Quantum transition between spaces in a multidimensional Universe and spatial unconnectivity explain free will and solve the measurement problem of quantum mechanics
Spacetime is deterministic, but the Universe appears to be stochastic. How to reconcile free will with the determinism inherent to the Universe? In this essay, we postulate that free will can only emanate from the existence of multiple additional spatial dimensions constituting the Universe. As our space displaces through the temporal dimension, we can choose any of the infinite possibilities defined by the additional spatial dimensions, through a process we refer to as quantum transition between spaces. Reality would emerge from the specific materialization of this quantum transition, resulting in a time series of events. This materialization is based on a fundamental property of any space, independently of its dimensions, which we refer to as spatial unconnectivity. This property implies the inability of the constituents of a particular space to observe spaces located in other dimensions. Therefore, the unconnectivity between spaces would prevent the simultaneous observation of all possible events at a specific time point, as well as past and future events, resulting in a unique reality. It would be the observers who determine the temporal trajectory of events, thus providing themselves with free will. In the absence of observers, all possibilities are feasible, thus explaining the quantum properties of elementary particles when they are not directly observed. Our model reconciles quantum mechanics with relativistic physics and is the easiest way to understand how reality arises in our observable Universe.
Spacetime is deterministic, but the Universe appears to be stochastic. How to reconcile free will with the determinism inherent to the Universe? In this essay, we postulate that free will can only emanate from the existence of multiple additional spatial dimensions constituting the Universe. As our space displaces through the temporal dimension, we can choose any of the infinite possibilities defined by the additional spatial dimensions, through a process we refer to as quantum transition between spaces. Reality would emerge from the specific materialization of this quantum transition, resulting in a time series of events. This materialization is based on a fundamental property of any space, independently of its dimensions, which we refer to as spatial unconnectivity. This property implies the inability of the constituents of a particular space to observe spaces located in other dimensions. Therefore, the unconnectivity between spaces would prevent the simultaneous observation of all possible events at a specific time point, as well as past and future events, resulting in a unique reality. It would be the observers who determine the temporal trajectory of events, thus providing themselves with free will. In the absence of observers, all possibilities are feasible, thus explaining the quantum properties of elementary particles when they are not directly observed. Our model reconciles quantum mechanics with relativistic physics and is the easiest way to understand how reality arises in our observable Universe.
Although time is one of our most intuitive physical concepts, its understanding at the fundamental level is still an open question in physics. For instance, time in quantum mechanics and general relativity are two distinct and incompatible entities. While relativity deals with events (points in spacetime), with time being observer dependent and dynamical, quantum mechanics describes physical systems by treating time as an independent parameter. To resolve this conflict, in this work, we extend the classical concept of an event to the quantum domain by defining an event as a transfer of information between physical systems. Then, by describing the universe from the perspective of a certain observer, we introduce quantum states of events with space-time-symmetric wave functions that predict the joint probability distribution of a measurement (observation) at $(t,\stackrel{P\vec}{x})$. Under these circumstances, without assuming collapse, we propose that a well-defined instant of time, like any other observable, arises from a single event, thus being an observer-dependent property. In this manner, we obtain a stationary quantum state written as a sum of a sequence of normalized states of events with increasing memories. As a consequence, a counterfactual asymmetry along this sequence of events gives rise to the flow of time as being successive ``snapshots'' from the observer's perspective. In this proposal, which contrasts strikingly to the view in which time is an illusion, it is the many distinguishable states in which the observer stores information that makes the existence of time possible.
If the concept of “free will” is reduced to that of “choice” all physical world share the latter quality. Anyway the “free will” can be distinguished from the “choice”: The “free will” involves implicitly certain preliminary goal, and the choice is only the mean, by which it can be achieved or not by the one who determines the goal. Thus, for example, an electron has always a choice but not free will unlike a human possessing both. Consequently, and paradoxically, the determinism of classical physics is more subjective and more anthropomorphic than the indeterminism of quantum mechanics for the former presupposes certain deterministic goal implicitly following the model of human freewill behavior.The choice is usually linked to very complicated systems such as human brain or society and even often associated with consciousness. In its background, the material world is deterministic and absolutely devoid of choice. However, quantum mechanics introduces the choice in the fundament of physical world, in the only way, in which it can exist: All exists in the “phase transition” of the present between the uncertain future and the well-ordered past. Thus the present is forced to choose in order to be able to transform the coherent state of future into the well-ordering of past. The concept of choice as if suggests that there is one who chooses. However quantum mechanics involves a generalized case of choice, which can be called “subjectless”: There is certain choice, which originates from the transition of the future into the past. Thus that kind of choice is shared of all existing and does not need any subject: It can be considered as a low of nature.There are a few theorems in quantum mechanics directly relevant to the topic: two of them are called “free will theorems” by their authors, Conway and Kochen, and according to them: “Do we really have free will, or, as a few determined folk maintain, is it all an illusion? We don’t know, but will prove in this paper that if indeed there exist any experimenters with a modicum of free will, then elementary particles must have their own share of this valuable commodity” “The import of the free will theorem is that it is not only current quantum theory, but the world itself that is non-deterministic, so that no future theory can return us to a clockwork universe”.Those theorems can be considered as a continuation of the so-called theorems about the absence of “hidden variables” in quantum mechanics.
The theoretical physics of a quantum mechanical model of space, relativistic quantum holography, is described. It specifies three dimensions, such as is validated by the nature of our spatial experience, but where additionally, quantum non-locality, which Feynman described as the only mystery of quantum theory, is made manifest by means of observable phase relationships. For example, synchronicity between events, and other phenomena such as are described by the geometric/Berry phase, etc., which are outside the bounds of classical explanation. It can therefore be hypothesized: a) that we live in a entirely quantum mechanical world/universe and not a classical mechanical one (where quantum phenomena are confined to the microscopic scale) as is the current generally held scientific view, b) that three spatial dimensions are a fundamental consequence of quantum mechanics, c) that quantum holography is a natural candidate to explain quantum gravity, such that mass/inertia concerns not the eigenvalues of some operator, but rather the observable gauge invariant phases of a state vector, postulated to be that of the universe itself, as a whole, and d) that this model provides a natural explanation in terms of relativistic quantum signal processing of any each individual’s perception and cognition will be of a three dimensional world, defined similarly in relation to each individual’s quantum state vector, describing its mind/body and associated gauge invariant phases or mindset, which have observable consequences, such that mental processes and events can cause neural events and processes! These testable hypotheses, if validated, will have profound implications for our understanding, radically changing our scientific perspective on the world, as we enter the new millennium.
We perform an experimental test where we directly observe light-induced electron transitions with a macroscopic spatial discontinuity. The effect is related to the fundamental indivisibility of macroscopic orbit-like quantum states reminiscent of so-called extended states in the integer quantum Hall system. The test has become realizable due to the discovering of a quantum phase with spontaneous pervasive quantum ordering reminiscent of that of a single atom. The observed transitions may be regarded as a peculiar quantum dynamics beyond relativity, which implies that the current relativistic model of universe should be replaced by a deeper quantum model. It is the Bohm’s model of undivided universe which now should involve a deeper-than-classical concept of absolute simultaneity and a deeper-than-relativistic concept of space and time. Ultimately, our test thus establishes a new hierarchy of fundamental physical theories where the de Broglie-Bohm realistic quantum theory is the deepest theory which does not contradict either classical physics or relativity but rather is beyond both. This is because the fact that quantum theory is dealing with a deeper reality where physical objects are not self-sufficient entities and therefore they can transit discontinuously within an overall quantum system determined by their wavefunctions.
An operational approach to quantum mechanics has been developed in the past decades in our group in Brussels. A similar approach is taken in this work, making use of the extra operational depth offered by this approach, to show that the construction of spacetime is specific to each observer. What is usually referred to as the block universe then emerges by noting that parts of the past and future are also contained in the present, but without the limitations that a four-dimensional block universe usually implies, of a reality in which change would be impossible. In our operational approach, reality remains dynamic, with free choice playing a central role in its conceptualization. We also show that, when operationally analyzed, the theory implies that objects move not only in space, but also and especially in time, and more generally in spacetime, with their rest mass being a measure of their kinetic time energy. We therefore claim that Einstein’s relativity revolution has not been fully realized, since most physicists are not ready to accept these consequences of the theory although the formula’s showing them, when operationally analyzed, are in every relativity textbook. In particular, when relativistic motion is revisited as a genuine four-dimensional motion, it becomes possible to reinterpret the parameter c associated with the coordinate speed of light, which becomes the magnitude of the four-velocity of all material entities. We observe that this four-dimensional motion in Minkowski space can also be better understood if placed in the broader perspective of quantum mechanics, provided that non-locality is interpreted as non-spatiality, thus indicating the existence of an underlying non-spatial reality, the nature of which could be conceptual, consistent with the conceptuality interpretation of quantum mechanics. This hypothesis is reinforced by noting that when observers, or experiencers, as they will be referred to in this article, are described by acknowledging their cognitive nature of entities moving in a semantic space, Minkowski metric emerges in a natural way.
Abstract Quantum Theory, similar to Relativity Theory, requires a new concept of space-time, imposed by a universal constant. While velocity of lightcnot being infinite calls for a redefinition of space-time on large and cosmological scales, quantization of action in terms of a finite, i.e. non vanishing, universal constanthrequires a redefinition of space-time on very small scales. Most importantly, the classical notion of “time”, as one common continuous time variable and nature evolving continuously “in time”, has to be replaced by an infinite manifold of transition rates for discontinuous quantum transitions. The fundamental laws of quantum physics, commutation relations and quantum equations of motion, resulted from Max Born’s recognition of the basic principle of quantum physics:To each change in nature corresponds an integer number of quanta of action. Action variables may only change by integer values ofh, requiring all other physical quantities to change by discrete steps, “quantum jumps”. The mathematical implementation of this principle led to commutation relations and quantum equations of motion. The notion of “point” in space-time looses its physical significance; quantum uncertainties of time, position, just as any other physical quantity, are necessary consequences of quantization of action.