Quantum zeno effect (Introduction)

by dhw, Friday, August 23, 2013, 10:48 (4111 days ago) @ David Turell

EyesWideOpen [not dhw]: Whatever they're doing to measure the diamond's state is causing the effect they're seeing. Like the flashlight, there's a perfectly rational explanation. It is behaving "like" this paradox, but it has not proven it."-dhw: I don't know if EyesWideOpen is right or not, but I do find this kind of analogy extremely helpful. Perhaps Ruth might find it useful too for her new book. One other thought struck me on reading it: that panpsychism may have a role to play in these quantum effects. But I'm in no position to develop that thought!-DAVID: Your panpsychism fantasy would make some sense in this context if it meant a purposeful universal consciousness which pervades all reality at all levels. I propose that the weirdness in QM is a sign of the universal consciousness at work.-EyesWideOpen's analogy was the cat ending its activity when the observer turned his flashlight on it (but continuing when the flashlight was turned off). It's much like Ruth's emitter and absorber, with a real transaction only taking place when quanta pass between the two. If such transactions entail some kind of subjective quasi-intelligence (not necessarily anything like our own), you have almost an infinity of subjective quasi-intelligences performing almost an infinity of transactions. That is precisely what we have in the known living world. Not one single universal consciousness/intelligence, but countless individual consciousnesses/intelligences interacting. So why in the quantum world ... which nobody understands ... should the same principle be any more fantastic than a single consciousness/intelligence? In fact, which would you consider more likely to behave in these weird and wonderful ways: ONE universal consciousness, or countless individual consciousnesses interacting? -Before you counter by asking where the intelligences came from, please remember that you have no idea where your "universal intelligence" came from. If one explanation is fantasy, so are they all ... although one of them must be close to the truth.