The Next Big Bang: Human Consciousness & the Universe (The limitations of science)

by David Turell , Friday, February 24, 2017, 15:17 (2615 days ago) @ dhw

Quote: "This assertion, while sound mathematically and entirely logical, was so startling that it literally turned classical physics on its head. A science that had accepted as utterly valid a universe constructed of, and driven by, material particle movement was told suddenly that it had had it all wrong from the very beginning. And make no mistake about it, that’s exactly what was being said. “The general idea of von Neumann and his followers,” Herbert explains, “is that the material world by itself is hardly material, consisting of nothing but relentlessly unrealised vibratory possibilities. From outside this purely possible world, mind steps in to render some of these possibilities actual and to confer on the resultant phenomenal world those properties of solidity, single-valuedness, and dependability traditionally associated with matter. This kind of general explanation may be enough for philosophers, but physicists want more. They want to know exactly how it all works, in every detail.”

BBELLA's comment: It seems that science is in the midst of deducing that the only constant or "definite state" is the observational capacity of the consciousness/mind.

dhw: Science is supposed to require the testing of theories, so let me vary my invitation to all these theoretical dreamers: instead of stepping in front of a moving bus, I suggest they jump out of an airplane from 10,000 feet without a parachute. That may help them to find out whether it is or is not only the mind that confers material properties on the material world, though I suspect they will have to leave it to others to record the results of the test.

Are you really missing BBella's point? These quantum considerations are real. No question our conscious observations affect the results. I again remind you of late choice experiments. This is at the particle/wave micro level. But I do agree with you that at the gross real world of our reality, the bus and Earth are solid. Both levels of reality are real. The issue is can we combine them in understanding how they relate?