Consciousness Enters Physics

Danko Dimchev Georgiev

Quantum physics provides a good candidate for a mathematical entity, namely, the quantum state vector in the Hilbert space. The causal potency problem originates from determinism: In classical physical theories there are fundamental constituents entering in the mathematical description of the physical laws that govern deterministically the dynamics of physical systems. Since only these fundamental constituents are causally potent to affect the deterministic behavior of physical systems, consciousness has to appear as a fundamental constituent of the physical theory as well. Existentialism clashes seriously with determinism. Classical deterministic physics allows no free will and no objective morality. Classically, functionalism leads to epiphenomenalism because the generated conscious experiences are unable to change the already predetermined future dynamics of the brain. In quantum physics, however, the quantum indeterminism in the dynamics of quantum systems provides a multitude of possible outcomes from the measurement process.

Bruce Rosenblum, Fred Kuttner, Henry Pierce Stapp

Henry Pierce Stapp

Abstract. Niels Bohr stated, and Werner Heisenberg reiterated, that “in the great drama of existence we ourselves are both actors and spectators.” Their emphasis stems from the fact that the entry of human beings into physics as actors constitutes the most fundamental philosophical departure of twentieth‐century basic physics from its eighteenth‐ and nineteenth‐century forerunners. Those earlier theories claimed that our human conscious thoughts are mere witnesses to, or by‐products of, essentially mechanically determined brain processes. In stark contrast, certain conscious decisions that are made by human beings, but that are not determined by any known law, statistical or otherwise, enter irreducibly into orthodox contemporary physical theory. These actions are required to counteract effects of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, which ordains that the physically described process of nature, acting alone, produces not a physical world of the kind we experience but rather a continuous smear of potential possible worlds of the kind we know. This contradiction between theory and experience is resolved in orthodox contemporary physical theory by bringing certain effects of our conscious human choices into the dynamics in essentially the way that we intuitively feel that our conscious intentions affect the physical world, namely, via the effects of our intentional efforts on our physically described bodies. The moral implications of this profound change in physics are discussed.

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

I Dinakar, Rajesh B J.

The mind matter problem is an age old philosophical one which engaged the minds of scholars from the Vedic period through those of neuroscience of modern age and the quantum physicists in the 20th century. The vedic sages considered consciousness not only as primordial, but also universal and ubiquitous, causative of matter (reality in its various aspects). According to neuroscience consciousness is a result of functions of the brain, the neural networks and hence the search for the locality of origin of qualia, the building blocks of conscious experience. The search is still on for the Holy Grail of neuroscience along with the explanation for the mechanism of origin of the nonmaterial, abstract, phenomenon such as consciousness from the material brain, “the hard problem of David Chalmers, 1997”. Physics entered philosophy (W. Heisenberg, 1958) and the physicists began the quest for the site of origin of consciousness. Interestingly, contrary to the view of neuroscientists the quantum physicists viewed consciousness as a primary phenomenon and matter as secondary, (derivative) of consciousness, similar to that of the Vedic seers!. A comparative study of views of Vedanta and quantum physicists makes it interesting. One also finds that the terms consciousness, self, matter and reality have been used synonymously and will be dealt with likewise.

Richard A. Mould