h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Webplodder refused to make a definitive statement regarding his position vis QM & conciousness. I have decided to make it for him. The following is a selection of the definitive statements Plod has made regarding his views. I will add to it as (and if) he makes further statements that are relevent to the topic. I will incude those he makes online, and any he sends to me. If I miss a statement that needs to be here, please add a comment below: http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbsn/F2564201?thread=3447398&skip=740&show=20#p41139067 This is my position: The material world arises from conscious observation through a process intimately connected to wavefunction collapse in a quantum measurement. My contention is that the Universe is self-aware through us. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbsn/F2564201?thread=3447398&skip=740&show=20#p41139547 To give a little background, what had been happening was that for many years quantum physics had been giving indications that there are levels of reality other than the material level. How it started happening first was that quantum objects � objects in quantum physics �began to be looked upon as waves of possibility. Now, initially people thought, "Oh, they are just like regular waves." But very soon it was found out that, no, they are not waves in space and time. They cannot be called waves in space and time at all � they have properties which do not jibe with those of ordinary waves. So they began to be recognized as waves in potential, waves of possibility, and the potential was recognized as transcendent, beyond matter somehow. But the fact that there is transcendent potential was not very clear for a long time. Then Aspect's experiment verified that this is not just theory, there really is transcendent potential, objects really do have connections outside of space and time outside of space and time! What happens in this experiment is that an atom emits two quanta of light, called photons, going opposite ways, and somehow these photons affect one another's behavior at a distance, without exchanging any signals through space. Notice that without exchanging any signals through space but instantly affecting each other. Instantaneously. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbsn/F2564201?thread=3447398&skip=740&show=20#p41142031 Particles have been shown to be able to be in more than one place simultaneously, until observed, at which time, a choice having been made, they collapse their quantum wave and concretize into a given state which is perceived. This means that it is conscious choice that determines outcomes of reality. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbsn/F2564201?thread=3447398&skip=740&show=20#p41145647 We are, in effect, the part of the Universe that is self-conscious ok? It has been hypothesized that there are 'probability waves' that do not exist in ordinary time and space - the same waves that are thought to determine where things like photons are at a given moment. When an observation is made by the bit of the Universe that is self-conscious (us) these transcendent waves are 'crystalized' and result in a given objective reality of our choosing. It's consciousness that gives us free will in giving us a choice to make this or that reality which is well evidenced by the creating forces of societies we see taking place today and that has taken place in the past. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbsn/F2564201?thread=3447398&skip=760&show=20#p41147917 In all honesty Olmy, and no offence intended, I think my ideas are just too advanced for you to grasp. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/mbsn/F2564201?thread=3447398&skip=780&show=20#p41160297 "The Copenhagen interpretation posits the existence of probability waves which describe the likelihood of finding the particle at a given location. Until the particle is detected at any location along this probability wave, it effectively exists at every point. Thus, when the particle could be passing through either of the two slits, it will actually pass through both, and so an interference pattern results. But if the particle is detected at one of

F2564201?thread=3589833&skip=220&show=20 post #229
>>"Now, say I left the room and my friend then opened up the box the cat was housed in thus collapsing the wavefunction of the cat revealing either a dead or alive cat."

F2564201?thread=3589833&skip=460&show=20 post #476
>>"Olmy that does not invalidate the superposition principle. The fact that it may take nanoseconds for decoherence to occur doesn't mean the cat was not in two states simultaneously."


So, webplodder believes that Schroedinger's Cat would have a wavefunction which would be sustained indefinitely until a human looked at it, (since only consciousness causes collapse and cats are presumably not conscious), yet decoherence would happen in nanoseconds anyway though the simplest of physical interactions.
The only way of squaring those two opinions is that the physical act of decoherence is what actually *happens* in reality, and it happens without human interference or prompting, and that the wavefunction collapse is merely a psychological event, where a person moves from guesswork to knowledge, the wavefunction having nothing to do with actual reality.
However, when it was explained that that's what Heisenberg seemed to be saying when read in full (rather than in webplodder's selective quotes), webplodder suggested that Heisenberg's words, which no-one else had any problem understanding, were 'vague and muddled', which basically equates to 'can't easily be twisted to support webplodder's ideas'.