Quantum weirdness (Introduction)

by David Turell , Saturday, November 30, 2013, 00:04 (3799 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: That our existence is a mystery can hardly be disputed. How does that make life after death incomparably more probable? -Read more carefully. the word after more is IMprobable in his essay.-> dhw: The answers may be obscurely rooted in the fact that Professor Henry is "convinced that the universe does not exist at all (except as mind)." -His is one of the more extreme views of the role of conscousness, but there are a small but well-thoughtout group that adhere to this view. Remember the zeno effect.
> 
> HENRY: Let me ask my readers, does your own mind actually exist? Note that I am not talking about your brain, I am talking about your mind. Well, of course it does! Cogito ergo sum. After all our convoluted and ultimately entirely unsuccessful attempts to tease something, anything, REAL out of quantum mechanics and out of the observations (the so-called "universe"), here, first crack out of the box, we have, with the Henry interpretation, a solid and irrefutable success! Something that is real. And, it is a success that you cannot arrive at from physics, because physics does not treat of consciousness at all!
> 
> dhw: Sorry again, but why should the reality of my mind throw into question the reality of my body, my family, my house, and everything else around me? If Professor Henry steps in front of a bus, will he still be convinced that the universe only exists as mind?-I think he is overemphasizing the true reality of our lived-in reality. What it is based on is quantum mechanics. As Einstein asked, if there is so much space in each atom, why is the table solid? But he knows his conscious mind is real. An important point. 
> 
> dhw: HENRY: But, you must now decide whether their minds exist, as yours unquestionably does. Physics cannot assist you in this critical decision. Your stark choices are solipsism, or a leap of faith. -I believe he is using the approach of the solipsist to make his point more forceble.
> 
> dhw:HENRY: For a person (such as me) who has never before been religious, this leap of faith is not so easy. Indeed, I worry that my decision, which (let me relieve your mind) is that the reader's mind does exist, is too much influenced by my previous (but now seen to be utterly silly) belief that the reader's (as well as my own) mind was created by real electrons.-He is simply making the point that the source of consciousness cannot be simply a dance of electrons in the brain.
> 
> dhw: My apologies again if this sounds rude. I do realize that since, like everyone else, I can't understand quantum mechanics, and common sense spoils such philosophical games, it would be more sensible for me to keep quiet. But what the hell, we're all in this together ... or at least, those of us who believe we all exist and there's a "this" to be in.-I do this to you to remind you that First Cause created our reality from a quicksand of quantum mechanics and it works, but it also requires consciousness to work, which tells us that the eventual advent of consciousness was built into the singularity before the Big Bang banged!