writes:
What Am I Talking About Any Way?
God did not role dice with the universe in classical physics.
God does roll dice with the universe in quantum mechanics.
However, God loads the dice with consciousness in post-quantum mechanics.
That’s what I am talking about.
That’s what I am ranting and raving about.
That’s my message in a nutshell.
Happy 21st Century.
NOTE: As an introduction to the extensions of physics which are being
proposed by Jack Sarfatti, the following post of the same day should serve
to provide an overview of the subject matter at hand:
How Quantum Thought Shapes The Classical Brain
According To David Bohm |
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A Commentary by Jack Sarfatti
Part One
Henry Stapp opens his book, Matter, Mind, and Quantum Mechanics with the
remark that the world divides into thoughtlike things and rocklike
things. Stapp also notes that William James at the close of the 19th
Century pointed to the fact that there was no way in the classical
physics of the time to formulate how a thought could influence the
brain. This led to Watson’s classical materialist behaviorism based on
Pavlov, to Crick’s Astonishing Hypothesis and to the current
mis-conceived classical theory of consciousness of Churchland, Dennett,
Calvin, Minsky,Edleman and others too numerous to mention. :-)
The orthodox Copenhagen interpretation of Niels Bohr is totally
idealistic asserting that the world at the fundamental level of quantum
reality only consists of thoughtlike things which then collapse into
the rocklike things of classical physics. There are several variations
on this idea due to Heisenberg, von Neumann, Wigner, Wheeler and
Penrose, but they all involve two qualitatively different kinds of
dynamics. One is the unitary deterministic time evolution of the
thoughtlike quantum wave pattern of an isolated system between
measurements by an external system. The second is the nonunitary
indeterministic collapse of the pattern to an actual classical
rocklike thing.
David Bohm, directly under Einstein’s influence at Princeton in 1951 or
so, had an epiphany after writing his Copenhagen-based book, Quantum
Theory, and realized that quantum reality has both thoughtlike and
rocklike things. Bohr said it was impossible to visualize the motion of
a tiny rocklike particle in quantum reality. Bohm proved Bohr wrong.
Bohm’s thoughtlike thing is the quantum pilot-wave. His rocklike thing
is the hidden variable. That was a poor choice of terminology, and I
will use John Bell’s later word beable instead of hidden variable.
In Bohm’s version the beable is the actual position of the particle at a
moment of time for particle mechanics. The beable is also the entire
classical field configuration over all space at a moment in time in
quantum field theory. The quantum wave properties of particles are
caused by a new kind of nonlocal form-dependent quantum potential.
This is how thought shapes brain matter. The quantum particle properties
of classical fields are caused by a similar super-quantum potential.
The photon is an example of the latter.
There is a very important qualitative difference between Henry Stapp’s
quantum theory of the mind-brain based on an ontological collapse and my
post-quantum theory of the mind-brain based upon Bohm’s idea of active
information. So let’s see what Bohm means by active information. The
following quotes are from The Undivided Universe with Basil Hiley.
The electron actually is a particle with a well-defined position x(t)
which varies continuously and is causally determined. p. 29
Note the path x(t) of the rocklike particle is causally determined in
quantum mechanics. In contrast, with post-quantum back-action (i.e., the
Holy Spirit, the Breath of God, to use quaint images) the particle, now
attached to it’s thoughtlike quantum pilot wave, becomes alive and
participates in its self-determination even opposing non-self Darwinian
natural selection pressures in some robust cases.
This particle is never separate from a new type of quantum field that
fundamentally affects it ... it too changes continuously and is causally
determined. p. 29
Note use of the word never.
What never? Well, hardly ever. .... (Pinafore).
If it were really never, then that settles it. There is no
possibility of personal immortality and Christ’s message would then be
false. However, recent research at IBM on quantum teleportation
suggests that the thoughtlike quantum pilot-wave pattern of implicate
information can be teleported between different rocklike particles. If
so, then one brain could experience the actual experience of another
brain distant from it in space and time. Note also, as for the particle,
the causal determination of the wave transforms to living
self-determination when post-quantum back-action takes over from random
environmental decoherence. The rocklike particle and its attached
thought like pilot-wave feed error-correcting information back and forth
between each other to become a self-determining conscious post-quantum
adaptive system. The important point here is to realize that this is not
possible in quantum mechanics. Bohm explains why it is not possible
right here:
Finally it should be pointed out that unlike what happens with
Maxwell’s equations for example, the Schrodinger equation for the
quantum field does not have sources, nor does it have any other way by
which the field could be directly affected by the conditions of the
particles. p. 30
This is the most important sentence in the entire book. This is the seed
out of which the post-quantum physics of the 21st Century will blossom.
What Bohm is saying here is that quantum mechanics has zero back-action.
Back-action means just the opposite. The post-quantum field (or
pilot-wave) does have sources and is directly affected by the conditions
of the particles. Thus, there is a two-way relationship between the
quantum wave and the classical particle or beable in post-quantum
physics. In contrast, there is only a one-way force of quantum wave on
classical particle in quantum physics.
Eberhard’s theorem of quantum physics has a corollary that says that all
paranormal phenomena based on clairvoyant telepathic faster-than-light
and precognitive backward-in-time communication using nonlocal
connectivity is impossible. Eberhard’s theorem does not work in
post-quantum physics.
Note that the super-quantum fields of the classical gauge fields are
also directly affected by the conditions of the latter’s configurations
over all space at a fixed moment of time. This Hamiltonian picture must
be extended to the Feynman path Lagrangian picture. Just as special
relativity with zero spacetime curvature is extended to general
relativity with non-zero spacetime curvature to explain gravitation, so
I have, single-handedly in the face of enormous opposition from my
peers, extended quantum mechanics to post-quantum mechanics to explain
consciousness. I must thank Nick Herbert for pushing me into this
strategy with his insistence that I make a new Sarfatti Mechanics. :-)
Bohm continues:
This of course constitutes an important difference between quantum
fields and other fields that have thus far been used.
This essential difference is missed not only by laymen, but also by
theoretical physicists who should know better. The difference is that
the classical gauge fields, like Maxwell’s electromagnetic field, are
local in spacetime. In contrast, the quantum field of n point particles
is local in a higher 3n dimensional classical configuration space C3n at
each instant of time in the Hamiltonian picture. Therefore, it is
objectively nonlocal in the ordinary 3D space of the classical gauge
field. Similarly, the super-quantum field of the classical gauge field
is local in the infinite-dimensional classical configuration space
Cinfinity because the classical gauge field is the limiting case of n
coupled particles with n approaching infinity as a discrete cellular
space lattice approaches the classical continuum of real numbers. The
classical Wheeler superspace for the three-dimensional geometries of the
metric gravitational gauge field of general relativity is an example of
a Cinfinity classical rocklike configuration space. Note that classical
configuration spaces are not the same as the quantum Hilbert spaces of
pilot-wave functions. The classical configuration space is the rocklike
space in which the beable moves. The quantum Hilbert space is the
thoughtlike space in which the pilot-wave moves. The thoughtlike Hilbert
space is a fiber space which has the rocklike classical configuration
space as its base space.
Thus, the thoughtlike quantum Hilbert space of pilot-waves of
funda-MENTAL (e.g., the Chalmer’s field) implicate information and
the rocklike classical configuration space of the beable, form the
mind-brain fiber bundle when the post-quantum back-action is not zero.
This is how the post-quantum physics of consciousness connects to the
mathematics of Saul Paul Sirag in the latest edition of Jeffrey
Mishlove’s The Roots of Consciousness. Sirag was the vice-president of
the original Esalen Physics Consciousness Research Group when I was
president in the mid-seventies.
Now Bohm shows how quantum mechanics is the approximate limiting case of
zero back-action just like the similar case of the flat spacetime of
special relativity which has zero gravitational field in it.
As we shall see, however, the quantum theory can be understood
completely in terms of the assumption that the quantum field has no
sources or other forms of dependence on the particles. We shall in
chapter 14, section 14.6, go into what it would mean to have such a
dependence and we shall see that this would imply that the quantum
theory is an approximation with a limited domain of validity. p.30
Going to 14.6 p. 346 we find Bohm asserting:
One way to make the Schrodinger equation dependent on the particle
positions (so that there would be a two-way relationship between wave
and particle) can be seen by considering equation 14.1 ... From the same
arguments as apply to the GRW approach, it would follow that the overall
wave function would tend to ‘collapse’ towards the actual particle
positions, so that, in a large scale system, the empty wave packets of
our interpretation would tend to disappear.
Stapp interprets Bohm’s above words so that, in a large scale system,
the empty wave packets of our interpretation would tend to disappear to
show the equivalence between his ontological post-Heisenberg-James
collapse theory of consciousness and my back-action theory. If so, my
back-action theory is more detailed and can explain the
self-determination of free-will choices in individual events which he
explicitly admits he cannot explain. In other words, Stapp’s theory can
be likened to phenomenological thermodynamics with my theory as its
statistical mechanical explanation. While Stapp’s theory and my theory
probably are equivalent on the level of proton masses, they may differ
significantly on the level of electron masses which may account for the
persistence of the experience of self-identitity over the human life
span of about 100 years. Imagination would then correspond to
recombinations with empty wave packets that do not objectively
collapse. So whether, as Stapp believes, Bohm’s inactive information
really plays no role in consciousness is something we need to keep
thinking about.
We also now see the connection to the Penrose quantum gravity model on
consciousness in his book, Shadows of the Mind, because the GRW model is
a special case of the Nanopoulos superstring-quantum gravity model.
There are essential differences of detail between Nanopoulos and Penrose
that do not concern our more general concerns here. I do note them for
the record.
The Nanopoulos model says that superstrings at the quantum gravity
energy 10^28 electron volts do trickle down to cause an objective
quantum gravity friction at 1 electron volt and less to collapse Bohm’s
empty wave packets quite fast for biologically relevant numbers of
proton masses. However, this quantum gravity friction is 10^20 times
slower for the same number of electron masses, and it is the electron
masses that control the conformations of the protein dimers in the
microtubules. That is why I do not accept Stapp’s assertion of
equivalence to my theory uncritically at this early stage. In any case,
it is clear that Stapp is proposing a post-quantum theory of
consciousness not a quantum theory as he sometimes seems to suggest.
Now let’s return to the main intent of this article which is Bohm’s
notion of active information bearing in mind that the key difference
right now between Stapp’s theory and my theory is whether or not the
inactive information of the post-quantum mind-brain conscious adaptive
system is wiped away moment to moment as our streams of inner
felt-consciousness, like Ol Man River just keeps on flowin along.
The interaction of the classical particle system with its quantum pilot
wave field (i.e., quantum potential also called Q) is qualitatively
different from the interaction of a classical charge with a classical
local electromagnetic field. This is a key point that many
paraphysicists completely miss in tying to model the paranormal. Since
the CIA and the DOD of the USA have paid good money for such models,
what I am saying here is important to the taxpayer. :-)
Bohm writes:
For the quantum potential has a number of strikingly new features which
do not cohere with what is generally accepted as the essential structure
of classical physics. .... The first of these new properties can be seen
by noting that the quantum potential is not changed when we multiply the
field psi by an arbitrary constant. (This is because psi appears both in
the numerator and the denominator of Q) This means that the effect of
the quantum potential is independent of the strength (i.e. the
intensity) of the quantum field but depends only on its form. By
contrast, classical waves, which act mechanically (i.e., to transfer
energy and momentum, for example, to push a floating object), always
produce effects that are more or less proportional to the strength of
the wave. For example one may consider a water wave which causes a cork
to bob. The further the cork is from the centre of the wave the less it
will move. But with the quantum field, it is as if the cork could bob
with full strength even far from the source of the wave. p. 31
Bohm then compares this to ...
A ship on automatic pilot being guided by
radio waves. Here, too, the effect of the radio waves is independent of
their intensity and depends only on their form. The essential point is
that the ship is moving with its own energy, and that the form of the
radio waves is taken up to direct the much greater energy of the ship.
We may therefore propose that an electron too moves under its own
energy, and that the form of the quantum wave directs the energy of the
electron. p. 32
Clearly the form dependence of the quantum motion is thoughtlike as
when we do something because we intend to do it. The word form is
identical to the way I used context as in context-dependence in the
past.
Bohm goes on to say that the new form-dependence implies that a particle
may not move uniformly in a straight line in the absence of all
classical forces. That is Newton’s laws are modified in quantum reality.
Moreover, since the effect of the wave does not necessarily fall off
with the distance, even remote features of the environment can
profoundly affect the movement. p. 32
Effects of this kind are indeed frequently encountered in ordinary
experience whereever we are dealing with information. ... We explain the
interference properties by saying that the quantum field contains
information, for example about the slits, and that this information is
taken up in the movements of the particle... p. 35
Note Bohm’s use of the words is taken up in the movement.. This is
obviously how thoughts influence brains. I mean it is really obvious. We
see how the brain sucks up the messages from the mind.
We have in this way introduced a concept that is new in the context of
physics -- a concept that we shall call ‘active information’... The
basic idea of active information is that a form having very little
energy enters into and directs a much greater energy. The activity of
the latter is in this way given a form similar to that of the smaller
energy.
Clearly it is to the shame of the Nobel Committee that they did not give
The Prize to David Bohm. They should do so posthumously. Bohm was
Oppenheimer’s smartest student at Berkely in the 1930’s. It shows the
limited one-dimensionality that Herbert Marcuse described that Big
Science is dominated by mean-spirited men who have a problem with the
vision thing. :-) (I am now under the influence of a half glass of good
chianti as I sit in the Caffe Trieste in San Francisco’s Bohemian Cafe
infested North Beach on New Years Eve with my laptop and wireless
modem!)
A good example of Bohm’s active information is in the quantum Carnot
engine that I invented as a thought experiment. Couple a very hot
negative quantum temperature to a cold positive classical temperature
and you will see active information at work in a very dramatic
counter-intuitive way that is relevant to Frohlich Bose-Einstein
condensates in living microtubules.
By form, Bohm means a new kind of implicate quantum information of
unique complex individuals that is qualitatively different from Claude
Shannon’s thermodynamic entropy-based explicate classical statistical
information of actuarial ensembles of simplistically abstracted
so-called identical individuals. The form is the message. Marshall
Mc Luhan was wrong. It’s not the medium stupid, it’s the form! :-)
It is important to distinguish our concept of active information from
the more technical definition of information commonly adopted in physics
in terms of, for example, Shannon’s ideas implying that there is a
quantitative measure of information that represents the way in which the
state of a system is uncertain to us ... such concepts have been used to
calculate the objective properties of systems in thermodynamics and even
black holes ... but we wish to propose here a quite different notion of
information that is not essentially related to our own knowledge or lack
of it. ... it will be information that is relevant to determining the
movement of the electron itself. p. 35
Yes, indeed, just like the thoughts in your mind which determine the
movements of the muscles in your body.
End of Part One.
Copyright, 1997 All rights reserved by Jack Sarfatti (sarfatti@well.com)
and the Internet Science Education Project.
This document can be linked
on the World Wide Web for non-commercial educational purposes without
violation of the copyright.
The Physics of Channelling |
|---|
Date: Fri, 29 Nov 1996 16:38:06 -0800
From: "Jack Sarfatti, Ph.D."
Organization: Internet Science Education Project
Newsgroups: sci.physics
Subject: The Physics of Channelling
"The development of quantum mechanics in the years 1925 and 1926 had
produced rules for the description of systems of microscopic particles,
which involved promoting the fundamental dynamical variables of a
corresponding classical system into operators with specified
commutators."
Julian Schwinger
For example, p = linear momentum of a point particle, x is its position
in 3D classical mechanical space. This can be generalized to N point
particles in 3n classical configuration space. The classical Poisson
bracket {p, x} becomes the commutator [p,x] = ih which is an operator
equation on the Hilbert space of wavy quantum states. These states are
generally entangled enforcing instantaneous synchronized behaviors among
the n particles which are widely separated from each other in 3D
classical mechanical space. In Bohm's ontology, an observer stuck on
only one of the particles will not be aware of these distant connections
in real time at the moment they are influencing her behavior at a
distance if there is no direct back-action of the actual path of the N
particle system on its guiding pilot wave in Hilbert space. Precognitive
remote viewing and trance-channeling, if they are facts, require
back-action in all living organizations of matter and radiation.
What is 'post-quantum back-action'? |
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To get an idea of what constitutes 'post-quantum back-action'
and 'Post-Quantum Physics', using the presentation
of PowerPoint, it is best to point your browsers at the source:
http://www.hia.com/hia/pcr/qmbeynd.html
or to access the slide show direct ...
http://www.hia.com/hia/pcr/pq/pq1.htm
 |
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Mountain Man's Global News Archive
The Internet Science Education Project and Jack Sarfatti, Ph.D.
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