Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia; Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.
Post 125. June 27, 2022 continued . . . .
Quantum Weirdness
Mental measurement : Physical effect
The author notes that “everything strange about quantum mechanics comes down to measurement”. But, what’s so odd about taking the measure of things? In this case it’s the active intrusive role of the mind of the measurer. The Latin root is “mensura”, from the word for “mind”. Which may be why Protagoras claimed that “man is the measure of all things”. So the “measurement problem” of quantum physics is concerned with what causes the superposed (all over the place) contin-uous wavefunction to “collapse” into a single discrete particle in one location. How does an inquiring mind cause an invisible potential object to suddenly appear, as-if from nowhere? One clue may be found in the notion that a scientific measurement can be construed as extracting essential Information (like pulling a Linchpin⁹) from the oceanic waveform. Thus disen-tangling the whole system into its components, one of which is a quantum of energy that we perceive as a specific particle of matter. That’s a metaphorical¹⁰ explanation for an otherwise inexplicable physical event, barring magic of course.
But the metaphor only works if mental Information is somehow related to physical Energy. Ball doesn’t offer to explain the energy angle. But he does quote Stephen Hawking : “mental concepts are the only reality we can know”. So, some theorists theorize that “the act of measurement actively constructs the reality that is measured”. I bolded the word “act”, because a physical action is always the result of an exchange of energy. In this case, the energy seems to be a bit of Information¹¹. And Ball introduces the novel notion of “Information Causality” in a later chapter. Yet, for now he focuses on the paradox of mind over matter : “the idea that the quantum measurement problem is a matter of ‘disturbing’ what is measured is exactly what the Copenhagen Inter-pretation denies”. The paradox is that it seems to “permit the answers Yes and No simultaneously” : a contradiction of the logical principle of Non-Contradiction.
Bohr explained that the difference-that-made-a-difference¹² in information received by an experiment is not just looking, but in “the way we look”. And the “way” (the question) is determined by what we want to know. Ball suggests an epistemological (knowledge) explanation : “Nature seems to ‘know’ if we’re making a measurement or not”. Strange as that sounds, he describes “delayed choice” experiments, which seem to indicate “backward causation”. However, physicist John Wheeler explained that “we don’t really alter the past history, rather we have to alter our entire view of the phenomenon¹³ that we’re observing”. If that explanation sounds just as strange as the original conundrum, here’s another: “No elementary phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is a registered (observed) phenomenon”. Or as Bohr put it : “the quantum experiment is not probing the phenomenon but is the phenomenon”. So, the observer’s inquiring mind becomes a causal element of the experiment.
Blog Post 125 continued . . . .
9. Linchpin : Something essential to the continuity of an integrated system. When removed, the system falls apart.
10. Metaphorical : An imaginary or meta-physical, but meaningful or symbolic, connection between otherwise unrelated things. By contrast, an empirical relationship is taken to be real & physical.
11. Energy is Information : Energy is the relationship between information regimes. That is, energy is manifested, at any level, between structures, processes and systems of information in all of its forms, and all entities in this universe is composed of information. https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/22084/how-is-information-related-to-energy-in-physics Note : energy is information in the same sense that energy is matter
12. Difference : A perceivable distinction that is meaningful as a concept, and causes comprehension.
13. Phenomenon : A physical event that can be detected by the senses.
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