Quantum Mysticism: Gone but Not Forgotten »
Posted By Radiofreeeuropa 4 months, 3 weeks ago in Science & TechnologyDoes mysticism have a place in quantum mechanics today, or is the idea that the mind plays a role in creating reality best left to philosophical meditations? Harvard historian Juan Miguel Marin argues the former - not because physicists today should account for consciousness in their research, but because knowing the early history of the philosophical ideas in quantum mechanics is essential for understanding the theory on a fundamental level.
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Radiofreeeuropa
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Radiofreeeuropa4 months, 3 weeks ago
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Consider a particle,
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say an electron, moving through space.
We describe the electron's motion in terms
of its position and momentum.
Classically speaking,
we can measure both quantities to infinite precision.
However in Quantum Mechanics,
we can never know both quantities absolutely precisely.
This is because by taking a measurement
we inadvertently have disturbed the system.
"I believe that the existence of the classical 'path'
can be pregnantly formulated as follows:
The "path" comes into existence only when we observe it."
--Heisenberg, in the uncertainty principle paper
If every concept has a meaning only in terms of the experiments used to measure it, we must agree that things that cannot be measured really have no meaning in physics. So for instance, the path of a particle has no meaning beyond the precision with which it is observed. But a basic assumption of physics since Newton has been that a "real world" exists independently of us, regardless of whether or not we observe it. (This assumption did not go unchallenged, however, by some alchemists and philosophers.)
Heisenberg now argued that such concepts as orbits of electrons do not exist in nature unless and until we observe them.
Does this perhaps suggest that all knowledge is unknowable?
There simply are no certainties.
Only probabilities.
Fascinating and supportable thought to say the least. -
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Radiofreeeuropa4 months, 3 weeks ago
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We exist as both particles and wave functions.
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The wave function of an object represents the probability of finding it in a particular location or with a particular physical property (ie. it's reality) - when the probability of finding an object in a particular location or with a particular property goes to 100%, the wave function collapses and the object assumes physical properties. At this point it becomes "real".
Objects do not have any physical properties until they are observed.
Quantum physics contradicts the belief in an objective world existing independent of observation.
Our observations influence reality by collapsing the wave function of an object.
The point at which the wave collapses is consciousness itself.
An astounding yet mathematically supported reality.
Renee Descartes walks into a bar,
the bartender says 'sir can I get you a martini?'.
Descartes says
'I don't think...'
and he disappears. -
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Radiofreeeuropa4 months, 3 weeks ago
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It sure advocates chance more than anything else, sky spooks...not so much. The irony is these guys didn't want to come to the conclusions they observed...but they did observe these things...yet the act of observing likely changed what was observed. I guess some see gods at work, I see a beautiful universe in which I myself am an integral part, but if there is a creator at play here...well it sure ain't the bearded traffic cop sort of entity. More of a free jazz blowing, dice rolling Shiva dancing about...and this entity too wave collapses into human consciousness, existing because it is percieved, but not independently of perception. The creator may indeed be conciousness itself.
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