In September, we 'all had a ball with the Double-Slit Experiment. Here's the link to the SSI article.
The Exec Sum is this: photons, neutrons, and even atoms are out there existing only in possibility. It is only when (as Dr. D understands it!) the particle is LOOKED AT BY HUMAN BEINGS that the particle DECIDES which possible form it will take. The universe "snaps into place" only when somebody looks at it.
This amazing discovery was pleasing and delightful to most SSI readers, and was an interesting debate for all SSI readers. You might want to meander though the article and the comments again. It beats workin', don' it?
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Freeman Dyson is (1) "infinitely smart" and, as a completely separate issue, (2) he specializes in physics. When he accepted the 2000 Templeton Prize, he commented on the double-slit experiment and its massive implications for science and theology.
There's no last word :- ) but if there were, this would be it, for me. We never stop debating, never try to suppress those who want to discuss a subject further. However, if you enjoyed the material on The Double-Slit Experiment, you might enjoy this Dyson summary as a "Final Chapter."
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My personal theology is described in the Gifford lectures that I gave at Aberdeen in Scotland in 1985, published under the title, Infinite In All Directions. Here is a brief summary of my thinking.
The universe shows evidence of the operations of mind on three levels.
The first level is elementary physical processes, as we see them when we study atoms in the laboratory. The second level is our direct human experience of our own consciousness. The third level is the universe as a whole.
Atoms in the laboratory are weird stuff, behaving like active agents rather than inert substances. They make unpredictable choices between alternative possibilities according to the laws of quantum mechanics. It appears that mind, as manifested by the capacity to make choices, is to some extent inherent in every atom.
The universe as a whole is also weird, with laws of nature that make it hospitable to the growth of mind. I do not make any clear distinction between mind and God. God is what mind becomes when it has passed beyond the scale of our comprehension. God may be either a world-soul or a collection of world-souls. So I am thinking that atoms and humans and God may have minds that differ in degree but not in kind.
We (as humans - Dr D) stand, in a manner of speaking, midway between the unpredictability of atoms and the unpredictability of God. Atoms are small pieces of our mental apparatus, and we are small pieces of God's mental apparatus. Our minds may receive inputs equally from atoms and from God.
This view of our place in the cosmos may not be true, but it is compatible with the active nature of atoms as revealed in the experiments of modern physics. I don't say that this personal theology is supported or proved by scientific evidence. I only say that it is consistent with scientific evidence.
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Dyson takes the Double-Slit Experiment even farther than most physicists do: he asserts that every atom and photon is, in fact, a tiny brain. Well, a tiny mind. He's not philosophizing, not basically; he is reacting to experiments in physics.
The definition of "mind" as Dyson is using it here:
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"as the thoughts ran through his mind, he came to a conclusion" ·
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In my opinion, you can enjoy this subject from any perspective. As some researchers have put it, the universe looks more and more like a giant "dream." In a dream you can switch from future to past to present, from one location to another, effortlessly and instantly. The nature of reality becomes more flexible the more we think about it.
Best regards,
Jeff
Lot of press recently regarding the Dutch experiments in entanglement. Fascinating, especially in light of Dyson's theories. These experiments should, eventually, lead to quantum computing. Maybe even lead to the creation of Tesla's global wireless networks. Quantum mechanics crazy stuff. Right at the edge of human knowledge.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/science/quantum-theory-experiment-said...
For those who were unsure whether the link was worth the time, I can give it a hearty thumbs-up. Easy to read, massive, and only about 3 degrees off of this very subject.
I thought it would take 50-100 years for Rupert Sheldrake to be proven a fantastic genius who is ahead of his scientific era. Looks like it's going to take 5.
(Grizzly's link is about entanglement, which would be a separately interesting Konspiracy discussion.)
The NYT article had this to say about our current topic:
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The new experiment, conducted by a group led by Ronald Hanson, a physicist at the Dutch university’s Kavli Institute of Nanoscience, and joined by scientists from Spain and England, is the strongest evidence yet to support the most fundamental claims of the theory of quantum mechanics about the existence of an odd world formed by a fabric of subatomic particles, where matter does not take form until it is observed and time runs backward as well as forward.
... The tests take place in a mind-bending and peculiar world. According to quantum mechanics, particles do not take on formal properties until they are measured or observed in some way. Until then, they can exist simultaneously in two or more places. Once measured, however, they snap into a more classical reality, existing in only one place.
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I've seen this exact phrase a lot, the universe "snapping" into place upon observation.
...is the strongest yet proof of intelligent design that I have yet encountered. If the universe does not exist until it is "seen" (at least...not as we know it)...then some consciousness besides our own must have been observing its formation, processes and evolution until we came along, right?
*Present company excepted,* the mainstream reaction to this situation (and those like it) is driven 99.98% by the Richard Dawkins mindset.
That's a clever twist there Matty, the idea "who was observing before we were?" +2 :- )
If some element of nature proves unverifiable by existing scientific knowledge...then certainly the only answer must be an unscientific 'hand' postulated by an individual observer.
Is there really only one possible alternate solution? One other 'proof'?
"Aha! I have discovered a fruit that is NOT an apple. Therefore, it must be a gazelle!"
There's a fine line between "God of the Gaps" thinking and the thinking that says "The primary hypothesis here is Outside Intervention, so let's test that."
Guys like Sheldrake and Dyson (and, hopefully, myself) are VERY careful to address that distinction. If you were wrong, how would you know? Your question is critical Diderot.
This is some world class shtick. The atom as a tiny mind hurts my brain. In the double slit experiment, is it the photon that decides which form to take and which path to follow, or is it the observer? This is all very strange.
The new quantum entanglement experiment seems to mean that there is stuff faster than the speed of light. Entangled particles interact with eachother across space instantly. The implications are profound. In what dimension are the particles entangled? Probably the same one that gravity works in. Also, the practical effects should be worthwhile. How about a real time Mars Cam?
That's a comical image Mojo. Hadn't *quite* occurred to me that the atom has to have some way to know when we're looking :- )
I am really going to enjoy reading this, and reading the other SSI link again.
First, I wanted to just throw out that I suspect that part of your last comment possibly could have bearing--regarding the malleability of time. Perhaps there's something going on there, as well, with time, not just space. The idea of treating time as one of the four dimensions we experience is very interesting, and has built into it the possibility of other ways of experiencing it.
Or, as you like to say, not. Just a thought.