The following is a continuation of a previous post entitled, Consciousness and the Measurement Problem pt.1, and can be found via a link at the bottom of this post.
Traditionally quantum theory has been treated as a measurement problem rather than a theory or standard of measurement; a case in point being that we don’t need to know how a thing works in order to use it. Here, however, we actually know quite a bit about how quantum theory works, but as Feynman has said, ‘no one really knows’, because we are looking at it in the wrong way i.e. as a problem rather than a means to solve a problem.
Specifically, quantum mechanics is a theory of how much energy it takes to gather information. Rather than discrete packets of matter; particles are bits of mathematical information at the planck length. From this we can see how we the problem can be converted into a solution; that is, by using the bits as measurements of how much energy is required to recover one bit of information and that quantity becomes a standard for itself with which to measure other things as well.
The best examples of such quantities and measures or ‘the ordering structures of the world’, would be the golden ratio, pi, the Fibonacci sequence and Mandelbrot set, all of which have decimal places approaching or equal to infinity. This means that their origin is at the planck length. “In modern quantum theory there can be no doubt that the elementary particles will finally also be mathematical forms but of a much more complicated nature…”(Heisenberg, Physics and Philosophy: 1958) i.e. Strings? “The constant element in physics since Newton is not a configuration or a geometrical form, but a dynamic law. The equation of motion holds at all times, it is in this sense eternal, whereas the geometrical forms, like the orbits, are changing. Therefore, the mathematical forms that represent the elementary particles will be solutions of some eternal law of motion for matter. This is a problem which has not yet been solved” (ibid).
This ‘problem which has not yet been solved’ is that of consciousness; what it does, what it’s for and what its ‘intentions’ are. Because if information is the most fundamental state of matter, then it would make sense that consciousness or mind would have some use for this information and indeed might be the agent that thought it up, or imagined it in the first place (see: matter as ideas in the larger consciousness system).
What does that mean for us? Why should we look for things that don’t appear to be there? Well aside from being really interesting and imbuing our entropy laden world with meaning, it explains why such mathematical principles, structures and forms should exist in the first place and where they might be found.
For more follow the link:
July 15, 2022
Why Quantum Mechanics isn’t Weird (closer to a straight answer, but not quite)
July 16, 2022
August 19, 2021
and thanks for reading!
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