Quantum Metaphysics

Quantum metaphysics: consciousness and free will; universal and human emergence

Our conclusion will be that it is the presence of a free-willed, conscious being which enables the universe to emerge into reality, and since it is Humanity’s consciousness and free will which invest their choices with the possibility of meaning, it is therefore only free-willed consciousness which has the possibility of conducting reality-determining observation and measurement.

SECTION ONE: QUANTUM PHYSICS

For many years there was a debate among scientists regarding the nature of light. Certain phenomena seemed to indicate that light is a wave, while others pointed to its having a particle-like nature. The debate was stilled early in the 20th century when it was realized that both and neither were true, and this was the case also for all fundamental constituents—some physical conditions cause a manifestation of wave-like properties and some cause a manifestation of particle-like properties. This duality became one of the fundamental concepts of the newly-developed quantum physics.

Optional technical explanation: The duality concept arises as follows. If one were to eject an electron from an electron gun and run it through a slit of some sort, one would expect that since an electron is a particle, it would continue straight in a flat trajectory and reach a screen or a detector directly opposite to where it emerged. On the other hand, if one has a water or light wave, the waves bend as they traverse an opening, and form a complex pattern on the other side. When water or light waves are passed through a double slit, it has been shown that the resulting pattern can be attributed to the fact that each wave passes through both slits. It was shown experimentally, however, that even particles, such as electrons, form the same patterns as do waves, as though each particle passed through both slits—which seems impossible to our intuition. This led to the understanding that all entities in the universe are neither wave nor particle but rather they are what they are and as such they manifest properties of both under different circumstances.

PROBABILISTIC DETERMINISM

Prior to the advent of quantum physics, scientists and philosophers believed that every event in the universe occurred as an inevitable and necessary result of previous events. The state of the universe at any one instant was believed to be totally determined by the states of the universe in the past, and in turn the present state totally determined what all future states of the universe would be.

Quantum physics, introduced at the beginning of the twentieth century, brought with it a drastic change in this viewpoint. Each event was now understood to be able to occur in a number of ways, with the actual way that it does occur left to “chance.” Despite the fact that chance “ruled” each individual event, however, when numerous similar events occurred, the pattern that emerged resembled the results one would have expected using pre-quantum physics.

That is, each individual event, though occurring “at random,” nevertheless contributes somehow to a pattern, in the aggregate, which can be determined beforehand. This combination of random and determined behavior is called here probabilistic determinism or probabilistically determined randomness.

Physicists were troubled, however, for this “random” aspect seemed to be contrary to the “spirit of physics.”

Much inquiry was directed to the question of whether the chance aspect was only apparent—i.e. due to our lack of sufficient scientific knowledge and adequate instrumentation—or if it was an actual physical requirement. With the accumulation of more experimental evidence it was shown that, indeed, the nature of the physical universe appears to be such that intrinsically, at the most fundamental level, events are probabilistic and not deterministic.

REALITY AND MEASUREMENT

The mathematical description of a quantum system is that of a wave which corresponds to the system being in all possible states simultaneously—a “superposition of states.” (The physical interpretation of this wave is that of a probability distribution for the result of an individual event in an ensemble of cases or particles.) For example, in the case of the slit, each particle is represented by a wave function that corresponds to its going through both slits at all possible angles. However, when we look about us we always see unique states—for example, the unique impact point of the electron on the screen behind the slits.

Even the most subtle measurements on the particle while it is in flight, to determine its exact path have been shown experimentally and theoretically to so disturb the path that the pattern is lost. Wheeler’s delayed choice experiment has shown that one can even perform the measurements after passage through the slit, and retroactively affect the outcome. Therefore one cannot attribute a unique “physically real” path to the particle, even in theory—it is in a superposition state..

Thus, if we take very seriously the correspondence of the mathematical description of the physical state and the physical state itself, since the mathematical description changes abruptly from before the measurement to after, we conclude that there is a vast difference between the physical system prior to measurement—it is in a superposition of all possible states—and after measurement, when it is in a unique state.

The equations in physics map mathematically the events in the physical world, and the math in quantum physics is very capable of handling this mapping all the time until the system is measured and all the time after the measurement, the mapping gives rise to correct predictions, but there is no apparent physical reason to insert something into the math which would transform one set of equations (the pre-measurement ones) into the other (the post-measurement ones), except the act of measurement itself, and so one is forced to conclude that for some reason the act of measurement itself causes this drastic change. Since the pre-measurement superposition is described by a mathematical wave function of probabilities of values and the post-measurement description is not a wave function, nor any collection of values but a specific value, this transformation is sometimes called “the collapse of the wave function", in some sense it 'collapses' from probabilities into unique reality.

The probability aspect is not a matter of ignorance, but is ontological. Prior to its measurement, an event can occur in a number of ways and actually does so in some sense. Without measuring the state of a particle, we cannot say, “It is in some particular state, which is, however, as yet unknown to us.” It is not in some particular state. Instead, it is (in some sense) simultaneously in all the possible states in which it can be. Indeed, even after measurement is made, and the particle is found to be in a particular state, experiments have indicated (that given certain reasonable-seeming assumptions about the universe) that it is physically untrue that the particle was in that state all the time - it had no definite state until one measured it.

Our observations of the universe about us are measurements, and we therefore always see only unique states, not superpositions. The universe as a whole is also a system of physical entities, and its state is also a superposition until measured. Our measurement forces the universe to assume one definite state from among all the possibility-states it is in prior to the measurement.

This surprising, even bewildering, property can be interpreted as saying that the universe can emerge into reality only as a result of its measurement. In a way this is trite and in a way it’s radical. It is trite in the sense that for a at least two centuries philosophers such as Berkeley and the positivists have explored the idea that reality is only set by our consciousness of it, because we can perceive things through the senses. It is radical, however, in that this result has now been achieved by physics. Therefore, what is true in the realm of words and ideas has been shown by physics to be true of physical reality as well: the actual thing itself is not set until it is measured.

Summary

From the preceding discussion, we can make the following summary: All entities in the universe have a dual nature, one material and localized (particulate) and one nonmaterial and non-localized (wavelike). The universe, or any subsystem of it, is capable of being in two (or more) mutually contradictory states simultaneously. Saying that the universe is uniquely in one state is just as invalid as saying that it is in the other state. However, a decision can be made between the two by having a measurement made of the situation. Both views are partially correct, but only until the measurement is made. After that, only one becomes correct. However, this does not imply that it was always the correct one; there was no “correct” state until the measurement was made.

THE ROLE OF CONSCIOUSNESS

What is the active factor in a measurement which causes this emergence into reality? According to some leading physicists, this factor is consciousness. The great mathematician John Von Neumann, who provided a rigorous mathematical foundation for quantum mechanics, believed that only a human consciousness can collapse the wave function.

The eminent Nobel prize-winning physicist Eugene Wigner writes:

It follows that the quantum description of objects is influenced by impressions entering my consciousness….It follows that the being with a consciousness must have a different role in quantum mechanics than the inanimate measuring device.

The famous physicist John Wheeler has taken this one step further. According to him the entire universe can emerge into true physical existence only via the observation of a consciousness!

[Perhaps] no universe at all could come into being unless it were guaranteed to produce life, consciousness and observership somewhere and for some little length of time in its history-to-be?…

[T]he observer is as essential to the creation of the universe as the universe is to the creation of the observer….

[T]he universe would be nothing without observership, as surely as a motor would be dead without electricity….

[I]s observership the “electricity” that powers genesis?…

“[O]bservership” allows and enforces a transcendence of the usual order in time….

Thus, according to “quantum metaphysics,” a consciousness is indispensable to the universe if it is to emerge into reality. Physical reality can be said to exist only as a result of our presence within it or, more precisely, as a result of our perception of it.

Wheeler has constructed a fascinating diagram to illustrate this concept (see Figure 7-1). Explaining the diagram, he writes: “Beginning with the big bang, the universe expands and cools. After eons of dynamic development it gives rise to observership. Acts of observer-participancy in turn give tangible reality to the universe not only now but back to the beginning.”

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Consciousness and free will from the persepctive of quantum metaphysics.

FREE WILL as the active ingredient in collapsing the wave function: A free-willed decision, in order to be truly free, has to be unconstrained by the laws of nature and not determined by any physical phenomena. Hence free will must be neither the result of deterministic processes, nor the result of random processes occurring in accordance with the natural order of phenomena. Hence if the universe contains a free will, this free will must operate via interactions which transcend both the determinism of classical physics and the randomness of quantum physics. Free will is then unique in this respect.

If some entity exists which can collapse the quantum wave function, then it is reasonable to postulate that this entity has to be a free will, since, as we just discussed, only free will transcends quantum randomness, as it transcends nature in general.

Since a consciousness can affect the universe only if it has a free will, and a free will is by definition unthinkable without a consciousness, we will assume in the course of further discussion that free will subsumes within itself the concept of consciousness.

Universal and Human Emergence and Quantum Metaphysics:THE ROLE OF FREE-WILLED CONSCIOUS BEINGS

We will now try to apply the conclusions we reached above to the question of the existence of the universe. As we saw, according to quantum metaphysics, the universe can emerge into reality only when it is observed by a consciousness. This consciousness possibly must function in a nonquantum fashion in order to “collapse the wave function.” The only such nonquantum factor in the universe is free will. Thus, we postulate that it is the presence of a free-willed, conscious being which enables the universe to emerge into reality.

Since it is Humanity’s consciousness and free will which invest their choices with the possibility of meaning, it is therefore only free-willed consciousness which has the possibility of conducting reality-determining observation and measurement.

Nature by itself is powerless to achieve self-realization; humanity is required to bring both self and the universe into reality. Humans, alive and physical and yet spiritual as well, albeit limited and fallible—or perhaps because limited and fallible— are uniquely qualified, by virtue of possessing a free-willed consciousness, to determine the nature of physical and spiritual reality.

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