Is Consciousness Quantum Mechanical?
Definitions
Ψ: The individual conscious subjective experience (CSE): a weighted combination of existential perceptions/projections.
Eigenstates of Ψ: The thoughts, sensations, emotions localized to a particular CSE and interval of time.
What is Consciousness?
It has been said by many (including me) that a hypothesis cannot be “proven”, only disproven using science. Gravity for example: cannot be “proven” to manifest in the same manner universally, although we can infer by our observations that it’s never been observed not to manifest in more or less the same way. There is much support for a theory of Gravity. We could consider Gravity to be the limit of what is demonstrable by inductive (multiple iterations) reasoning.
Our living consciousness is unique in that it is localized to the {Earth, Moon, Sun} macrostate: we are not necessarily looking to describe universal consciousness, just our own. By restricting our investigation to the local biome, we render the problem into a closed set: how does Earthly consciousness function?
As we are in the physical realm where quantum mechanical effects are known to manifest, the problem reduces to one 2 competing hypotheses on the nature of consciousness:
- The mind is a physical computer (a subset of the physical body)
- The mind is a quantum computer (a projection of the physical body)
We exclude the possibility that the body is entirely a quantum mechanical projection by the manifest nature of solid matter.
Modelling Consciousness
Until the laudable work of Dr. Stuart Hameroff, (1.) was the ad hoc hypothesis, present in Western theories of consciousness and psychological pharmaceuticals. However, over the last few years, the numerous false predictions of (1) force us to exclude its possibility. Thus, in spite of the appeal of Occam’s Razor in the face of a quantum mind hypothesis, we must accept that the consciousness is best modelled by a quantum mechanical projection (Ψ) possessing the qualities of:
- Entanglement: based both on the size and complexity of the mind,Ψ is at least somewhat entangled. This is plainly evidenced in the interactions of body systems: none can be demonstrated independent of any other. At the other limit, the harmonics of Ψ can never be so entangled as to be indistinguishable, a personality must be distinguished in some way from its base projectile substratum.
- Coherence: thoughts, emotions, sensations are meaningful to Ψ.
- Locality: Ψ is projected by the physical body.
Since consciousness and quantum mechanics both centre on the act of observation, we model the consciousness with the following coherent nested loop of increasing complexity. As such, each phenomenon requires all phenomena to its left before it can manifest in the body.
Observation => Self-Observation => Awareness => Self-Awareness => Higher States
Local Limit < = > Nonlocal Limit
Let us examine a prediction of the QMH.
Reincarnation
By Copenhagen interpretation #3:
During an observation, the system (in this case it is the consciousness: Ψ) must interact with a laboratory device (the body). When that device makes a measurement, the wave function of the systems is said to collapse, or irreversibly reduce to an eigenstate of the observable that is registered.
Thus for all observation, there exists an interaction.
O => I
The quantum mind is generated by and interferes (primarily) with the physical body to which it is localized. In death, the “laboratory device” (body) can no longer take measurements from the conscious (“the system”). Thus we have the event ¬ I.
By contraposition:
¬ I => ¬ O
Thus if the body ceases to be able to interact with the conscious projection (as by death), there is no mechanism to observe the waveform (¬ O), thus is it undisturbed.
As observation is the only thing that can decay the conscious waveform, the absence of such implies the existence of an unobserved conscious waveform. Being unobserved, it represents the potential to be later observed. As the body is dead, this potential necessitates a new device to interfere with before it can change from the state it occupied at the event of death.
Reincarnation is thus inevitable (unfalsifiable) by above: there is no mechanism to decay the consciousness and thus it remains in potential but for dissipative forces (discussed in great detail elsewhere).
Since it is not clear here what criteria satisfy the requirements of a “coherent laboratory device”, we defer to the expertise of the ancients.
Jai Dev (QED)
References
The Church of Entropy 