Quantum theory describes the micro world (small things like atoms and photons) but some scientists have speculated it must apply to the macro world (big things from aardvarks to zebras). They ask where does the micro world end and the macro world begin, and like Fedrizzi (Professor at Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences) and Leggett (Professor of physics at the University of Illinois), want to know why particles are so weird. “It’s far more important to me to find out what’s behind all of this,” Fedrizzi says.
Nearly one hundred years after the shocking discovery of quantum theory still it just doesn’t make sense. Most scientists ‘shut up and calculate’ and don’t try to think about the deeper implications of quantum theory. The hard math has shown us how to develop computers, space travel and mobile phones, but when it comes to the meaning of the theory it’s best not to think about it because it could lead to some pretty scary and nonsensical conclusions about the nature of reality.
Welcome to the Quantum Physics Party. The wine is flowing, the conversation is clever – and nobody is mentioning the elephant sitting on the bench.
Meet the guests nobody wants to talk about Over by the Ritz crackers is a couple everyone is politely ignoring: Mr Hard Problem and Mrs Measurement Problem.:
MR HARD PROBLEM and MRS MEASUREMENT PROBLEM
Meet the guests nobody wants to talk about Over by the Ritz crackers is a couple everyone is politely ignoring: Mr Hard Problem and Mrs Measurement Problem. Mrs Measurement Problem She's the one who makes physicists uneasy. Watch a particle closely and it behaves like a tiny, definite thing, sitting in one place. Stop watching and it spreads out like a wave of possibilities, as if it hasn't made up its mind where it is. Put simply (if that's possible!): the act of measuring seems to change what's there. Somehow the observer is part of the experiment.
(Watch this short TED-Ed video explaining the Measurement Problem.)
Her partner is quieter but even harder to explain. He is consciousness itself. Science can map every neuron in your brain firing as you read this sentence. What it can't explain is why any of that should feel like something to you. Why is there an inner world at all? Most scientists either set him aside as a side-effect of the brain, or insist he's an illusion. Yet here he is, at the party, reading this page.
(Watch this video explaining the Hard Problem.)
And then there's Big Bang You'd think no scientist could ignore an elephant this size. But they do, and there's a third guest, guzzling the Pinot Noir, who goes by the name of Big Bang. His story goes like this: about 13.8 billion years ago, a singularity – a point infinitely small and infinitely dense, containing everything that would ever exist – appeared out of nothing and exploded. And in that instant, by sheer chance, all the finely tuned laws that make a universe fit for life were set.
‘What is a singularity?’
It's a remarkable story. But ask Big Bang where he came from, and he changes the subject…
BUT THERE IS A SERIOUS PROBLEM WITH THE BIG BANG THEORY!
The Big Bang theory is based upon the a priori assumption that matter is the prime substance in the universe, in other words, scientist believe that the universe and everything in it is made out of stuff!
This causes a serious problem because consciousness is not made of stuff! Scientists and some philosophers claim, therefore, that because consciousness cannot be measured with instruments, put in a jar or used as a material to make things out of, then it either cannot exist (Peter Carruthers, Distinguished University Professor of Philosophy at the University of Maryland) or it is an illusion (Daniel Dennett, Professor of Philosophy at Tufts University).
Most people would claim that consciousness feels very real to them and that they use it to measure things, put things in jars and make things!
Why don't our scientists talk about it !
As in 'The Emperor's New Clothes' fable, our scientists and philosophers all avoid the conundrum of consciousness for fear of being ostracised or appearing unfit for their positions.
When our scientists begin to acknowledge that instead of matter it is consciousness that is the fundamental energy from which both mind and matter emerge, then the way we see our life, its meaning and value, will begin to change.
Then the Big Bang, (if it ever happened) could be seen as an idea in an infinitely vast sea of consciousness that came into being and then differentiated into mind and matter!
Such a fundamental shift in our understanding will result in many cherished belief systems rendered non-viable, others will have to adapt and new ones adopted.
Most importantly, what will this mean for you and me?
It will be extraordinarily liberating for us at a personal level and also for our scientists as it will open up a whole new field of research and experiment!
John Archibald Wheeler (1911-2008); professor of physics at Princeton University; scientist-philosopher:
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"Behind it all is surely an idea so simple, so beautiful, that when we grasp it - in a decade, a century, or a millennium - we will all say to each other, how could it have been otherwise? How could we have been so stupid?"
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