Yes, that's right... The BCP Quantum Physics thread

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We are all holograms (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6fWtBq8uWKE)

Physical Matter is a Mirage (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=couVqpuX9CU)

The true substance of the universe is consciousness?!?!

I'm sure that we have dozens of Quantum physicists roaming around here on the forum... Your thoughts?

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A person says quantum physics, I hear new age.

If there's one theory that can be perverted by those dreading their finiteness, it's this one...

[amour217]

If Sean May did a Quantum Leap, he'd destroy the universe.

[TheBeagle]

Well, my background's in literature, and I've always hated the sciences and to a lesser degree math. I will say, I enjoy discussions of quantum physics though. I dont' know a damn thing about the stuff, but I enjoy some of the theories and ideas that go into it.....to my small mind, I basically classify it as "applied science fiction" in the realm of the real. Basically, whether I believe in a certain theory or not, quantum physics is entertaining to me because I approach it as a story, literature, if you will.

As to the videos, I remember reading something a couple years back that discussed this in some manner, and it makes perfect sense. Like one of the guys says early in the first video, if not for consciousness, there's just a formless void of god knows what, which is appropriate because only God would know. I definitely subscribe to this thought, as it's just simple enough for my limited brain to comprehend.....

Our consciousness' sole purpose is to create meaning on both the macro and micro scale; it creates everthing that ever is, was, will be. Name it, and it wouldn't be if not for the consciousness, because without the consciousness, it wouldn't be here...the sky, grass, stars, a bird, a rock, the self.

What would be so cool would be to somehow experience the awakening of counsciousness in the first proto-human to experience consciousness. I can only imagine the fear, the euphoria, the confusion, the sadness....all emotions that this "thing" felt.

[dnbman]

The true substance of the universe is consciousness?!?!

First, as usual, I have no idea what I'm talking about.

I think it's very reasonable to view consciousness as simply the evolved sense we have about ourselves. The reason why it should be defined as such is that it eliminates the many unknowable things we attribute to consciousness: spirituality, transcendence, life energy, chakra, etc. Instead of some awakening, we simply evolved various abilities to understand ourselves as unique individuals and make meaning of the things around us.

So, while this may be oversimplifying it, I think the true substance of the universe are the various subatomic particles and the interactions between them. The fact that particles do weird things based on our limited ability to study them does not mean we have to say that quantum physics is magic, spiritual, or anything like that.

It's great that so many people want to celebrate our connectedness and usher in an era of new understanding. However, it's simply bad science to take empirical knowledge and start attaching it haphazardly to new age principles or religion.

On a side note, here's a little experiment you can try to test the physicality of the world:

1. Give someone a baseball bat and instruct him/her to hit you with it.
2. Instead of trying to dodge or deflect the hit, try to perceive yourself out of the hit.
3. Tell us about your results!

[dnbman]

What would be so cool would be to somehow experience the awakening of counsciousness in the first proto-human to experience consciousness. I can only imagine the fear, the euphoria, the confusion, the sadness....all emotions that this "thing" felt.

But that assumes that there was a strict time when there was no consciousness and then there was a moment when there was, when i all likelihood, consciousness evolved just like our thumbs. The way it probably worked was simply developing more and more layers of complexity to very simple fight-or-flight mechanisms. I know that's not a very romantic view of the world, but I think it's much more reasonable based on all of the evidence that we have about humanity. We just have a hard time grasping such ideas because it's difficult to imagine how you get from fight-or-flight to love.