@Cyracuz,
Cyracuz wrote:
Quote:But if it were true, it would mean that if you're alone, the things that are directly behind you, and therefore unobserved, have no position or other characteristics. Not until you turn around and look at a table, for instance, does the table appear out of the the cloud, and it does so because you looked at it. This drastically alters the meaning of objectivity, which gives us a map of the world around us in three dimensions. It would mean the contents of the map aren't "there" the way we think they are.
Well, not quite, as I see it. Can we relate to terms like observation, timeline and location in the same way we would when dealing with actual objects?.
Dammit Jim, I'm not a physicist.. I just read a book called Quantum Reality a few years back. What I described is one version of the Copenhagen interpretation. Since the subatomic particles that make up the table have no position until the collapse, the table doesn't either. That which is uncollapsed is a fog.
Cyracuz wrote:
It is not entirely accurate to say that when you observe the quantum information that appears as "table" you are causing a collapse of superposition (your cloud). The quantum superposition is not of "table", but of everything that can potentially happen to the specific sub atomic particles and waves being observed.
To go Heidegger on it,
table is an idea. What you observe is tones of color that you associate with
table. What we observe is continuously in flux. The idea is unchanging.
Cyracuz wrote:
I am suggesting that observation causes collapse of superposition, but simultaneously, since each observation is copied into memory and thus becomes relevant to all new observations, the process also creates consciousness as a superposition.
Each definite state creates a relationship between that state and the superposition. But understanding resides in the superposition.
Let me join in with the word play. Since I don't have it all figured out, I'm just exploring a perspective, ok?
Memory doesn't contain copies of observations. Consciousness is a projector that can beam images onto a screen we call the past. The shape of those images follows the nature of consciousness as it builds meaning for itself.
The difference between the
past screen and the
future screen is that the past is supposed to contain images of actualities. We assume that events we remember happened (but we can find out that we were mistaken and so we adjust the projection.) The future contains images of possibilities. We assume they don't represent actualities. Although through reason we realize that a subset of those possibilities must become actual... otherwise time as we know it would stop.
Consciousness is a symphony.. all of the parts must be related to each other in some way. Every new moment experienced is the prime focal point of consciousness. This moment now is the only experience of a true actuality. The experience expands in the realm of reflection...whatever that is. As it expands it becomes associated with the whole complex. Thus you know who you are, where you are, what you're doing, and why. This is the origin of that which we project onto the screens.
It's like consciousness is a pond and each moment is a pebble which ripples out altering the whole. Reflecting on this is our experience of time. In this, we have posited a static position of consciousness relative to the stream of events. Consciousness is the super-idea. It's position is understood to be outside of space and time. It is the home of the
table and all the other ideas we populate the objective map with. It interacts with an ever changing field of possibility which gives concreteness to the forms of the mind.
Cyracuz wrote:
If this were so it would indicate that consciousness is an inherent property of every quantum function, as the relationship between superposition and definite state. Observer and observed would be interchangeable, simply two basic attributes of everything. You cannot affect without being affected.
The simple attribute of memory could then be said to be what enables our human consciousness, which is essentially accumulated consciousness gathered in every quantum measurement the brain makes.
You're combining physics and existentialism in a way that I'm having trouble following. Could you explain it again?
