Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Post 125. June 27, 2022 continued . . . .
Quantum Weirdness
Classical Orthodoxy or Quantum Heterodoxy
Phillip Ball places the blame for Quantum queerness on the volitional act (willful choice) of Measurement. But he also says, “measurements must be classical by definition”. The human mind can’t make sense of ambiguous facts. But the Measurement Problem will make more sense if we assume that “wavefunction collapse is then a generator of knowledge : it is not so much a process that gives us the answers, but it is the process by which answers are created”. [My bold] Yet again, that perspective demands an active role by the conscious observer. In which case, the Knower is an extractor of Knowledge¹⁴ (information). Metaphorically, the human mind is a miner for nuggets of data. And the act of extraction, seems to cause the mine to cave-in (collapse). But only for a moment. Like removing a drop of water from the worldwide ocean, the hole in the sea is instantly refilled. However, the holistic ocean metaphor doesn’t seem to fit our traditional models of Quantum (grainy ; digital) and Classical (smooth ; analog) reality¹⁵.
The Copenhagen model is usually considered the “orthodox” view of quantum mechanics. And Bohr noted that “our task is to learn to use these words correctly — that is, unambigiously and consistently”. Yet, Ball responds : “the problem is that in quantum mechanics it is almost impossible to be unambiguous and consistent . . . “ Which is why some scientists have re-interpreted the classical meaning of quantum reality in some unothodox ways. For example, String Theory is even more otherworldly (11 physical dimensions) than Quantum Theory. Moreover, Ball says of orthodox QT : ”it demands that, at the moment of measurement, we accept that the universe does something not really distinct from magic”. Then he resignedly sighs that “the proliferation of interpretations is not a failing of quantum mechanics, but a necessity”.
Regarding David Bohm’s¹⁶ non-classical interpretation, Ball says that, “the cost of restoring this underlying reality is to package all the quantum-ness into the almost miraculous quantum Potential¹⁷”. Yet, Bohm felt it necessary to coin such terms as “active information”¹⁸ and “implicate order”¹⁹. Which Ball summarizes : “thought exists in the cosmos as a holistic entity akin to the quantum potential”. Consequently, “this quasi-mystical view of reality has made Bohm popular with the New Age movement.” Nevertheless, the Oriental (non-classical) notion of Holism has been found to be practical & essential for the new science of Systems Theory. But miraculous conclusions have not been found to be necessary. That’s because Nature itself is holistic when viewed in terms of complexity & chaos²⁰. In such cases individual components of the system submerge their particular properties in order to function together as a larger, more inclusive whole system. Those formerly hidden holistic properties only emerge when a multi-part system is unified or entangled, as in Integrated Information Theory.
Blog Post 125 continued . . . .
14. To know : Is to grasp something out there, and bring it into your awareness. To “measure” is to obtain knowledge. Proper-ties of the thing known or measured, then become a property of the knower. To know is to share properties between knower & known.
16. David Bohm : Quantum physicist, not to be confused with Bohr. Many of his ideas are still consideredunorthodox, but not necessarily untrue.
17. Potential : Unrealized or unmanifest creative or causal power. The power to become.
18. Active Information : This may be what Ball later calls “Causal Information”. Which is equivalent to Energy.
19. Implicate Order : Implicit or hidden structure. Assumed to be a more fundamental level of reality than that revealed by the pre-quantum classical worldview.
20. Holistic Chaos : “It is possible, however, as Polkinghorne suggests, that chaotic systems may one day be more accurately described by more complex theories, sometimes referred to as ‘holistic chaos’. The current deterministic laws would then be seen as simple approximations to holistic chaos through what Polkinghorne calls ‘downward emergence.” https://counterbalance.org/physgloss/chaos-body.html
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Classical Orthodoxy or Quantum Heterodoxy
