Physics and Consciousness
Patricio Perez
物理学对意识理解的一些贡献进行了描述。作为最近的相关模型，提到了联想记忆神经网络。它表明，意识和量子物理学共享一些属性。两个现有的量子模型进行了讨论。
Some contributions of physics towards the understanding of consciousness are described. As recent relevant models, associative memory neural networks are mentioned. It is shown that consciousness and quantum physics share some properties. Two existing quantum models are discussed.
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We show that the modern quantum mechanics, and particularly the theory of decoherence, allows formulating a sort of a physical metatheory of consciousness. Particularly, the analysis of the necessary conditions for the occurrence of decoherence, along with the hypothesis that consciousness bears (more-or-less) well definable physical origin, leads to a wider physical picture naturally involving consciousness. This can be considered as a sort of a psycho-physical parallelism, but on very wide scales bearing some cosmological relevance.
Nauenberg's extended critique of Quantum Enigma rests on fundamental misunderstandings.
We show that the modern quantum mechanics, and particularly the theory of decoherence, allows for formulating a sort of a physical metatheory of consciousness. Particularly, the analysis of the necessary conditions for the occurrence of decoherence, along with the hypothesis that consciousness bears (more-or-less) well definable physical origin, leads to a wider physical picture naturally involving consciousness. This can be considered as a sort of a psycho-physical parallelism, but on rather wide scales bearing some cosmological relevance.
The central claim that understanding quantum mechanics requires a conscious observer, which is made made by B. Rosenblum and F. Kuttner in their book "Quantum Enigma: Physics encounters consciousnes", is shown to be based on various misunderstandings and distortions of the foundations of quantum mechanics.
What are quantum theorists doing at a conference on consciousness?
解释了为什么正统的量子理论必然要调用意识。几个程序，从而玻恩概率规则可以介绍了讨论，并给出了理由，更喜欢一个意识选择一个独特的实现世界。意识是物理学（量子力学）定律之外的东西，但它对经验世界有真正的影响。最后，正统的量子理论被证明需要意识的行为非本地。
There have lately been a variety of attempts to connect, or even explain, if not in fact, reduce human consciousness to quantum mechanical processes. Such attempts tend to draw a sharp and fundamental distinction between the role of consciousness in classical mechanics, and on the other hand, in quantum mechanics, with an insistence on the assumed exceptional character of the latter. What is strangely missed, however, is the role of human consciousness as such in the very discovery or creation of both of these physical theories. And this a priori role is far more important than all the possibl…
We propose the quantum mechanical description of complex systems should be performed using two types of causality relation: the ordering relation ($x\prec y$) and the subset relation ($A\subseteq B$). The structures with two ordering operations, called the causal sites, have been already proposed in context of quantum gravity (Christensen and Crane, 2005). We suggest they are also common to biological physics and may describe how the brain works. In the spirit of the Penrose ideas we identify the geometry of the space-time with universal field of consciousness. The latter has its evident count…
This paper aims to invalidate the hypothesis that consciousness is necessary for the quantum measurement process. To achieve this target, I propose a considerable modification of the Schroedinger cat and the Dead-Alive Physicist thought experiments, called 'PIAR', short for Physicist Inside the Ambiguous Room. A specific strategy has enabled me to plan the experiment in such a way as to logically justify the inconsistency of the above hypothesis and to oblige its supporters to rely on an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the real-world phenomena exist independently of ou…
Consciousness and the Problem of Quantum Measurement
本文提出冯·诺依曼-维格纳量子诠释的变体，以福克空间矢量刻画物理态、幺正态Q(t)描述意识演化，约束态始终为对应确定意识的可容许态，规避量子芝诺效应问题并探讨相关量子悖论，指出宇宙存在意识观测者的概率更高。
The ideas of Sensible Quantum Mechanics are expressed in lay terms for philosophers of consciousness and others. A framework is proposed and explained for the `psycho-physical-parallelism' between conscious experiences and the mathematical structures of quantum physics (e.g., a set of quantum operators obeying some algebra, and a quantum state giving the expectation value of each operator). In particular, it is proposed that each set of possible conscious experiences has a measure given by the expectation value of a corresponding operator (a positive-operator-valued measure). Then one has a ge…
Recent discovery by Perutz et al. of the physical structure of the amyloid that accumulates in neurons in certain neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer's disease or Huntington's disease, suggests novel mechanism of consciousness impairment, different from the neuronal loss, which is the end stage of the pathogenic process. Amyloid is shown to be water-filled nanotubes made of polymerized pathologically-changed proteins. It is hypothesized that the water inside the new-formed nanotubes can manifest optical coherent laser-like excitations and superradiance similarly to the processes taking p…
On the basis of introspective analysis, we establish a crucial requirement for the physical computation basis of consciousness: it should allow processing a significant amount of information together at the same time. Classical computation does not satisfy the requirement. At the fundamental physical level, it is a network of two body interactions, each the input-output transformation of a universal Boolean gate. Thus, it cannot process together at the same time more than the three bit input of this gate - many such gates in parallel do not count since the information is not processed together…
This paper aims to falsify the hypothesis that the observer's consciousness is necessary for quantum measurement. To achieve our target, we propose a variation of the Schroedinger's cat thought experiment called "DAP", short for "Dead-Alive Physicist", in which a human being replaces the cat. This strategy enables us to logically disprove the consistency of the above hypothesis and to oblige its supporters either to be trapped in solipsism or to rely on an alternative interpretation of quantum mechanics in which the role of the conscious observer has to be reviewed. Our analysis hence provides…
This article was written in response to a request from an editor of American Vedantist. It is shown that the idea that consciousness is essential to understanding quantum mechanics arises from logical fallacies. This may be welcome news to those who share the author's annoyance at consciousness being dragged into discussions of physics, but beware: The same fallacies may underlie the reader's own way of making sense of quantum mechanics. The article ends up embracing a Vedantic world view, for two reasons. For one, such a world view seems to the author to be the most sensible alternative to a …
In a previous paper (gr-qc/9907063) we described the early inflationary universe in terms of quantum information. In this paper, we analize those results in more detail, and we stress the fact that, during inflation, the universe can be described as a superposed state of quantum registers. The self-reduction of the superposed quantum state is consistent with the Penrose's Objective Reduction (OR) model. The quantum gravity threshold is reached at the end of inflation, and corresponds to a superposed state of 10^9 quantum registers. This is also the number of superposed tubulins-qubits in our b…
The validity of the assertion that some recent double-slit interference experiments, conducted by Radin et al., would have tested the possible role of the experimenter's mind in the collapse of the quantum wave function, is questioned. It is emphasized that quantum mechanics doesn't need any psychophysical ingredient to explain the measurement processes, and therefore parapsychologists shouldn't resort to the latter to support the possibility of psychokinesis, but search for more convincing explanations.
As we know, "Who can be said to be a conscious being?" is one of the hard problems in present science, and no method has been found to strictly differentiate the conscious being from the being without consciousness or usual matter. In this short paper, we present a strict physical method based on revised quantum dynamics to test the existence of consciousness, and the principle is to use the distinguishability of nonorthogonal single states. We demonstrate that although the dynamical collapse time can't be measured by a physical measuring device, a conscious being can perceive it under the ass…
The emergence of quantum consciousness stems from dynamic flows of hydrogen ions in brain liquid. This liquid contains vast areas of the fourth phase of water with hexagonal packing of its molecules, the so-called exclusion zone (EZ) of water. The hydrogen ion motion on such hexagonal lattices shows as the hopping of the ions forward and the holes (vacant places) backward, caused by the Grotthuss mechanism. By supporting this motion using external infrasound sources, one may achieve the appearance of the superfluid state of the EZ water. Flows of the hydrogen ions are described by the modified…
Chance, Choice, and Consciousness: The Role of Mind in the Quantum Brain
当代量子力学对自然界的描述涉及两个过程。第一种是由局域量子场论方程控制的动力学过程。这个过程是局部的和决定性的，但它产生了一个与观察到的现实不相容的结构。因此，调用第二过程。第二个过程以某种方式将第一个过程产生的结构分析为可能的可观察现实的集合，并选择其中之一作为实际出现的现实。这个选择过程还没有得到很好的理解。它必然是非定域的，而且根据正统思想，它受不可约的偶然因素支配。这种不可约的偶然因素的出现意味着这个理论不是自然主义的：动力学部分地受到不属于物理宇宙的东西的控制。目前的工作描述了一个量子力学模型的大脑动力学中的量子选择过程是一个因果过程，而不是由纯粹的机会，而是由数学指定的非本地的物理过程识别为意识过程。
Self-consciousness and personal identity in quantum panprotopsychism
本研究基于量子泛原心论本体论，分析自我意识为将自身视为经验主体的能力，指出量子系统因果开放性赋予自主决策能力，且人格同一性问题在此框架下摆脱了传统观点的困境。
Causal potency of consciousness in the physical world
本文证明经典物理框架下心智功能理论必然导致意识因果失效，并提出将意识等同于大脑量子态、借连续量子测量生成随机动力学的量子还原论，以支持意识因果效力与自由意志。
Between Myth and History: von Neumann on Consciousness in Quantum Mechanics
本文纠正了将激进意识因果观归于冯·诺依曼的长期误读，基于伦敦—鲍尔方法的唯象重建，论证其对量子力学中意识问题实际持更为谨慎的态度。
Quantum panprotopsychism and a consciousness-centered universe
本研究基于量子态与事件提出量子泛原心主义，以解决组合问题并解释意识涌现，主张意识具因果力，认为宇宙以意识为中心，从而反驳虚无主义，指出物理秩序使人能通达超越性现象领域。
We address the relation between two apparently distinct problems: The quest for a deeper understanding of the nature of consciousness and the search for time and space as emergent structures in the quantum mechanical world. We also advance a toy-model proposal of emergence of time from a timeless unus mundus quantum-like space by using Aharonov's two state formalism of quantum mechanics. We further speculate on these issues within a quantum cognitive perspective with particular interest in two recent papers on this emerging field of science. One (Aerts et al) entails (as we argue) a panpsychis…
The hard problem of consciousness is the question how subjective experience arises from brain matter. I suggest exploring the possibility that quantum physics could be part of the answer. The simultaneous unity and complexity of subjective experience is difficult to understand from a classical physics perspective. In contrast, quantum entanglement is naturally both complex and unified. Moreover the concept of matter is much more subtle in quantum physics compared to classical physics, and quantum computing shows that quantum effects can be useful for information processing. Building on recent …
We examine the hypothesis that consciousness can be understood as a state of matter, "perceptronium", with distinctive information processing abilities. We explore five basic principles that may distinguish conscious matter from other physical systems such as solids, liquids and gases: the information, integration, independence, dynamics and utility principles. If such principles can identify conscious entities, then they can help solve the quantum factorization problem: why do conscious observers like us perceive the particular Hilbert space factorization corresponding to classical space (rat…
How can scientists establish an observer-independent science? Embodied cognition, consciousness and quantum mechanics
本文基于具身认知理论探讨科学家如何跳出行动-感知循环以建立独立于观察者的科学，提出受心智哲学和量子物理学启发的猜想，认为具身性可表现虚时量子动力学，并强调观察者兼具客体与主体的互补角色。
As time advances in our perceived real world, existing information is preserved and new information is added to history. All the information that may ever be encoded in history must be about some fundamental, unique, atemporal and pre-physical structure: the bare world. Scientists invent model worlds to efficiently explain aspects of the real world. This paper explores the features of and relationships between the bare, real, and model worlds. Time -- past, present and future -- is naturally explained. Both quantum uncertainty and state reduction are needed for time to progress, since unpredic…
I start from the fundamental principles of non-relativistic quantum mechanics, without probability, and interpret them using the notion of coexistence: a quantum state can be read, not uniquely, as a coexistence of other quantum states, which are pairwise orthogonal. In this formalism, I prove that a conscious observer is necessarily a physical object that can memorize local events by setting one of its parts in an exactly specified constant quantum state (hypotheses H1, H2 and H3). Then I define the probability of a future event as the proportion of initial observers, all identical, who will …
Difficulties and discomfort with the interpretation of quantum mechanics are due to differences in language between it and classical physics. Analogies to The Special Theory of Relativity, which also required changes in the basic worldview and language of non-relativistic classical mechanics, may help in absorbing the changes called for by quantum physics. There is no need to invoke extravagances such as the many worlds interpretation or specify a central role for consciousness or neural microstructures. The simple, but basic, acceptance that what is meant by the state of a physical system is …
Originally conceived as a theory of consciousness, integrated information theory (IIT) provides a theoretical framework intended to characterize the compositional causal information that a system, in its current state, specifies about itself. However, it remains to be determined whether IIT as a theory of consciousness is compatible with quantum mechanics as a theory of microphysics. Here, we present an extension of IIT's latest formalism to evaluate the mechanism integrated information ($φ$) of a system subset to finite-dimensional quantum systems (e.g., quantum logic gates). To that end, we …
We postulate that consciousness is intrinsically connected to quantum spin since the latter is the origin of quantum effects in both Bohm and Hestenes quantum formulisms and a fundamental quantum process associated with the structure of space-time. Applying these ideas to the particular structures and dynamics of the brain, we have developed a detailed model of quantum consciousness. We have also carried out experiments from the perspective of our theory to test the possibility of quantum-entangling the quantum entities inside the brain with those of an external chemical substance. We found th…
Quantum Superpositions of Conscious States in a Minimal Integrated Information Model
本文探讨意识状态的量子叠加可能性，通过构建简单量子电路验证整合信息理论对意识坍缩模型的限制，发现需引入多个算符以避免坍缩率仅依赖意识状态差异的限制。
A physical approach to qualia and the emergence of conscious observers in qualia space
本文将物理学的测量空间重新解释为感受质空间，在不诉诸观察者或波函数坍缩的前提下，把量子测量问题等同于意识困难问题，并提出一种泛心论框架以解释组合问题与物理实在感的信息根源。
The New Tractatus Program: Quantum Mechanics, Anti-Totalitarian Ontology, and Consciousness
本文解读新《逻辑哲学论》计划相关文本，该计划旨在无视角描述现实。通过量子力学关系解释、意识理论等探讨，发展关系解读哲学后果，围绕视角依赖性组织论证，呈现后经典局部哲学，非论证新本体论。
Local realism has been superseded by recent theoretical and experimental developments in quantum physics which show a synchronic connection between the parts. In contrast to the principle of local realism, which is the basis of classical reductionism, I have called the principle of non-locality at the basis of a new method of scientific investigation "synchronic principle". The synchronic principle introduces a new element in the approach to reality, which with anthropomorphic terms we could call "conscious choice". In a synchronic paradigm, evolution does not occur in a deterministic way, but…
We explore definite theoretical assertions about consciousness, starting from a non-reductive psycho-informational solution of David Chalmers's 'hard problem', based on the hypothesis that a fundamental property of 'information' is its experience by the supporting 'system'. The kind of information involved in consciousness needs to be quantum for multiple reasons, including its intrinsic privacy and its power of building up thoughts by entangling qualia states. As a result we reach a quantum-information-based panpsychism, with classical physics supervening on quantum physics, quantum physics s…
The "measurement problem" of quantum mechanics, and the "hard problem" of cognitive science are the most profound open problems of the two research fields, and certainly among the deepest of all unsettled conundrums in contemporary science in general. Occasionally, scientists from both fields have suggested some sort of interconnectedness of the two problems. Here we revisit the main motives behind such expectations and try to put them on more formal grounds. We argue not only that such a relation exists, but that it also bears strong implications both for the interpretations of quantum mechan…
I sketch a line of thought about consciousness and physics that gives some motivation for the hypothesis that conscious observers deviate - perhaps only very subtly and slightly - from quantum dynamics. Although it is hard to know just how much credence to give this line of thought, it does motivate a stronger and more comprehensive programme of quantum experiments involving quantum observers.
Quantum panprotopsychism and the combination problem
本文基于现象学分析和量子本体论，论证量子泛原心论能更好地解释意识，并指出经典物理学隐含的随附性假设是组合问题的根源，进而为大脑中量子认知机制的实现提出约束条件。
Fundamental Physics, Existential Risks and Human Futures
作者探讨了基础物理、量子现实问题及意识与物理定律的关系，提出可能发现超越量子理论的新物理规律，对信息处理和人工智能未来有深远影响。
Quantum Mechanics, the physical theory describing the microworld, represents one of science's greatest triumphs. It lies at the root of all modern digital technologies and offers unparalleled correspondence between prediction and experiments. Remarkably, however, after more than 100 years it is still unclear what quantum mechanics means in terms of basic philosophical questions about the nature of reality. While there are many interpretations of the mathematical machinery of quantum physics, there remains no experimental means to distinguish between most of them. In this contribution, (based o…
Towards a Generalized Theory of Observers
本文提出一个统一观察者概念的框架，通过观察者等价性和复杂性度量探讨意识、量子测量和计算边界的理论问题。
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