Comments

  • Perception vs. Reason
    Looks like you have an idea but are under the illusion it can make sense to others.I like sushi

    I'm sorry my model was so overwhelming to your intellect, it would be a scientific revolution if you could only see the truth lol
  • Perception vs. Reason
    Do you think this is a version of panpsychism?Wayfarer

    The most precise label for it I've come across is panprotopsychism, an unwieldy term that I think was invented by Bertrand Russell. Basically my view is that qualia (many types of superposition) are a feature of matter slightly more emergent than shape and size, but transient enough to not constitute consciousness at the most basic levels. In highly organized material systems such as Earth's organisms qualia conglomerate to give qualitative experience. The most novel aspect of this theory for science is that it distinguishes consciousness from the body while still regarding it as a material entity, providing possible avenues for mechanistically modeling the paranormal frontiers of psychology.
  • Perception vs. Reason
    That's nonsense. Non-sense; without meaning.Banno

    Maybe slice of scapegoat pseudopurgatory would be more accurate, don't lay into me too much.
  • Perception vs. Reason
    If you read this and didn't flinch, you haven't adopted the critical approach that is the essence of rationality.Banno

    Feel welcome to criticize, that's what I enjoy! This forum is like a small slice of heaven compared to my daily life lol

    By quantum resonance, I mean waves waving, I thought it was fairly comprehensible.
  • Perception vs. Reason


    Incisive quote. In my view no foundation exists, only positivistic evolution (hopefully progress), so the question of grounding is moot. Naturalism as the essence of our episteme is circular because problem-solving is a recursion towards successor theories (structural frameworks of explanation), and standard presentation of the scientific method succinctly conveys this.
  • Perception vs. Reason
    Can you reiterate the OP in plain English and/or expand on the terminology used and its contextI like sushi

    superposition: wave blending
    entanglement: synchronous interaction, variously proximal or remote

    All particles have wavelike properties, making them in actuality "wavicles".
    These wavicles entangle into shapes and blend into superpositions as they interact.
    Superposition states amongst wavicles are responsible for qualia, just as additive wavelength is responsible for variability in the characteristics of electromagnetic quanta.
    Qualitative experience is an emergent property of these qualia when they inhere in entangled particles such that the structure of their superpositions are highly organized, coordinated and sustained.

    I can't make it any simpler than that, vanquishing illusions of the nonphysical!
  • Mind-Matter Paradox!
    In the case of science, one piece of the medallion is nonphysical (mathematical models) and the other piece is physical (empirical observation).TheMadFool

    The physical world is quantized, ideal mathematical concepts are imaginary exclusions of quantization, equivalent to a unicorn or a leprechaun for pure thought. They are not a nonphysical substance, but rather fictions that prove extremely functional because they optimize precision.
  • Mind & Physicalism
    Again note, that this is assuming same physical configuration = same Qualia. Which you have no reason for believing either.khaled

    If particular superpositions amongst entangled molecules give rise to particular qualia, then these qualia will be meaningfully and predictably similar or variable between individuals, just like current neuroscience to a more constrained extent. If subjects report seeing a specific color, and the molecules pinpointed as giving rise to that perception are comparable by some rubric, we will have objective proof that they are seeing the same color because the molecular qualia are the color. Within a tolerable margin of error, we will have a table of the perceptual elements. However, mechanisms we know nothing about at this point in a theoretical sense are probably in effect.
  • Mind & Physicalism
    ...this would mean that ethically speaking, any genocide would be the same as breaking stones.SolarWind

    One could seriously maintain that the torture victim is in fact not suffering at all, as even if he/she had been suffering, that wouldn't lead to them screaming, it wouldn't lead to anything. For all we know they love the torture! Let's give em more!khaled

    But breaking stones eventually breaks you and could in extreme cases break society, even moreso when we are the cause of human suffering, and stones don't break you back. Human engagement has intrinsic moral consequences, and rather than try to weed out all the consequences, obviously impossible, why not try to make everyone as moral as possible, which is simply a byproduct of fostering the sound reasoning that recognizes moral consequences? Whether we suppress or actualize with culture is a multigenerational marathon either way, and actualization is a much more effective and universal behavioral incentive to my knowledge. Do we sell products by explaining how they will oppress someone or benefit us?

    Some think many citizens are not reliable no matter how benevolently we attempt to condition them, but is this really true?
  • Mind & Physicalism
    A lot of "may" and "perhaps".khaled

    Quantum consciousness certainly is a promising line of research, no doubt about that, though as you say still at the speculative stages.
  • Mind & Physicalism
    The body is too big to be treated as a quantum system.khaled

    But quantum physics as thus far modeled barely scratches the surface of what material substance consists in. Quantumlike effects may pervade the behaviors of objects and forces at even macroscopic scales on some plane of causality, as they do in many lab settings, with action potentials throughout the body, in photon clouds, etc. The body's molecular complexes may be adapted by the evolutionary process for extreme sensitivity to energy fields that haven't even been discovered yet, but which we must honestly admit probably exist.
  • Mind & Physicalism


    Action potentials are a quantum coherence event, molecular chemistry consists in entangled superpositions, and the brain's electromagnetic field as generated by billions of nearly simultaneous action potentials is the agent that binds these particularate phenomena into subjective stream of consciousness. Quantum concepts explain how soul can transcend the body, how consciousness can exist in a huge variety of different substances, it accounts for everything paranormal. I think its the perfect paradigm for uniting materialism with psychology and spirituality. Fight fight fight!
  • Mind & Physicalism
    Do you think that some physical effects are not caused sufficiently by physical causes? Because it's that or epiphenomenalism. And I think both are wrong. Or is there some alternative I'm not thinking of here?khaled

    Sorry to interject, but you guys should really consider quantum consciousness theory. Superposition explains subjective qualia, and entanglement explains the structural properties of matter as distributed in space (even a stationary column essentially consists in remote entanglement effects). Chemistry is basically entanglement with some tunneling thrown in, while sustained superposition emerges from quantum coherence within some systems of entangled wavicles, a blending into complex patterns of resonance that are the substance of sensation and feeling. Its explanatorily significant but not eliminative, for the phenomenology of intention and identify are still certainly a piece of the puzzle. Ignore me if I'm irritating lol but I speak the truth!
  • Time travel to the past hypothetically possible?


    It would have to be via a kind of wave that is independent of electromagnetic matter, maybe dark matter, perturbing faster than the speed of light or penetrating more deeply into reality's underlying structure. Whether a technology of time traveling waves is possible depends on the orientation of thus far unknown matter to known matter and the logistics of generating these waves, but it intuitively seems to me as if some mechanism of this type must exist. Maybe studying the way brains transmit energy would be a good start, the technology could initiate with a more substantive model of near instantaneous and retroactive causality in nature. I think its more likely we can obtain a digitalized signal from the future because there are no receiver devices in the past. Of course you have to make sure that it wouldn't leave a path of devastation in its wake, but a harmless incarnation probably exists.
  • Integrated Information Theory
    To my knowledge brain states are generally construed to be patterns in the neural network.TheMadFool

    Subjective experience as comprised of qualia is not a product of neural networks (by that I mean some sort of "wiring" itself), but rather the electromagnetic, more generally radiative fields of the brain etc. entangling with smaller scale entanglements amongst molecular complexes, creating a superposition contour analogous in its elemental structure to the additive wavelengths of visible light.
  • Perception vs. Reason


    Let's talk about gobbledegook then, what isn't too legit to quit for you?

    Then you seem to say that because these material interactions are everywhere, then perception is everywhere - 'suffused'. But that doesn't follow. It's like saying your post is made of words and my post is made of words, so your post is the same as my post.Cuthbert

    Its like saying quantum elements of perception are as richly varied as the English language, and all the sensations are analogous to combinations of words, technically entangled superpositions amongst molecules, though the concept of a molecule of course does not come close to exhausting the range of possibilities for embodied substance.
  • Help with a Physics-related Calculus Problem


    You seem to be knowledgeable about the resources available in this area of study: do you know of a cheap or free application for making good quality scientific graphs and inserting them into a document?
  • Help with a Physics-related Calculus Problem
    Great, wise guys lol

    You still have not clearly explained the problem. Tell us exactly what x, y, t, d, and z represent. It sounds a bit like the old bee vs train problem where the bee keeps going back and forth at a constant rate between the moving train and the wall at the end of the track. That has a simple resolution.jgill

    That's exactly what it is, lets put it in terms of bees and trains. The bee moves at 19.3 m/microsecond and the train at 6 m/microsecond (really fast bee and train).

    x=distance traveled by the train between contact
    y=time elapsed between contact
    d=distance between train and wall
    t=time remaining before the train reaches the wall
    d-x=next closest distance between train and wall, becoming the new d
    t-y=next closest time remaining between train and wall, becoming the new t

    Again, the equations as I've figured them so far are:

    (2d-x)/(t-y)=19.3 m/microsecond

    x/y=6 m/microsecond

    -2d-13.3y+19.3t=0

    Total (initial) distance d is 2 m and total (initial) time t is 0.333 microseconds. The distance x and time y between contacts gets smaller, and I'm trying to find the distance from the wall at which x and y = 0, which I've estimated as slightly larger than x=.0052 m.

    If you know a solution to this variation of the bee/train problem, describe it to me!
  • Help with a Physics-related Calculus Problem


    Trying not to jerk your chain! I'm uncertain what the range of geometrical representations possible for the problem is, probably multiple ways of modeling it spatially.
  • Help with a Physics-related Calculus Problem


    I think this is a valid description of the problem. Two entities leave the same point at the same time within a fixed path length but at different, constant rates, and each time they meet the slower rate entity continues at the same pace while the faster rate entity resumes its travel forward and backward between contact and the endpoint at the same pace. If total distance of the path length is 2 and total time elapsed is 0.333, at what distance and time from the endpoint will y be zero?

    Equation of the distance covered and time elapsed between contacts at the faster rate is (2d−x)/(t−y)=19.3. Each d−x value becomes the new d value in the next iteration, and each t−y value becomes the new t value. Equation of the slower rate is x/y=6. What is the limit of d as y approaches 0?
  • Panpsychism - panqualityism problem


    Maybe you'll get some ideas from my own initial version of a theory like panprotopsychism. I've developed some more nuance since then, but looking at these blog posts at philosophyofhumanism.com might help:

    Quantum Biology
    The Origins and Evolution of Perception in Organic Matter
    The Nature and Human Impact of Qualia
    Humanity and the Evolutionary Phenomenology of Preanthromorphic Cognition

    I think a solution to the combination problem as you call it will be derived from psychological neuroscience, especially by applying quantum physics (think additive wavelengths as base fragments of perception and feeling in specifically adapted molecules that also have emergent biochemical shapes). Be sure to give me your analysis at some point so I can refine my model! And if you reference my essays in a paper, props for caring! Trying to escape my quantum consciousness desert island lol
  • Mind matters.
    I find it odd that some people belive that they have a distinct soul and spirit seperate to the body.Brock Harding

    Maybe soul is comprised of or identical to bodies with physical properties, just not in its totality a physiological body.
  • Good physics
    "The square of the wave function, Ψ^2, however, does have physical significance: the probability of finding the particle described by a specific wave function Ψ at a given point and time is proportional to the value of Ψ^2." (Britannica)jgill

    I think that's misleading because at the subatomic, quantum scale, absolute location and time don't exist for the model, instead an always approximate certainty about the position/momentum value. So it is more accurate to say Schrodinger's wave function doesn't represent the chances that a point particle is in a particular location, but rather the range of spacetime within which a quantity of energized matter is amorphously active. The matter within a quantum reference frame is not fundamentally a particle, a point in time, but rather some kind of perpetually fluxing, diffuse wavicle fused in a mathematically fuzzy way with what surrounds it. Encyclopedia Britannica is simplifying and reifying the model more than is necessary.
  • Mind matters.
    My point is just that we need different empirical accounts to explain different phenomena. A quantum account of consciousness wouldn’t be ‘wrong’, but I don’t think it would address what psychologists need it to in their approach to consciousness.Joshs

    Me, I think I subscribe to a combination of strong and weak supervenience: every subjectively reported state has a physical correlate, but subjective states cannot be fully and adequately explained in a physical way. So psychology and neuroscience complementarily explain consciousness from differing perspectives or rather different realms of intuition. A psychologist needs some neuroscience background to determine the most appropriate treatment in many cases, and a neuroscientist needs psychology to comprehend the therapeutic significance of what is being studied, its complete range of effects.
  • Mind matters.
    My impression is that for most psychologists a
    quantum theory of consciousness would be almost useless. The most promising theories of consciousness deal with such issues as empathy, affectivity and self-awareness These make uses of an intentional account of motivation, not a physically causal one.
    Joshs

    But psychologists do make use of neuroscience, and quantum consciousness will be an aspect of this discipline. My opinion is that most processes we know of in the body and a rangy amount we don't all involve quantum phenomena, the only way that biochemical pathways can function at the massively fast rates they do.
  • Mind matters.
    As you have a mind you have a soul or spirit.Brock Harding

    I think it might make sense to view "soul" as the total psychological phenomenon, including physical correlates that exist beyond the body, which I expect researchers to eventually model in the context of a quantum consciousness theory (I'm not sure how controversial that is in academia), and "mind" as the interface between soul and brain.
  • Good physics
    are you referring to an objective collapse theory?Andrew M

    Those theories make sense to me. As the article says, "the absolute square of the wave function is interpreted as an actual matter density". I'd be inclined based on what I've read to interpret it as a multifaceted energy density that models waves and wavicles, and this makes it more intuitive to comprehend how degrees of freedom (variable rates) for both local and nonlocal motion of many types simultaneously obtain. According to the web: "quantum tunneling seems to happen instantaneously - or at least, so incredibly quickly that it's essentially instantaneous": measurable in attoseconds, or quintillionths of a second. So quantum nonlocality is probably never absolutely instantaneous, but in many contexts the measuring devices are not sensitive enough to register time elapsed. This doesn't mean that quantum processes aren't local - interactively correlated - in some sense, but its a completely different sort of physical interaction.
  • Good physics


    To those who might know, does the following interpretation of Schrodinger's wave function have any validity: predicted proportion of behavior within a reference frame at the quantum scale, whether construed in terms of position, momentum or whatever, essentially modeling the average amount of energy within that reference frame relative to the rest of the wave function. So wave function collapse is a kind of change in relative energy that can be induced by measurement etc., not a split into separate worlds.
  • Good physics
    ...per the probabilities predicted by QM...Andrew M

    So when you say the probabilities that QM predicts, do you mean via the Schrodinger wave function and/or matrix mechanics?

    I think the question of the nature of the wave-function is a metaphysical question, or even THE metaphysical question implied by modern physics. A lot of the controversies revolve around that point.Wayfarer

    My interest is piqued by the wave function also. From what I've learned, geometry of the wave function is analogous to drawing a smooth curve on a linear graph based on the averaging of standard deviations, a "continuous" approximation to what is essentially quantized or "lumpy" but in a very specific, replicable way that has some wavelike properties. Is that accurate?
  • The mind as a physical field?
    I doubt that the conscious Mind is literally an electro-magnetic field. If it was, we could easily learn how to read minds, just as we tune our radios to E-M frequencies. Energy fields can only be detected by their effects on matter; the field itself is invisible and intangible.Gnomon

    I think the electromagnetic field might suffice to make a trillion trillion atoms in neurons of the brain (or whatever the amount is) simultaneously reside in states of quantum entanglement. Scientists entangled 15 trillion atoms at 350 degrees Farenheit, and an action potential easily reaches that amount of energy, but as electricity rather than heat. The axon is insulated by the myelin sheath so that a neuron loses minimal energy while the ion cascade occurs, and all of this electrical energy is spouted into the soma where it probably produces a very strong coherence (entanglement) field at the nano or micro scale, channeled into functional form by nuanced biochemical arrays and pathways while generating the nonlocal magnetic effects always characteristic of electric currents.

    The action potentials in billions of neurons are synched up by dendrite linkages so that their coherence fields are extremely coordinated, which is probably responsible for standing waves in the brain, a sort of macroscopic cycling built from said microscopic fields.

    Systems of coherence fields within coherence fields superposition (blend) because they are composed of particles with wavelike properties, exactly like the additive nature of the visible light spectrum. Action potentials are a timing and energy amplification mechanism, but coherence fields in the soma and probably glial cells as well must be the additive substance of qualitative perception (in consort with organs of sensation): subjective color, sound, smell, taste, touch, feel, vastly variable quantum resonances amongst wavicles.

    This of course does not mean the brain's electromagnetic field is the only coherence field that contributes to consciousness, for the range of nonlocal phenomena in natural environments seems huge and a lot of what matter does and consists in is still unknown, but is probably enough to provide the foundation of that which occurs within our heads.
  • What do you NOT know
    But I can say in answer to your question: I care.James Riley

    Good response, I care in a sense also, but the afterlife in particular, not so much of a subscriber. Maybe I'll actually wake up! lol
  • What do you NOT know
    I can't really know or figure out what's going to happen after I die.James Riley

    Who cares what happens after we die? Makes no difference to us!
  • What do you NOT know


    Since the board is on a bad physics kick, there are two things I currently most want to know that I can't figure out:

    q-space assigns three separate dimensions to each electron, so an oxygen atom consists of 24 theoretical dimensions.
    Electron orbits can be modeled as spinors.
    Equations for the motion of an electron inside an atom imply that waves which travel fifteen thousand times faster might guide them.
    What makes these statements simultaneously true?

    The equation for the fine structure constant is a=ke^2/hc, apparently meaning that a (fine structure constant), h (Planck's constant) and c (the speed of light) are interchangeable in some sense. How?
  • Double-slit Experiment, The Sequel
    "The world is one substance. As satisfying as this discovery may be to philosophers, it is profoundly distressing to physicists as long as they do not understand the nature of that substance. For if quantumstuff is all there is and you don't understand quantumstuff, your ignorance is complete." (Nick Herbert - Quantum Reality: BEYOND THE NEW PHYSICS)spirit-salamander

    My intuition is that quantum stuff consists of coherence between entangled waves and particles, in essence coherence fields with nonlocal properties. It is exciting that we might figure out what all this stuff actually is and utilize the knowledge to advance technological society in almost unimaginable ways.
  • Fine Structure Constant, The Sequel
    No one wanted a revolution in atomic theory? What a surprise!
  • The mind as a physical field?
    Scientific study of consciousness has only recently begun to gain acceptance as a legitimate scientific discipline, and some think field theories like McFadden's are unscientific beliefs that threaten their hard-won legitimacy.Gnomon

    So much more exists in the brain than neuron synapsing. The analogy to a computer's electrical wiring is hugely inadequate. Investigating chemistry in the soma and glia will lead to a revolution in our model of brain structure. It will be key to comprehend the molecules involved in hallucinatory states, and define exactly how the additiveness of electromagnetic fields and further kinds of coherence fields with nanoscale, quantum entangled molecular complexes works.
  • Double-slit Experiment, The Sequel
    There is no conceptual logic that I can see which would prevent two types of stuff bouncing off each other for all eternity. Please explain it if one does exist.Gary Enfield

    First, it is unlikely that there are exactly two types of stuff, particles and waves, absolutely differentiated. The reality must undoubtedly be so much more complex that duality ceases to have descriptive relevance. Second, all matter thus far experienced has evolved from common antecedents, so it is most likely that if particles ride a more foundational wave substance, the particles evolved out of it. Its not conceptually impossible for eternally distinct particle and "wave" substance to exist, nor is anything else, but the most probable explanation due to their pervasive interactiveness is that they have a common origin with impulsion towards combinatory states. As a fanciful example, if particles ride dark matter waves their behavior is probably mutualized enough with dark matter for whatever reason that this amounts to a synthetic substance in some degree.

    I'm not aware of any evidence that a particle/fundamentally different stuff differentiation exists.
  • Time travel to the past hypothetically possible?


    What about sending a signal into the past or future rather than a macroscopic object? This seems more possible, less impeded by classical physics, if a form of energy wave that transmits information fast enough is discovered. What if we could turn on a device and get detailed engineering blueprints from thousands of years in the future or receive messages from distant parts of the galaxy?
  • Consciousness and The Holographic Model of Reality
    I'll investigate but my filter for the extraordinary claims all too often made by misusing quantum phenomena outside of fundamental physics consist of works likes those of the late, eminent, particle physicist and philosopher Victor Stenger, particularly his book The Unconscious Quantum reviewed here. I'm quite skeptical as it is of the terms like "entanglement" and "superposition", "energy fields" and "non-locality" that you're using180 Proof

    From the article you linked to: “If mvd (mass*velocity*distance) is much greater than h, then the system probably can be treated classically. According to Vic, the mass of neural transmitter molecules and their speed across the distance of the synapse are about three orders of magnitude too large for quantum effects to be influential."

    I agree that neurotransmitters and their diffusion or transport probably taking place at hundreds of miles per hour is not likely to be involved in the superposition effects I'm proposing, which seems obvious from the fact that medications targeted to modify their concentrations do not produce hallucinations like LSD, psilocybin, etc. But molecular complexes amounting to systems of standing waves, or entangled superpositions in terms of individual wavicles, will have negligible velocity according to that definition, so perhaps the mass and distance values can be much larger. These basic standing waves amongst certain classes of biochemical arrays in cells may blend with global electromagnetic fields of the brain and body arising from nervous tissue etc. to produce a hybrid coherence field of extremely intricate complexity. This could be sufficient to generate the basic sensory field of perception.

    It should also be considered that cytoskeletal fibers may fix biochemical pathways in very specific orientations, thus conserving energy with extreme efficiency, so from the emerging quantum cell perspective h could generally be much more resilient to velocity than models based on traditional solution chemistry suggest.

    I'd have to get into the mathematical details to prove this, but using intuition, what else could qualia be besides compound wavelengths, a subjective "color" or more precisely a wide variety of quantum resonances?