THE
EXPERIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS AND QUANTUM PHYSICS
© Edward R. Close, July 24, 2016
© Edward R. Close, July 24, 2016
Scientific Paradigms
First, let’s be clear about what a scientific paradigm
is. A paradigm is not just a theory. A paradigm is a world view, a
comprehensive model of reality made up of known facts, reasonable ideas and
feasible theories. The current scientific paradigm is the body of ideas that
most scientists agree upon. A paradigm shift
occurs when one or more of the basic assumptions upon which the current paradigm
is built is found to be false and is replaced by a newly discovered fact or a
new assumption that represents reality in a better or more complete way. As examples
of major paradigm shifts, I would point to the shift from thinking that we
exist in an earth-centered universe to a heliocentric solar system, relativity
and quantum physics.
We must also be clear about the difference between a theory
and a theorem. The two words look and sound similar, but they are
almost completely opposite in meaning. A scientific theory is an idea that has
not been proved. A theorem, on the other hand, is a mathematical
statement that has been proved. A theory may be convincingly reasonable, or
wildly speculative. A scientific theory, even though widely accepted for years,
must be discarded if contrary evidence is found. A theory that can be expressed
mathematically is called a conjecture until it is either proved or disproved.
If a mathematical conjecture is proved, it becomes a theorem. So a scientific theory
is subject to validation or falsification, while a mathematical theorem is true
forever.
Perhaps some simple examples will make the difference
between a theory and a theorem clear:
Example 1: The idea that the sun circles the earth
once every 24 hours is a theory that seemed
obvious based on our perceptions and daily experience. The sun appears to move,
and the earth seems to be stationary. But that theory has been thoroughly
disproved with empirical data and mathematical determinations. We know now that
the earth spins on its axis, completing one revolution every 24 hours and
orbits around the sun once in a year. So the stationary earth theory has been discarded.
Example 2: I claim that the sum of any three
consecutive non-negative numbers will always be divisible by 3. This statement
is a conjecture until a way is found to
prove or disprove it. I can give specific examples that seem to validate the
claim, like 0+1+2=3; 1+2+3=6; 2+3+4=9; 7+8+9=24, etc., but these specific
numerical examples only provide a feasibility argument, not a conclusive proof.
If there exists even one set of three consecutive integers in the infinity of
numbers that do not add up to a multiple of 3, the claim is false and will have
to be discarded. Of course I can’t check every possible three-number sequence.
I can, however prove the claim algebraically in three simple steps:
1. Let
n be any whole number from 0 to infinity.
2. Then
n+(n+1)+(n+2) algebraically represents a sequence of three consecutive numbers.
3. Then,
by simple addition, n+(n+1)+(n+2)=3n+3=3(n+1), which is divisible by 3 for all
n from zero to infinity.
Now my conjecture is actually a theorem, a mathematical statement that will be true of all whole
numbers forever. No future discovery can disprove it.
So,
a scientific theory is a statement that may be either true or false. If it can
be proved true, it becomes a solid part of the paradigm, if false, it is
discarded. The mathematical counterpart of a scientific theory is a conjecture,
and a theorem is a conjecture that has been proved. A scientific paradigm is
subject to change, while a mathematical theorem is true forever. This explains
the power of mathematics and the relationship of mathematics to reality.
The Current Paradigm
The current scientific paradigm consists of a number
of more or less strongly related ideas describing what we know, or think we know about reality. I believe
it is really important to classify and separate the ideas that make up the
scientific paradigm into three different types: 1. Ideas that have been
succinctly described mathematically, proved and validated by empirical data. 2.
Ideas that make so much sense in conjunction with the known facts that they are
accepted by the scientific community even if they have not been unequivocally
demonstrated to be true. 3. And there is a third class of ideas that are speculative
and hypothetical.
These three classes of ideas can be identified by the
nature of their origins. The ideas that make up the scientific paradigm are of
three origins:
1. Existential
– undeniably real
2. Perceptual
– probably real, based on direct observation but subject to the limitations of
our physical senses and/or extensions of them
3. Conceptual
– possibly real, based on logical deduction and extrapolation from known facts
and/or feasible conjectures, but may be hypothetical and/or speculative.
The Triadic Dimensional Vortical
Paradigm (TDVP) Shift
The
paradigm described in these posts and in the numerous technical papers, books
and articles authored by Neppe and Close or Close and Neppe, over the past
several years comprise the description of a major shift from the reductionist
material-based paradigm of current mainstream science, to an integrated consciousness-based
paradigm. In TDVP, Consciousness is the primary substance of reality. I want to
be very clear that this primary form of consciousness is not the limited awareness
of a conscious individual. Rather, all of finite reality, including
individualized consciousness, is embedded in Primary Consciousness. As an
analogy, we might assay that the individualized consciousness in the body of a
living organism is to Primary Consciousness as the air in a balloon is to the
atmosphere in which the balloon is suspended. Unlike the balloon, however, even
the substance of the body is also a form of Consciousness. That is to say, just
as matter is a form of energy, energy is a form of Consciousness.
Quantum Physics
Niels
Bohr, often called the father of quantum physics, said “The business of physics
is to describe what we experience, not to explain the nature of reality.” Why
would he say that? Surely, science, especially physics, the most concrete of
sciences, should be concerned with what is real and what is not. To understand
what Bohr was saying, you must put it into the context of what was going on
when he said it. He was engaged in a debate with Albert Einstein, who had attacked
the uncertainty principle, one of the most basic ideas of quantum mechanics.
The
uncertainty principle, expressed in Heisenberg’s matrices and Schrӧdinger’s
wave equation, two different mathematically equivalent expressions of the
probability distribution of states of quantum particle/wave phenomena, predicts
a very small, but unavoidable uncertainty in the measurement of one of two
parameters. For example, if the exact location of a particle can be known, its
angular momentum and total energy cannot be known exactly, and vice versa. This
uncertainty, even though very small, introduces randomness into quantum reality.
Einstein couldn’t accept this as real. He famously said: “God doesn’t play
dice.”
Einstein
thought that Bohr’s quantum theory was incomplete, and that if the missing component
could be determined, the uncertainty would go away. To make his point, he and
two colleagues proposed a hypothetical experiment involving a sub-atomic
reaction that appeared to disprove the uncertainty principle by providing a
specific physical situation in which there would be no uncertainty. Remember,
it only takes one contradiction to disprove a theory. Einstein called the EPR concept
a “thought experiment” because, at that time, the technology to perform it did
not yet exist. It became known as the EPR (Einstein Podolsky Rosen) paradox
because it used a known fact about certain sub-atomic reactions to contradict a
basic principle of quantum mechanics that was backed by experimental data. Eventually,
the uncertainty principle prevailed, but that story has been told many times,
and is not necessarily relevant to this discussion.
What
I want to focus on here is Bohr’s use of the word “experience”. When he said
that physics is about what we experience, he clearly did not mean this in the
general sense of the word experience as we usually use it. Our experience
includes things like happiness, anxiety, attraction, and revulsion, even love.
He meant experience strictly in the sense of experimental physics. He was
suggesting that we can only describe the results we ‘experience’ in quantum
experiments, not what causes those results. Using the terms I’ve defined here,
we would say that the results of an experiment are existential, or at least
perceptual, while speculations about a causative reality are conceptual and
speculative. In TDVP, we consider experience in the broader, more inclusive
sense of conscious awareness.
A New Calculus
If
we look at TDVP as a scientific hypothesis, i.e. a theory, we must attempt to find
a way to test its feasibility and prove its validity, just as I found a way to
test the sum of 3 consecutive integers conjecture and prove its validity. We
have found a way to test the feasibility of TDVP by using some new mathematical
techniques, and we have been more successful than we could ever have imagined.
We have been able to explain observations, experimental data and paradoxes that
have not been satisfactorily explained within the current paradigm, and the
mathematical tools we developed have also provided us a way to prove the
validity of TDVP in much the same way a mathematical conjecture is proved, turning
it into a theorem. To help you understand how this is done, I am going to
explain the basis and general nature of the Calculus of Distinctions.
The
calculus that has been used as the main tool to describe our dynamic physical
universe for the more than 300 years, was developed independently by Leibniz
and Newton. I developed a new calculus, not because the one in use was so old,
but because I saw the need for a quantum calculus. As I’ve stated in published
books and papers, and in previous posts, in a quantized reality, the assumption
of infinite divisibility, basic to the integral and differential calculus of
Newton and Leibniz is invalid. I developed the Calculus of Distinctions in 1986
and published it along with applications to relativity, quantum physics and
cosmology in 1990.
Experience, Distinctions, and a
Quantum Calculus
Experience,
or individual awareness arises from the distinction of self from other. As conscious
beings, we experience the awareness of ‘in-here’ versus ‘out-there.’ Taking
this distinction as existential, in the same way the distinction of a particle
(mass) or a force (energy) is existential, we have developed a calculus of
three dimensional distinctions. This led to the definition of a quantum
equivalence unit (The Triadic Rotational Unit of Equivalence) and the discovery
of gimmel, a third form in addition to mass and energy, of the primary
substance of reality that is necessary for the formation of stable atomic and
sub-atomic particles.
When
the TRUE quantum distinction is taken as the basic unit of calculation, a
quantum calculus we call the Calculus of Dimensional Distinctions (CoDD) is
formed. When the experience of consciousness is incorporated into the
mathematics describing existential reality, a new, more comprehensive scientific
paradigm is formed. This paradigm shift to a consciousness-based reality, TDVP,
is more of a “theory of everything” (TOE) that anything developed within the
current scientific paradigm because no TOE developed within the current
paradigm includes everything. Consciousness is left out of the current
paradigm. The time for the shift to a consciousness-based scientific paradigm
has come.
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