Transcript What Exists? - University of Virginia

What Exists?
The nature of existence
Dictionary definition
(Merriam-Webster)
• To exist: To have real being whether material
or spiritual.
• Being: The quality or state of having existence.
• Obviously, to understand existence we must
look elsewhere!
The assumption of objective reality in
physics
• Objective reality and its laws exist and are
independent of the mind.
• The aim of physics is to discover the laws of
objective reality.
• The degree of correspondence of theory with
the laws of objective reality can be
determined by objective observations and
measurements.
Physics depends on observation,
communication, verification and
agreement
• Without communication, verification and
agreement, there is no physics.
• Thus, agreement within a physics
community is necessary for physics to
“exist”.
From classical to quantum
• Until 1899, physicists widely agreed that physical
objects were separate from each other.
• In 1899, crucial experiments disproved the
validity of classical physics.
• In 1900 physicists began to develop quantum
mechanics, with major developments in the
1920s.
• Quantum mechanics brought into question the
concept of physical objects that were separate
from each other.
If not separate objects, what does
quantum mechanics describe?
• Physicists agree that quantum mechanics correctly
predicts the probability that an observation will
yield a specific result if many measurements are
made on many identical systems (e.g., the
probability that a position measurement will yield
a specific position). This is called the statistical
interpretation.
• The statistical interpretation predicts what one
might observe in many measurements…
• …but it does not describe what actually exists.
The problem of interpretation
• Currently, there is no agreement on an
ontological interpretation of quantum
theory, i.e., an interpretation in terms of
objective truth describing what is
objectively real.
• Examples of different proposed
ontological interpretations: Copenhagen;
hidden variables; many worlds; manyminds; relational; modal; transactional.
What will happen if physicists
cannot agree on an ontological
interpretation?
• They will have to consider the possibility
that there is no objective reality.
• If so, they will naturally be led to a
subjective interpretation.
There is also the problem of space
and time
• Quantum theory assumes the existence of
absolute space and time.
• However, in general relativity (gravity theory),
space and time are not absolute but depend
on each other.
• Currently, nobody knows how to reconcile
these two theories.
• In order to reconcile them, the concepts of
objective space and time might have to be
abandoned.
If the concepts of objective space and
time are abandoned….
• …the concepts of an objective reality will also
have to be abandoned…
• …and physicists will be led to the view that
phenomena occur only in the mind.
• Just as physicists now are driven to know and
understand the universal laws of objective
reality…
• …they will then be driven to know and
understand the universal laws of mind.
But, if there never has been an
objective reality…
• …then, physics always has been the study of
the mind!
• A few working physicists already recognize this
(e.g., Richard Conn Henry of Johns Hopkins
University)…
• …but the present generation of physicists will
have to die out before this new paradigm is
widely accepted.
Universal mind vs. individual mind
• Universal mind is analogous to objective
reality.
• Individual mind is analogous to the individual
physicist.
• Just as the laws of objective reality are those
that physicists agree exists, the laws of
universal mind are those that individual minds
agree exists.
• There is nothing new here--except that
separate objects have disappeared!
Consequently….
• What we normally consider to be objects,
including space-time, are nothing but
appearances in mind.
• Since the body is nothing but an appearance in
mind, mind is not confined to a body.
• Since, space-time is an appearance in mind, mind
is not located or confined in space-time. Thus,
minds are not separate.
• Even though minds are not separate, they are
different because they consist of different
appearances.
Communication and agreement
• Since minds are not separate in space-time,
appearances in different minds can be
correlated with each other.
• When appearances in specific minds are
correlated, it is called communication
between minds.
• When appearances in all minds are correlated,
it is called universal mind.
• Correlations and communication are not
objective because there is no space-time.