A very interesting TEDTalk by philosopher David Chalmers on consciousness as the fundamental property of the universe, presented on March 2014. I agree with his views. Chalmers famously said that consciousness represents the hard problem in science.
TEDTalk March 2014. Our consciousness is a fundamental aspect of our existence, says philosopher David Chalmers: “There’s nothing we know about more directly…. but at the same time it’s the most mysterious phenomenon in the universe.” He shares some ways to think about the movie playing in our heads.
The neuroscientist
If you found that interesting, I recommend this TEDTalk by neuroscientist Anil Seth also, because he proposes the totally opposed vision, your material brain that hallucinates reality. Your consciousness lives completely inside your skull, together with the entire universe.
TEDTalk Aptil 2017. Right now, billions of neurons in your brain are working together to generate a conscious experience — and not just any conscious experience, your experience of the world around you and of yourself within it. How does this happen? According to neuroscientist Anil Seth, we’re all hallucinating all the time; when we agree about our hallucinations, we call it “reality.” Join Seth for a delightfully disorienting talk that may leave you questioning the very nature of your existence.
Paul J. van Leeuwen graduated in applied physics in Delft TU in 1974. There was little attention to the significance of quantum physics for the view on reality at that time. However, much later in his life he discovered that there is an important and clear connection between quantum physics and consciousness.
What he learned between then and today resulted in a post academic course in quantum physics for non-physicists. A little bit later he decided to put the contents of that course, and more, in a book published in Dutch: Kwantumfysica, Informatie en Bewustzijn – and started a website on the subject. He translated the Dutch version of his book in English, titled: ‘Quantum Physics is NOT Weird’.
The translation of my book ‘Quantum Physics, Information and Consciousness’ is a long term project. However, the preview version – epub format – is free downloadable. You’ll find the first four and the last chapter fully translated and all the other chapters have a summary at the end. Click here for more information.
Paul J. van Leeuwen graduated in applied physics in Delft TU in 1974. There was little attention to the significance of quantum physics for the view on reality at that time. However, much later in his life he discovered that there is an important and clear connection between quantum physics and consciousness.
What he learned between then and today resulted in a post academic course in quantum physics for non-physicists. A little bit later he decided to put the contents of that course, and more, in a book published in Dutch: Kwantumfysica, Informatie en Bewustzijn – and started a website on the subject. He translated the Dutch version of his book in English, titled: ‘Quantum Physics is NOT Weird’.
The 2019 SSE Conference will be held June 5-8 at the beautiful Omni Interlocken Hotel in Broomfield, Colorado.
I’m invited to do a poster presentation on June 7 2019 at the SSE conference on consilience. Here is the text of my submission paper:
Submission presentation SSE – english
Interpretations of quantum physics trying to save the idea of an
objective reality existing outside us will not survive critical
examination of their explanation of the so-called quantum collapse.
The following interpretations will be tackled:
Kopenhagen macro apparatus interpretation,
Decoherence,
Super selection,
Hidden variables,
Multiversa,
Spontaneous quantum collapse.
However other interpretations that do accept the connection between the conscious observer and quantum reality confer the problem of the nature of this connection to a more or less magical action on physical reality by a non-physical consciousness. Something I often refer to as ‘Harry Potter’ magic. These interpretations are:
The Matrix,
No quantum collapse whatever,
Von Neumann Projection Postulate.
Those three interpretations and the Kopenhagen interpretation do recognize the quantum wave being a non-physical possibility wave. The quantum wave function gives the time and location dependent possibility to find the quantum particle in a measurement. Because the mathematic expression for the quantum wave describes a probability, which is also nowhere exact null, the wave should be regarded as just as non-local as a thought. These interpretations acknowledging the role of consciousness do not however solve these problems:
how works consciousness its effect on the non-physical quantum possibility wave,
how it is possible that multiple observer minds manifest the same outcome? When I observe the moon, I’m surely not the only one so how can I possibly manifest the moon?
Paul J. van Leeuwen graduated in applied physics in Delft TU in 1974. There was little attention to the significance of quantum physics for the view on reality at that time. However, much later in his life he discovered that there is an important and clear connection between quantum physics and consciousness.
What he learned between then and today resulted in a post academic course in quantum physics for non-physicists. A little bit later he decided to put the contents of that course, and more, in a book published in Dutch: Kwantumfysica, Informatie en Bewustzijn – and started a website on the subject. He translated the Dutch version of his book in English, titled: ‘Quantum Physics is NOT Weird’.
