quantum physics, wave functions can be pictured as offer and echo waves Ð the offer wave passing from an initial event, i, to a future event, a, and the echo wave, the complex conjugate of the offer wave, passing from a back in time toward i. TTO and the TI have been used to explain certain quantum physical temporal anom-alies, such as non-locality, contrafactuality, and future-to-present causation as explicitly shown in Wheeler’s delayed choice experiment, an experiment wherein the history of the objects under scrutiny are not determined until the final observation. Experimental evidence involving neurological function-ing and subjective awareness indicates the presence of the same anomalies. Here I propose a model based on TTO and the TI wherein two neural events are ultimately responsible for backwards-through-time wave function col-
Chalmers described ‘awareness’ as a functional notion intimately linked to ‘subjective experience’ but nevertheless different from the latter. We define ‘awareness of an object (physical or mental)’ in terms of the specific function of creation of physical and mental records. By using this definition of awareness and a representation of mind-brain interaction as tachyon interaction with a nonrelativistic quantum mechanical system, in earlier work, we showed that the brain creates subjective experience in the form of tachyons if the mind consisting of tachyons pays attention to the brain. In this article, we use our proposal of creation of subjective experience and Wolf’s two-time observables based transaction-interpretation of quantum collapse to explain Libet’s hypothesis about unconscious cerebral initiative and the role of conscious will in voluntary action.
I start from the fundamental principles of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, without probability, and interpret them using the notion of coexistence: a quantum state can be read, not uniquely, as a coexistence of other quantum states, which are pairwise orthogonal. In this formalism, I prove that a conscious observer is necessarily a physical object that can memorize local events by setting one of its parts in an exactly specified constant quantum state (hypotheses H1, H2 and H3). Then I define the probability of a future event as the proportion of initial observers, all identical, who will actually experience that event. It then becomes possible to establish the usual results of quantum mechanics. Furthermore, I detail the link between probabilities and relative frequencies. Additionally, I study the biological feasibility of this modelling of observer's mind. The second part of this paper completes the neuronal description of the mind functions, based on current neuroscientific knowledge. It provides a model that is compatible with the assumptions of the first part and consistent with our daily conscious experience. In particular, it develops a model of self-consciousness based on an explicit use of the random component of neuron behaviour; according to the first part, that random is in fact the coexistence of a multiplicity of possibilities. So, when the mind measures the random part of certain neurons in the brain, he goes himself within each of these possibilities. The mind has a decision-making component that is active in this situation, appearing then as the cause of the choice of this possibility among all the others. This models the self-consciousness which then ensures the unity of our conscious experience by equating this experience with ``what the ego is conscious about''. The conclusion details the points that remain to be developed.
The nature of subjective conscious experience, and its consequences in intentionality, remain the central unsolved problem in science and one of critical importance to humanity’s future as sentient observers and autonomous participants in a world history we are coming to have ever more pivotal influence upon. Each of us who read this paper are subjective conscious observers, making an autonomous decision to carry out a volitional action. All our knowledge of the physical universe is gained through the immediate conduit of our subjective experience and our intentionality in turn has major impacts on the physical world around us. To understand how the subjective aspect arises requires both a radical investigation down to the foundations of physics and an understanding of how subjective awareness, as opposed to mere computational capacity, may have become elaborated by Darwinian natural selection. We thus have to find reasons why subjectivity itself, rather than computation alone, is of pivotal importance in organismic survival. The answer lies in its capacity to anticipate situations crucial to survival. For this to be possible, the foundations of physics must contain a principle of space-time anticipation not covered by any mechanism of computation alone, or subjectivity would become superfluous and would have never been selected for in evolution. This paper sets out to demonstrate how quantum transactions universal to all quantum phenomena my fulfil this pivotal role. The role of dynamical chaos and bifurcation in neurodynamics has been the subject of an increasing volume of theoretical and experimental research in which transition from chaos to order may form a key process in perception and cognition. There has also been a continuing interest in the possible link between quantum non-locality and consciousness. This paper presents a two-part theory in which: (a) a fractal link between neurodynamical chaos and quantum non-locality; and (b) a complex system theory of the sub-quantum world; together provide a physical solution to the mind-brain paradoxes of subjective consciousness and free-will. The fractal link between dynamical chaos and quantum uncertainty is proposed to be made through overlapping non-linearities capable of chaos, running from the neurosystems level down through the neuron, synapse, to the ion channel. Chaotic systems possess sensitive dependence, and brain states also contain features of self-organized criticality. In a critically poised brain state representing uncertainty of outcome, it is proposed that sensitive dependence opens the brain to quantum processes. In the transactional interpretation of quantum mechanics, future states form part of the boundary condition of reduction of the wave packet. Transactional supercausality may allow a form of prediction in the excitable cell which bypasses and complements formal computation. The selective advantage of such a process would explain the emergence of consciousness in organismic evolution.
In a number of experimental studies we explored the so‐called ‘radical subjective’, and rather controversial, solution of the measurement problem. This solution posits that an interaction with a conscious entity is required to complete the measurement. Thus the collapse of the wave packet is assumed to be causally linked to a conscious observation. Under the assumption that the brain is sensitive for the difference between observing a quantum (superposition) state and a classical state this radical solution can be tested. A radioactive source was used to trigger beeps that first were delayed for 1 second and then were observed by a (final) observer from whom a continuous recording of brain activity was made. In about 50% of the events, another (pre) observer got feedback of this quantum event before the final observer. In those cases, presumably the pre‐observer’s observation resulted in collapse of the wave‐packet while in the other half of the cases the final observer was ‘producing’ the collapse. The brain signals of the final observer for the two types of events were compared. The ambiguous results of the studies will be discussed. If consciousness is the crucial ingredient for ‘collapse’ to occur, then this might also give a new anthropocentric hypothesis with regard to the ‘arrow of time’. The projection postulate implies a irreversible process of reduction and hence can be seen as one of the few non time‐symmetric processes in physics. If consciousness is required to have a collapse then it might follow that consciousness introduces time asymmetry into physics. New neuro‐cognitive models of consciousness suggest that the neural correlate of conscious experience (rather than non conscious processing) is the occurrence of massive parallel recurrent (i.e. non linear) neural activation. Thus the collapse of the wave packet would become associated with a strong non‐linear process. This fits, at least in a metaphorical sense, with the theoretical results where an introduction on a non linear term in the Schr̈odinger equation results in an ‘objective’ reduction of the wave packet.
This paper explores the relationship between consciousness and future information from a quantum mechanical perspective and proposes an experimental framework for empirical validation. Classical causality suggests that future events do not influence the present; however, non-locality and time symmetry in quantum mechanics suggest that future states may exert an influence on the present.We introduce a probabilistic framework and investigate the inequality P(C_t | F) \neq P(C_t), which suggests that future information influences present consciousness. The theoretical model is supported by the following considerations:1.Delayed-Choice Quantum Effects: Future measurements in quantum systems have been shown to influence past states, suggesting a possible analogy for consciousness.2.Wave Function Evolution and Future Constraints: The state evolution equation is modified by a correction term proportional to future constraints, described as \hat{H}^{\prime} \Psi (t) = i \hbar \frac{d}{dt} \Psi (t) + \lambda F.3.Experimental Framework: We propose an experimental methodology to test this hypothesis through EEG measurements, delayed stimulus presentations, and statistical analyses of brain activity under predetermined future conditions.This work lays the foundation for testing the causal influence of future information on consciousness and provides a new perspective on the intersection between quantum mechanics and cognitive science.