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Quantum World as Consciousness

Daegene Song

Published Mar 5, 2007• 1 citation
OpenAlex

Abstract

By examining the consciousness in terms of reference frames in quantum dynamics, it will be shown that the unitary evolution of an arbitrary wavefunction, including that of the Universe, which one experiences, is the evolution within the observer's consciousness.

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Reference frames are of special importance in physics. They are usually considered to be idealized entities. However, in most situations, e.g. in laboratories, physical processes are described within reference frames constituted by physical systems. As new technological developments make it possible to demonstrate quantum properties of complex objects an interesting conceptual problem arises: Could one use states of quantum systems to define reference frames? Recently such a framework has been introduced in [F. Giacomini, E. Castro-Ruiz, and Č. Brukner, Nat Commun 10, 494 (2019)]. One of its consequences is the fact that quantum correlations depend on a physical state of an observers reference frame. The aim of this work is to examine the dynamical aspect of this phenomena and show that the same is true for correlations established during an evolution of a composite systems. Therefore, decoherence process is also relative: For some observers the reduced evolution of subsystems is unitary, whereas for others not. I also discuss implications of this results for modern developments of decoherence theory: Quantum Darwinism and Spectrum Broadcast Structures.

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Reply to ‘Mathematical Error in “Incompatibility between Quantum theory and Consciousness”’

Daegene Song

1 In (Georgiev, 2008), Georgiev claims to have spotted a critical mathematical error in the paper (Song, 2008) showing the incompatibility between quantum theory and consciousness. This note's goal is to show that Georgiev's claim comes from a simple misunderstanding of the paper. The whole point of (Song, 2008) was to show that quantum theory's existing standard axioms cannot consistently describe the phenomenon presented as (N2), which describes a case where an observer in the mental reference frame e is observing his own reference frame's unitary evolution. This phenomenon can be pictured as follows: consider a closed system with an observer and a qubit. The observer can choose or change the measurement basis for the given qubit. Moreover, the observer can still have or change this basis choice e even when the closed system contains no qubit. Philosophy literature widely discusses self-observation, i.e., the observer observing his own mental state, which is also known as reflexive selfconsciousness or simply reflexive consciousness (for example, see (Halliday, 1989; Velmans, 2008)). (N2) considers a case when subject and the object being observed are identical, i.e., both correspond to a single vector, e , rather than two vectors pointing in the same direction. Let us now discuss the fallacy in Georgiev's argument (Georgiev, 2008).

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Consciousness Defies Functionalism in Many Worlds

Gao, Shan

This paper argues that functionalism, a dominant theory in philosophy of mind, fails to adequately explain the emergence of conscious experience within the Everettian (Many-Worlds) interpretation of quantum mechanics. While the universal wavefunction contains many possible ways of decomposition, functionalism cannot account for why consciousness appears only in decohered, classical-like branches and not in other parts of the wavefunction that are equally real. This limitation holds even if those other parts do not instantiate complex functional structure. We argue that consciousness, as it is observed in many worlds, defies the predictions and explanatory resources of functionalism. Therefore, functionalism must be supplemented or replaced in order to account for the observed phenomenology.

•May 29, 2025•0 citations
Reference frames are of special importance in physics. They are usually considered to be idealized entities. However, in most situations, e.g. in laboratories, physical processes are described within reference frames constituted by physical systems. As new technological developments make it possible to demonstrate quantum properties of complex objects an interesting conceptual problem arises: Could one use states of quantum systems to define reference frames? Recently such a framework has been introduced in [F. Giacomini, E. Castro-Ruiz, and Č. Brukner, Nat Commun 10, 494 (2019)]. One of its consequences is the fact that quantum correlations depend on a physical state of an observers reference frame. The aim of this work is to examine the dynamical aspect of this phenomena and show that the same is true for correlations established during an evolution of a composite systems. Therefore, decoherence process is also relative: For some observers the reduced evolution of subsystems is unitary, whereas for others not. I also discuss implications of this results for modern developments of decoherence theory: Quantum Darwinism and Spectrum Broadcast Structures.
1 In (Georgiev, 2008), Georgiev claims to have spotted a critical mathematical error in the paper (Song, 2008) showing the incompatibility between quantum theory and consciousness. This note's goal is to show that Georgiev's claim comes from a simple misunderstanding of the paper. The whole point of (Song, 2008) was to show that quantum theory's existing standard axioms cannot consistently describe the phenomenon presented as (N2), which describes a case where an observer in the mental reference frame e is observing his own reference frame's unitary evolution. This phenomenon can be pictured as follows: consider a closed system with an observer and a qubit. The observer can choose or change the measurement basis for the given qubit. Moreover, the observer can still have or change this basis choice e even when the closed system contains no qubit. Philosophy literature widely discusses self-observation, i.e., the observer observing his own mental state, which is also known as reflexive selfconsciousness or simply reflexive consciousness (for example, see (Halliday, 1989; Velmans, 2008)). (N2) considers a case when subject and the object being observed are identical, i.e., both correspond to a single vector, e , rather than two vectors pointing in the same direction. Let us now discuss the fallacy in Georgiev's argument (Georgiev, 2008).
This paper argues that functionalism, a dominant theory in philosophy of mind, fails to adequately explain the emergence of conscious experience within the Everettian (Many-Worlds) interpretation of quantum mechanics. While the universal wavefunction contains many possible ways of decomposition, functionalism cannot account for why consciousness appears only in decohered, classical-like branches and not in other parts of the wavefunction that are equally real. This limitation holds even if those other parts do not instantiate complex functional structure. We argue that consciousness, as it is observed in many worlds, defies the predictions and explanatory resources of functionalism. Therefore, functionalism must be supplemented or replaced in order to account for the observed phenomenology.