The Lenses of Perception Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

Doug Marman

Abstract:A new interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM) shows that all of the baffling behavior of fundamental particles that make QM so hard to comprehend are consistent with the behavior of biological lifeforms involved in receptive-responsive relationships with one another and their environment. This raises a radical possibility that fundamental particles possess a form of sentience and this sentience enables them to form relationships that create all of the tangible matter and energy and the spatiotemporal dimensions of our universe. This paper proposes a set of underlying principles to explain how this works at the quantum level. These principles are shown to be consistent with quantum formalism. Further, this paper shows that these principles offer an intuitive explanation for why the formalism of QM takes the form that it does.

Quantum formalism tells us that quantum states cannot be measured directly in their natural “coherent” form, and that quantum states must evolve gradually and linearly until a measurement occurs. Why? And why is all matter and energy quantized into packets that behave like particles when they are measured, but act more like waves when they are not being measured? And why do entangled particles act as if they “know” and “respond” to each other’s state no matter how far apart they are?

This paper proposes that if sentience is the cause of this strange behavior, then the irrational nature of human relationships that we experience every day can offer insights that directly relate to the strange behavior of quanta. This opens the door to an intuitive understanding of QM.

This paper shows that there are three fundamental lenses of perception (sentient ways of sensing and responding) that appear to guide the behavior of all quanta and living organisms: first-person, second-person, and third-person perception. Quanta and life forms use these three lenses to form different types of relationships, and these relationships are what create the natural universe. These principles reveal an intangible aspect to sentient relationships, represented by quantum states that shape everything happening in the tangible, measurable world.

However, the main value of an interpretation of QM is its ability to offer potential solutions to existing problems in science. Two speculative proposals will be reviewed briefly. The first offers new insights into how the field of space may emerge at the quantum level. This has the potential to resolve the problems with developing a quantum theory of gravity. However, the most startling prediction of the Lenses of Perception (LoP) Interpretation is that quantum behavior must be involved whenever living creatures engage in relationships with each other and their environment. This prediction is unavoidable if the interpretation is right. It also offers a simple way to test the theory. If this interpretation is sound, it has far-reaching implications for biology, psychology, and other social sciences because it shows that quantum effects play roles in all of those fields.