panpsychism

Posts Tagged ‘panpsychism’

Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life, Part 1: Properties of Life at the Quantum Level

Doug Marman

Abstract: The idea that the key to life might be a quantum process is not new. Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and Werner Heisenberg found signs of life at the quantum level. What they saw was useful, but not enough to solve the mystery of how life works.
Two recent interpretations of quantum mechanics add new pieces to the puzzle: Quantum states act the same as what biologists call “anticipation” when the future possibilities of superposition states influence the outcome. And quantum wave function collapse acts the same way as what biologists call “purposeful actions” when a choice is made.

This paper, the first in the series, “Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life” (ODQTL), explores in detail the above two properties that are traditionally seen by biologists as being unique to life. In fact, many surprising traits of life are present at the quantum level. The idea that quanta might be alive is explored and shown to be a valid interpretation.

A detailed theory of life is presented in Part 2 of this ODQTL series. It is published in this same issue of Integral Review (Marman, 2023b). The new theory explains how cellular life might have emerged from quantum processes. It offers a Catalyst-First Hypothesis and shows why catalysts might be the real drivers of life, not metabolism, RNA, or accidents such as lightning striking primordial soup.

The new theory that emerges from this series of papers proposes that life is not based on the right combination of ingredients; it is a mutually responsive relationship between a life form and its habitat. We cannot take this relationship apart to study how life works because taking it apart kills the process of life. Quantum theory can explain this irreducible property as an entangled state, but new interpretations of quantum mechanics are needed to show why quantum principles must also be actively involved in relationships between organisms. This insight suggests that, when trying to understand life, context is more important than content. As a result, the science of quantum biology can expand to include interactions between organisms, opening doors that take us beyond quantum mechanics and chemistry, and perhaps even beyond biology to include psychology, as Heisenberg predicted.

Tags: wave collapse., Doug Marman, quantum measurement problem, consciousness, mind-body problem, entanglement, panpsychism, quantum formalism, superpositions

Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life, Part 2: Top-Down Causation

Doug Marman

Abstract: In Part 1 of this series, “Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life” (ODQTL) (Marman, 2023a), we saw that Niels Bohr, Erwin Schrödinger, and Werner Heisenberg were some of the first to raise hopes that discoveries in quantum mechanics might solve biology’s hardest problem: explaining how life works. However, they hit a wall. In fact, they hit a similar wall when they tried to make sense of quantum mechanics. We found that two recent interpreta¬tions of quantum mechanics open some new doors to both the mystery of life and to an intuitive understanding of quantum mechanics.

Surprising signs of life at the quantum level were reviewed in Part 1, as well as unexpected signs of quantum behavior in relationships between organisms. A detailed analysis showed that quantum states display the same properties as what biologists call “anticipation” when future possibilities in superposition states influence the end results. And a quantum wave function collapse displays an act when a selection is made, showing the same properties as what biologists call “purposeful action.” We then saw how, starting with four principles, it is possible to derive all of quantum formalism. This suggests a new possibility: Sentience and relationships between sentient agents may be the true foundation of quantum mechanics. This also makes sense as a founda¬tion for biology.

This paper, Part 2 of this ODQTL series, proposes a quantum theory of life that shows how cellular life could have emerged from quantum processes. A new model for life’s origin, called the Catalyst-First Hypothesis, is offered that shows why catalysts might be the real drivers of the origins of life: because catalysts engage properties of top-down causation.

The new theory described in this series of papers suggests that life is not based on the right combination of ingredients; it is a mutually responsive relationship between a life form and its living habitat. We cannot take this relationship apart to study life because taking it apart ends the relationship. Interpretations of quantum mechanics can explain this irreducible property as entanglement. And a new interpretation explains why we should see quantum principles like entanglement in relationships between organisms. And this all leads to the complexity at the heart of life that emerges from top-down causation in nested relationships.

Tags: enzymes, origin of life, leadership, reproduction, consciousness, strong emergence, death, strong force., panpsychism, Doug Marman, Birth, catalysis, embryo development

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.

Tags: panpsychism, Marman, Conscious access, dark energy, dark matter, decoherence, quantum formalism, quantum gravity, quantum states, superpositions, entanglement, wave collapse.

No Ontological Leaps: A Primer on Scientific Materialism

Christian de Quincey

Abstract: When the issue is intelligence in nature, arguments about whether science supports neo-Darwinian theory or intelligent design miss the point. The details of evolution or the structure of the brain are irrelevant because biology and neuroscience have nothing to say about consciousness. Science informs us only about the physical world. However, consciousness/mind/intelligence is non-physical, and no amount of evolution or complexity of purely physical processes could ever produce anything non-physical. There are no ontological jumps. You don’t get something from nothing—or, more precisely, you don’t get “no-thing” from anything. How, then, do we account for the fact that consciousness exists in an otherwise physical universe? It all comes down to our basic metaphysical beliefs.

Tags: dualism, ontology, emergence, emanation, idealism, materialism, panpsychism, performative contradiction, consciousness, philosophy of mind., Christian de Quincey, interaction

Integral Review

A Transdisciplinary and Transcultural Journal For New Thought, Research, and Praxis

Posts Tagged ‘panpsychism’

Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life, Part 1: Properties of Life at the Quantum Level

Opening Doors to a Quantum Theory of Life, Part 2: Top-Down Causation

The Lenses of Perception Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics

No Ontological Leaps: A Primer on Scientific Materialism

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