# Presentation: 162922

## The Basic Questions

- What is the fundamental nature of the world?
- How do we fit into It?

- Our Basic Beliefs Shape Our Values
- Our Values Shape Our Actions
- Conflicting Basic Beliefs Generate Conflicting Actions!

**Why are These Questions Important?**

## My Topic

- What does _*basic physics*_ say about:
- The Nature of the World
- Our Connection To It

## The Preliminary Main Points

- Contemporary basic physics is *Quantum Mechanics*.
- Quantum mechanics is fundamentally different from the classical mechanics of the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
- Quantum mechanics gives answers to our questions that are _profoundly_ different from those given by classical mechanics.

## The Classical-Physics Answer: Materialism

- The Precepts of Classical Physics Say:
- There exists a material universe consisting of tiny localized bits of matter that interact only with their close neighbors.
- These interactions are governed by mathematical laws.
- These laws entail that the _material_ future is determined by the _material_ past ALONE.

## “ALONE” means

- There is no reference to human thoughts, choices, or efforts.
- This view is called “The Principle of the Causal Closure of the Physical”
- Contrary to intuition, but intuition is claimed to be overruled by science!
- Science  Ideology and Dogma
-                    An Inconsistency? One cannot rationally act
-         to achieve a physical effect while truly believing that
-         one’s conscious choices can have no physical effects.

## What Does Contemporary Physics Say?

- Quantum Mechanics Rescinds the Dogma of the Causal Closure of the Physical!
- Yet the ideology continues to infect the thinking of many scientists and philosophers!

## Classical Precepts Versus Quantum Precepts:“Quantum Uncertainty”

## A Conflict Between the Empirical and Theoretical Aspects of Scientific Practice

- Quantum uncertainties at the atomic scale _if left unchecked_, would bubble up,   irrepressibly, to the macroscopic scale.
- That would conflict with empirical observation!
-   “The moon would cover the whole night sky”
-   “Brain state would correspond to a *smear* of ideas”

## Mind-Matter Parallelism-->Mind-Matter Interaction.

- The Quantum Process of Measurement/Observationcreates a *firewall* that protects the _Empirical Realm_ from unfettered intrusion of quantum uncertainties from the _Theoretical Realm__ _
- This process specifies a highly nontrivial interface between the _empirical_ and the _theoretical_ aspects of scientific practice!
- It specifies an intricate connection between              Mind and Matter!

## Von Neumann/Heisenberg Theory of Measurement/Observation

- Each experience occurs in conjunction with an ACTION!
- This action poses a Yes-or-No *question.** *
- Nature’s *response*, “Yes” or “No”, is registered in the realm of experience/mind.
- Heisenberg: “a mathematics that represents...our knowledge...”

## The “Action” Part of the Process of Observation/Measurement

## The “Response” Part of the Process of Observation/Measurement

## Process 1 Has No Known Sufficient Cause

- Von Neumann calls the physical/theoretical aspect of the action part by the name “Process 1”.
- It enters importantly into the physical dynamics!
- _But, it is not controlled or specified by any known rule or law: A Causal Gap!__ _
- Thus, Quantum Mechanics does not entail the Causal Closure of the Physical!

## Process 3 and the Entry of Randomness

- The *answers* to the questions posed by the Process 1 action are, according to quantum theory, *random*: they conform only to statistical regularities!
- Dirac calls the choice of answer
-      “a choice on the part of nature”.
- Randomness enters only into the _answer_; not into the _action_ that poses the question.

## Process 1 and the Freedom of Action

- Heisenberg call the choice of *action*,
-    “a choice on the part of the ‘observer’ constructing the measuring instruments and reading their recordings.”
- Bohr says:
-   “The freedom of experimentation...corresponds to the free choice of experimental arrangements for which the quantum mathematical formalism offers the appropriate latitude.”

## The Entry of Mind?

- This choice of the action is “free”, in the specific sense that it is not specified by any known law.
- But our choices of actions _appear_ to be influenced by reasons!
- There is no logical basis for rejecting the possibility that mind-based reason supplies the missing cause.
- Indeed, allowing mind to fill this causal gap gives our experiential aspects a functional role to play in the unfolding of reality!

## The Mind-Matter Connection

- It is these choices of actions, not controlled by any known physical law, statistical or otherwise, but seemingly influenced by value-based reasons, that, in conjunction with the statistical Process 3 choices of feedbacks, controls what passes through the firewall.
- This filtering process constitutes a highly nontrivial connection of mind to matter.

## Conclusion 1

- Quantum Mechanics rescinds the materialistic conception of human beings   foisted upon us by the failed precepts of    classical physics.

## Conclusion 2

- Quantum mechanics elevates our science-based image of ourselves from material automata to agents able to act rationally on the basis of values erected upon this science-based image of ourselves.

## Conclusion 3

- This self-image casts us as partial _creators_ of an unfolding universe that is NOT controlled exclusively by the material aspects of reality alone.

## Additionally

- Quantum mechanics entails also a _deep interconnectedness_ of spatially separate responses that is incompatible with the causal precepts of classical materialistic physics.

## Summary

**Physics has shifted from classical materialist physics to a quantum psycho-physics of the mind-matter universe.**** **
**Fundamental questions are thus opened up that are not necessarily completely resolvable within science itself.**** **
**That opens the door to meaningful dialogs with proponents of other approaches. **** **