Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness
Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner
2006
Oxford University Press, USA
http://quantumenigma.comBook Description
The most successful theory in all of science—and the basis of one third of our economy—says the strangest things about the world and about us. Can you believe physical reality to be created by our observation of it? Physicists were forced to this conclusion, the quantum enigma, by what they observed in their laboratories.
Trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics and found, to their embarrassment, that their theory intimately connects consciousness with the physical world. ...
...Every interpretation of quantum physics encounters consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself—and encounter quantum physics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing. ...
The Enigma in a Nutshell
Quantum mechanics is the most battle-tested theory in all of science. It is also practical. (One third of our economy depends on things designed with it.) But, with the advent of quantum mechanics, physicists, unexpectedly, felt the need to talk of reality, connectedness, and even "consciousness."
Reality: Undisputed experimental results challenge any common-sense view of physical reality. By your free choice you can establish either of two contradictory prior physical realities. What existed before your observation? Experts in the foundations of quantum mechanics still puzzle about and argue about this. ...
Connectedness: Quantum theory tells that all things that have ever interacted are forever connected. For example, your friend's freely made decision of what to do in Moscow (or on Mars) can instantaneously influence what you find in Manhattan. And this happens without any physical force being involved. Einstein called such influences "spooky actions." They have now been demonstrated to exist. So far just for small things, but they are no less spooky.
Two further comments:
These two quantum phenomena are technically called "
wavefunction collapse" and "
entanglement." ...
The facts described in our book are completely undisputed. But mentioning "consciousness" is controversial. The encounter of physics with "non-physical" stuff like consciousness has been called our "skeleton in the closet." Look at the undisputed facts, and think for yourself about what they mean.
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