Posted by maiti on August 16, 19100 at 07:28:43:
In Reply to: The Real "Shadows of the Mind" posted by Philip P. Benjamin on April 18, 1998 at 16:37:36:
: MDI-NUCLEAR PAGE: December, 1997
: http://members.tripod.com/~Palmutil
:
: Back-action Quanta and Sentience: The Real ?Shadows of the Mind'.
: In an N particle quantum system, psi is a wave function of all the possible positions (x1....xN, t) of these particles. Sarfatti (1996 ) has speculated that an electron wave exerts a back-action on its own electron. This back-action loop is the external agency that pumps in information into the microtubules of the brain. Back-action doubles the number of the variables to (x1X1.....xN, XN, t). He assumes that these new variables are the "hidden variable" positions of the N particles associated with the Bohemian "pilot wave" and is the "soul in the machine."
: Crowell (1996) has developed the mathematics to describe this back-action, using the polar form of the Schrodinger equation: psi = Re^iS, where R=e^r. He derives an equation that lead to a back-action gauge field. They assume that this field was a ?quantum information density field where the quantum pilot wave really is a wave of fundamental information in the higher dimensional configuration space of classical chaos theory. Of course, action and back-action are relative terms. ?The information field' may very well correspond to the action part and matter to the reaction. As is customary, it is the electron back-action that they establish.
: However, while any QM self-measurement of a living system is in progress, there must be no decoherence or collapse of the wave function. As Sarfatti (1996) points out, the decoherence time at the electron level is estimated at 100 years, for the number of electrons in an average human body. If one second is the estimated basic unit of our experience (see Klein, 1995), the decoherence must be at the proton (neutron?) level where the time is 10^20 shorter for the same number of electrons. A very small number of protons, possibly from the hydrogen bonds, will do the job! Apparently, it is the proton waves, not electron, that ?collapse' or ?orchestrate' or do whatever else in the brain microtubules (Hameroff & Watt, 1982, Penrose, 1994)
: Living matter obfuscates the statistical predictions of orthodox quantum mechanics (QM) (Stapp, 1994). The Schrodinger equation is for dead atoms, not live cells, except perhaps for low density matrices of low level organisms. The continual self-measurements, that living matter indulge in, require an external pumping mechanism. Should any postmodern physics expound ? life', it will still be begging for an explanation of the phylogenic order. Mind as a derivative of universal matter cannot be an exclusive anthropocentric property. The ?hard question' gets harder. The added ?uncertainty' is whether it is consciousness that causes ?wave function collapse' or vice versa. In either case, it is post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
: If sentience is seminal in matter waves, then the wave function is an entity by itself, rather than a mechanism to describe the reality of matter. Moreover, back- action if real, should be true for all subatomic particles-.electrons, protons and neutrons as well. Sentience cannot be an exclusive property of electron waves. All matter waves should be mental- electrons, protons and neutrons.
: These back-action energies should be quantized and different for these particles. Obviously then, every atom casts a ?shadow' atom of back-action, the real ?shadows of the mind' . These in turn cast their ?shadow' molecules, then ?shadow' cells and a ?shadow' structure for any quantum physical system.
: "It is not possible to couple in a nontrivial way quantum system to a classical one retaining unitary evolution of the quantum system. So, if we want to keep peace with quantum indistinguishability of mixtures, then terms must be added to the Schrodinger equation, action must have reaction" (Jadczyk, 1997 ). This back-action field couples to the electromagnetic field, perhaps following the same quantum mechanical rules as for Psi(x1...xN, t). Matter exists. Mind exists. Each ?codetermines' the other.
: During fertilization, quantum physical interactions enable molecules in the parent sex cells to "sense" each other's presence through the back-action quanta, just before the sperm/pollen enters the egg/ovule. For each atom in the reproductive cells, pollen/ovule or egg/sperm, there is a corresponding ?shadow' back-action atom, producing the back action version of the zygote. As the zygote grows and divides, so does the back-action version- the ?shadow' zygote. If the back-action is the "information field," the growth and development of this ?information field' parallels that of the body. The body is mind around which matter coalesce. The back-action quanta bootstrap the genetic programme. The genetic code then determines the phylogenic order.
: Philip P. Benjamin
: Ivy Benjamin
: Palmutil@email.msn.com
: REFERENCES
: Crowell, Lawrence, Formulation of Back-Action Quantum Mechanics, http://www.hia.com/hia/per/vigier/math/math1.html,1996
: Dawkins, Richard, River Out of Eden, Basic Books, New York, 1995.
: Jadczyk, Arkadiusz, Quantum-D/ajad_10-25, Oct 1995, http://www.teleport.com/~rhett/quantum-d/ajad_10-25.html
: Klein, S.A. Is Quantum Mechanics Relevant to Understanding Consciousness? A Review of
: Shadows of the Mind by Roger Penrose, Psyche,2(3), April 1995.
: Hameroff, S.R., & Watt, R.C (1982). Information processing in microtubules. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 98.549-561.
: Penrose, R. (1994) Shadows of the Mind, New York, Oxford University Press.
: Sarfatti, Jack, 1996 "Response to Rolland Cook" Journal Of Consciousness Studies, On Line, http://www.zynet.co.uk/imprint/online/HP_sarfatti2.html
: Quantum Back Action. March 22,1996. http://www.hia.com/pcr/qmotion.html
: http:/www.hia.com/hia/Vigier/slides/Vigier.HTM
: Stapp, Henry. Physical Review A (p.18), July 15,1994