Categories
philosophy Physics

Quantum Mechanics, the Chinese Room Experiment and the Limits of Understanding – Scientific American

Quantum Mechanics, the Chinese Room Experiment and the Limits of Understanding – Scientific American

“The Chinese room experiment serves as a metaphor not only for physics but also for the human condition. Each of us sits alone within the cell of our subjective awareness. Now and then we receive cryptic messages from the outside world. Only dimly comprehending what we are doing, we compose responses, which we slip under the door. In this way, we manage to survive, even though we never really know what the hell is happening.”

Categories
AI philosophy

What is the question?

In the book “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy” Douglas Adams says the meaning of life is the number 42. The problem is that we just don’t know what the right question is.

The author of this article uses the latest AI to try and figure it out.. and isn’t happy with the answer.. or question.

https://muellerberndt.medium.com/i-asked-gpt-3-for-the-question-to-42-i-didnt-like-its-answer-and-neither-will-you-33f425a4d60f

Categories
philosophy Physics Uncategorized

The physics of free will

https://aeon.co/essays/heres-why-so-many-physicists-are-wrong-about-free-will

“But still a nagging thought occurs: if the initial data were known for the entire Universe, then why can’t it determine all these lower-level dynamics in a mechanistic way? After all, aren’t they just smallscale details in this larger picture, where one can claim that no constraints occur? The Universe is by definition all that there is, so it can’t be constrained by effects from a larger environment. Might physics not be deterministic in that case, and my argument fall apart?”

“The problem then is, how did all those words get there? Was there a demiurge who coded all that stuff into the detailed initial state of the Universe? It’s certainly not there in the Schrödinger equation per se, or in a randomly determined set of fluctuations in the early Universe as is normally envisaged in cosmological studies. By definition, they don’t encode either any detailed information or any logical argumentation.

So how could that data have got there? Not just for one book, but for all the books ever written? Is that really a believable story, or some kind of creationist myth?”

 

Categories
philosophy Physics

Quantum determinism in popular culture

https://www.engadget.com/alex-garland-devs-interview-quantum-computing-120035468.html

The premise of the TV show “Devs” is that silicon valley company corners the market on quantum computing and uses it to decode the past and possibly future.

How does determinism affect everyone’s lives? Does knowing you are on a predetermined path affect your “decisions”?

Personally, I don’t buy it.. but I can’t back that up with science. Perhaps I just choose not to buy it.

 

Categories
philosophy Physics

Does Consciousness Cause Quantum Collapse?

https://philosophynow.org/issues/121/Does_Consciousness_Cause_Quantum_Collapse

  1. Physicalism – There is only physics.
  2. Dualism – Consciousness effects the physical world apart from physics.

“There is therefore a curious phenomenon in which physicists reject the dualist interpretation by appeal to philosophy and then proceed to formulate physicalist solutions to the measurement problem (e.g. the many-worlds interpretation); meanwhile philosophers reject dualism by appeal to such physical theories (and in particular, the fact that the laws of those theories don’t mention consciousness). If that is what the argument for physicalism amounts to then it is viciously circular.”

It’s possible that they are both right.. that there is an unknown set of physical laws that we can see or measure yet.

 

 

Categories
multiverse philosophy Physics

Boltzman Brains

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boltzmann_brain

TLDR: It’s more likely that a human brain (complete with human thoughts/memories) snaps into existence than it is for our Universe to exist with us in it. It’s actually more likely that we are all Boltzman brains.

It’s completely bonkers, and that’s the point. The fact that our Universe is exists in the way it does is completely bonkers. This example is meant to highlight that.

Categories
philosophy

Does Consciousness Pervade the Universe?

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-consciousness-pervade-the-universe/

“Human beings have a very rich and complex experience; horses less so; mice less so again. As we move to simpler and simpler forms of life, we find simpler and simpler forms of experience. Perhaps, at some point, the light switches off, and consciousness disappears. But it’s at least coherent to suppose that this continuum of consciousness fading while never quite turning off carries on into inorganic matter, with fundamental particles having almost unimaginably simple forms of experience to reflect their incredibly simple nature. That’s what panpsychists believe.”