You were busy most of the day but you
earlier found these articles very interesting. - Amorella
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From today’s
Quora Digest
What
do physicists think of the idea discussed by Max Tegmark that consciousness is
another state of matter?
Jay Wacker,
physicist, phd+postdoc+faculty
5k
Views • Upvoted by Andy
Buckley, PhD in particle
physics, visiting researcher at CERN, lecturer in physics, Jared Kaplan, Professor of Physics at Johns Hopkins University, Ph.D.
from Harvard University, Frank Heile, PhD in Physics from Stanford University
Jay has 65 endorsements in Physics.
Updated Answer:
Okay,
so I took some time to read bits of the article. The article follows the
a very standard approach of taking a general and fuzzy concept like
consciousness and trying to abstract that concept into a series of technical
requirements that can be studied. He is building off of a community of
serious physicists' work. I am not well-read in this area and don't have
an opinion about the literature. The article is 32 journal pages long
with 100+ equations, most of them involving serious calculations on toy
systems.
I'll
let Max speak for himself. This is taken from the first paragraph of the
conclusions
In
this paper, we have explored two problems that are intimately related. The
first problem is that of understanding consciousness as a state of matter,
“perceptronium”. We have focused not on solving this problem, but rather on exploring
the implications of this viewpoint. Specifically, we have explored five basic
principles that may distinguish conscious matter from other physical systems:
the information, integration, independence, dynamics and utility principles.
This
seems like perfectly serious science.
If you are cynical so be it,
it's not my job to make you otherwise. But this paper was not meant for a
general audience. This is not a review paper. This is not written
in Scientific American or by journalists. This is written by a
professional scientist to other scientists.
** **
Quantum
Physics
Consciousness
as a State of Matter
Max Tegmark (MIT)
(Submitted
on 6 Jan 2014, last revised 18 Mar 2015 (this version, v3))
We examine the hypothesis that consciousness can be understood
as a state of matter, "perceptronium", with distinctive information
processing abilities. We explore five basic principles that may distinguish
conscious matter from other physical systems such as solids, liquids and gases:
the information, integration, independence, dynamics and utility principles. If
such principles can identify conscious entities, then they can help solve the
quantum factorization problem: why do conscious observers like us perceive the
particular Hilbert space factorization corresponding to classical space (rather
than Fourier space, say), and more generally, why do we perceive the world
around us as a dynamic hierarchy of objects that are strongly integrated and
relatively independent? Tensor factorization of matrices is found to play a
central role, and our technical results include a theorem about Hamiltonian
separability (defined using Hilbert-Schmidt superoperators) being maximized in
the energy eigenbasis. Our approach generalizes Giulio Tononi's integrated
information framework for neural-network-based consciousness to arbitrary
quantum systems, and we find interesting links to error-correcting codes,
condensed matter criticality, and the Quantum Darwinism program, as well as an
interesting connection between the emergence of consciousness and the emergence
of time.
Selected from http://arxivDOTorg/abs/1401.1219
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General Subjects
Brain, Mind, &
Consciousness
•
Post
by Bart
Stewart » Fri May 01,
2015 6:47 am
Floating another news tidbit to you. This one concerns an MIT
professor with a theory that consciousness is a state of matter. Just like
solid, liquid and gas, consciousness is another form of matter. He has named it
perceptronium.
Post
by Gord » Fri May 01, 2015 7:17 am
By “matter,” he doesn’t mean that somewhere in the deep recesses
of your brain is a small bundle of liquid, sloshing around and powering your
sense of self and your awareness of the world. Instead, Tegmark suggests that
consciousness arises out of a particular set of mathematical conditions, and
there are varying degrees of consciousness—just as certain conditions are
required to create varying states of vapor, water, and ice. In turn,
understanding how consciousness functions as a separate state of matter could
help us come to a more thorough understanding of why we perceive the world the
way we do....
Tegmark discusses perceptronium, defined as the most general
substance that feels subjectively self-aware. This substance should not only be
able to store and process information but in a way that forms a unified,
indivisible whole. That also requires a certain amount of independence in which
the information dynamics is determined from within rather than externally.
So if consciousness is a state of matter, he concludes, we
might be able to apply what we know about consciousness to what we actually
see:
[…] the problem is why we perceive the universe as the
semi-classical, three dimensional world that is so familiar. When we look at a
glass of iced water, we perceive the liquid and the solid ice cubes as independent
things even though they are intimately linked as part of the same system. How
does this happen? Out of all possible outcomes, why do we perceive this
solution?
In other words, quantum mechanics dictates that the world we
see is just one of an infinite number of possibilities. But why? Tegmark
doesn’t have an answer, but his ideas demonstrate that there might be a more
dynamic relationship between consciousness and other states of matter—that our
ability to perceive the world is both a means to an end and also an end (an
“object”) in itself.
I don't get it.
**
Post by gorgeous » Fri May 01, 2015 2:02 pm
see...what have I been telling you? It's called a
multi-verse...multiple dimensions...and even suggested we have multiple selves
in each or many dimensions ---fragment
personalities......----Seth-----"Your planetary systems exist at once,
simultaneously, both in time and in space. The universe that you seem to
perceive, either visually or through instruments, appears to be composed of
galaxies, stars, and planets, at various distances from you. Basically,
however, this is an illusion. Your senses and your very existence as physical
creatures program you to perceive the universe in such a way. The universe as
you know it is your interpretation of events as they intrude upon your
three-dimensional reality. The events are mental. This does not mean that you
cannot travel to other planets, for example, within that physical universe, any
more than it means that you cannot use tables to hold books, glasses, and
oranges, although the table has no solid qualities of its
own."-------------------------“Concerning matter, we have been all wrong.
What we have called matter is energy, whose vibration has been so lowered as to
be perceptible to the senses. There is no matter.”
― Albert Einstein ------------------------------------- “If you
want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency
and vibration.”
― Nikola Tesla
-------------------------------------------------"If quantum mechanics
hasn’t profoundly shocked you, you haven’t understood it yet. Everything we
call real is made of things that cannot be regarded as real.” -― Niels Bohr,
Essays 1932-1957 on Atomic Physics and Human Knowledge
------------------------------------------------------
Science
Fundamentalism...is exactly what happens when there’s a significant, perceived
ideological threat to one’s traditions and identity.
Selected
and edited from
http://www.skepticforumDOTcom/viewtopic.php?p=460087&sid=f74775eac5250491c831e06bc04b547d#p460087
** **
1826
hours. I have been begun reading The Martian by Andy Weir and am on page
75, Log Entry: Sol 69 [days]. I enjoy the everyday tone of a scientist’s words.
Wonderful. It reminds me of Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. I am
positive the Asimov and Clarke would have enjoyed the book very much. About an
hour ago I called Kim to tell her how much I am liking the book [she loaned to
me], and she responded that we could watch it this weekend as we are going up
tomorrow and will return tomorrow.
Just
received a call from Marsha – David died this morning, on his birthday. (1846)
**
Obituary
David M. Short, age 73, of Massillon, passed away peacefully
Wednesday, March 2nd at his home. David was born March 2, 1943 in Columbus,
Ohio to the late Robert and Elsie (Bennert) Short. He was raised in
Westerville, Ohio and graduated from Westerville High School in 1961. He then
attended Otterbein University and graduated from the Ohio State University
School of Dentistry. He served in the United States Air Force before moving to
Massillon in 1970 where he practiced dentistry for twenty-five years. He was a
member of Central Presbyterian Church. He loved golfing, fishing, and outdoor
activities. He treasured family vacations to Hilton Head Island. He also loved
his dogs, Pokey, Nugget, and Buddy.
David is survived by his wife of 48 years, Marcia (Everett)
Short; three children, Susanne (Bradley) Davis, Janet (Robert) Ziol, and Robert
Short; four grandsons, Thomas and David Ziol, and Julian and Quincy Davis; his
beloved sister, Charlene (Jack) Hammond; and many nieces and nephews.
The funeral service will be Saturday, March 5, 2016, at 11:00 AM
at Central Presbyterian Church. His pastor, Larry Lalama, will officiate. His
final resting place will be Foxfield Preserve Nature Cemetery at the Wilderness
Center. Friends may call Friday from 5:00 PM-8:00 PM at the Paquelet Funeral
Home in Massillon. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Central
Presbyterian Church or the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research.
Messages of support and sympathy can be sent to the family at www.paquelet.com.
- See
more at:
http://www.paquelet.com/obituary/David-M.-Short/Massillon-OH/1595356#sthash.pfotdseY.dpuf
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