The Hard Problem of Materialism

THE QUANTUM REALITY PROBLEM

Physicists now possess a perfect theory of matter — quantum theory—that is correct whenever it has been tested. Quantum theory has spawned new concepts and new technology that allow us to create and measure lots of subtle phenomena that we never knew existed— “squeezed vacuum” is one of my favorites.

But in spite of quantum theory's enormous range (from quarks to quasars) and its many successful experiments, we do not yet possess a reasonable quantum reality— a simple story about how the world actually works that we can tell to our children.

Quantum mechanics represents the world as a wave (the wavefunction) before you measure it and a particle when you measure it. A measuring device is said to "collapse the wavefunction”, instantly changing big wave into tiny particle.

Two problems with this picture: physicists don’t know how to characterize the unmeasured wavefunction: is it a real physical wave or some less-real wave of possibility? This roadblock to quantum reality is called "the quantum interpretation question"

Additionally physicists do not know how to characterize a measuring device: what qualities must such a this device possess that gives it the power to turn spread-out possibility into local actuality? This quantum reaity mystery is called "the quantum measurement problem" 

Our ability to tell a simple story about how this solid material world comes into existence is severely hampered by the fact that a wave whose nature we do not completely understand is changed by a process which we also do not understand into the ordinary bits and pieces, lights, colors and shadows of the familiar material world that surrounds and composes us. 

Quantum theory was invented by Schrődinger and Heisenberg little more than 100 years ago but, a century later, the problem of quantum reality stubbornly remains unsolved. I wrote a book about it “Quantum Reality:Beyond the New Physics”. 

So because of physicists' basic ignorance about certain details concerning the powerful tool of quantum theory this world we see everywhere around us lacks a deep story. In the spirit of David Chalmers's "The Hard Problem of Consciousness" it’s about time for us all to recognize the quantum reality question for what it really is:

THE HARD PROBLEM OF MATERIALISM

Nick Herbert noticed this first, a few days after his 90th birthday. 

Ironically, the immense success of quantum theory in explaining fine details of material existence has led to its embarrassing inability to explain why there should be any material existence at all!

Nick Herbert: Abduction by Aliens

 

We come from the stars.

We have no ships.

We travel from mind to mind.

 

View video here.

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View video here.

I Want To Woo Her

1. QUANTUM TANTRA REVEALED

While working as a physics graduate student at Stanford in the early sixties  I was impressed by the boldness of the projects accomplished by my colleagues -- the construction of the giant Stanford Linear Accelerator, for instance, midwived by Wolfgang Panofsky, and the design and launching by Francis Everitt of Gravity Probe B which measured the spinning Earth's gravitomagnetic action on orbiting gyroscopes. I wondered also if Nick Herbert would be so blessed as to be involved in a physics project of comparable magnitude. And here's one hint my amusing Muse gave me as answer: Quantum Tantra.

Quantum tantra is physics-assisted deep union with nature.

The best summary of this quantum tantra notion can be found here.

 

Will the consequences of this quantum tantric way of thinking

 loom someday as impressively as CERN's Large Hadron Collider? 

 

2. QUANTUM TANTRA: FIVE OPENING MOVES

 

This original way of connecting with nature will probably involve a radical kind of RECEPTIVITY. See here for a handful of limericks faintly pointing in this direction.

 

The essence of quantum entanglement

is correlated readiness to respond.

--Henry Stapp 

 

 

3. HAPPY DOOMSDAY

All grownup galactic civilizations

enjoy a deep erotic connection with nature

while humans tinker with

a limited physics

mathematically beautiful

but suitable only for children.

Happy Doomsday celebrates the day humans finally join the Galactic Club.

 

4. NICK ABDUCTED BY ALIENS

May Earth experience This Opening soon.

 

5. ESALEN SUPER SYMPOSIUM IV

 

Esalen Meditation Hut

 A conference convened by Jeffrey Kripal, author of Mutants and Mystics, Secret Body, How to Think Impossibly and Esalen: America and the Religion of No Religion. This meeting explored super powers, past, present, future, real and imagined, a perfect venue for Nick to present his quantum tantric speculations to an audience of interested peers. Click here for super powers.

Have you got something big, hot, and alive?

Have you been luckily electrified?

Then bring it here.

It's what we live for.

We'd love to be the garden

 In which your vision blooms.

--Nick's view of Esalen

 

6. KHALIQIUM

Perhaps quantum tantra will involve the discovery or synthesis of a novel physical substance which greatly facilitates deep union with nature. Nick calls this fictiitous substance Khaliqium after the name of his Muslim alter ego Dr Jabir 'abd al-Khaliq. Khaliqium is here. 

 

Physics, not Chemistry, is the passkey to reality.

Psychedelic drugs are training wheels

for quantum tantra. 

 

 

7. OPENING NIGHT 

 

We have to remember that what we observe

is not nature herself, but nature exposed

to our method of questioning.

--Werner Heisenberg

If questions of a different kind can be asked

then Nature will respond in a new language.

--Beverly Rubik

 

The Cosmological Sweetness

Came out to greet us.

See more here.

 

8. NO MORE SAFE SCIENCE

Deep Reality is waiting for us

To ask the right question.

See more here.

9. ELEMENTS OF TANTRA

Love every one of my Elements.

See more here.

 

10. I WANT TO WOO HER

Video by Al, Nick and Grok

"Haste to the Wedding" by Nick and August

The effective Anthem of Quantum Tantra:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Four-fold Vision

William Blake (1757-1827)

 Now I a fourfold vision see

And a fourfold vision is given to me

Tis fourfold in my supreme delight

And threefold in soft Beaulah's night

And twofold always. May God us keep

From Single vision and Newton's sleep.

Jabir Courts Lady Alchemy

,

Doctor Jabir 'abd al Khaliq

 JABIR COURTS LADY ALCHEMY

I wanna own the Philosopher's Bone

As big and hard as Allah's Own

With Power, Logic, Math inside It

And me be man enoiugh to ride It

On my board that buggers imagination

I'd surf the curly Crimp of Creation

I'm strong and smart: I'm a quantum knave

But where can I go to catch Your Wave?

INTOXICANTS

August O'Connor (1951-2023)

 INTOXICANTS

Coffee

Chocolate

Cannabis.

 

All go

Better with

Your sweet kiss.

               ---August O'Connor

Meta-Doctors on Duty

Dr Jabir 'abd al-Khaliq

 META-DOCTORS ON DUTY

Doctor Jabir's the metaphysician

For those deep philosophical pains

For those troubles we've all had since Eden

For those problems burnt into our brains.

 

Who am I? And what are You?

And is One and One makes Two

A made-up noise or universal?

Is this mad drama real or dream

Or simply a rehearsal?

 

Is there a God or is She not?

Should I believe what I've been taught?

Or should I go it all alone?

Can one find wisdom on one's own?

 

Cosmetic repair 

On this kettle of flesh?

Where meat doctor staggers

Met-doctor's still fresh.

 

Is it One or is it Many?

Is it moving? Is it still?

Is it conscious? Is it sleeping?

What happens when I take this pill?

 

Some suffer from a bone-deep fear

That matter's all that matters here.

That love and hate and pretty faces

Are naught but atoms changing places.

 

For constipated ideology

Say, science as idolatry

We meta-doctors recommend

LSD enemas -- at least ten.

 

From Leningrad to Olduvai

We all suffer, we all cry:

"Doctor, doctor, will I die?

Tell me truth and do not lie,"

 

Brother, Sister, take my word

From everything I've seen and heard

While practicing philosophy

I swear upon my PhD

You'll get no truer Truth from me.

 

Don't worry, don't wonder

Don't doubt this:

Death has your number

She won't miss

So give your life one final kiss.

The surest truth in medicine

Is that we doctors never win.

 

The most powerful drug

In Jabir's Meta-kit

Is Absolute Certitude

You will be hit.

 

Life's first lesson is death

And now that you know

Will death get you down, or

Make every sense glow? 

Transubstantiation

TRANSUBSTANTIATION

Separation's fallacious:

Matter's all intertwined.

God's mingling all over

Each moment in time.

This bread is My Body;

My Blood is this wine.

My Semen's this salmon;

This beer's My Cyprine.

Big New RAW Biography

Robert Anton Wilson (1932 -- 2007)

“There is so much mystery and ambiguity about everything, maybe that’s why there’s so much in my novels.  But why else does no one give a straight answer to a child about anything? Everything was lies, hypocrisy, evasion.  I knew there was something going on they were hiding from me, and it used to scare me.  I wasn’t quite sure what it was. It might have something to do with the wolf man, or Frankenstein monster — I didn’t know what the hell it was. And I didn’t trust them at all. At one point, somewhere around 7 or 8, they admitted there was no Santa Claus, and as soon as I recovered from the shock my next thought was, ‘When are they going to admit there’s no God?’ They never did. And I went back to believing in God under the hammering and pounding of the nuns, up until I was about 13, I guess.”—Maybe Logic: The Lives and Ideas of Robert Anton Wilson (2003)

Robert Anton Wilson was a comic novelist, scholar, activist and father to four children.Together with his wife Arlen, he challenged the foolish beliefs and politics of his times with a brand of humor and skepticism all his own.

 

Recently a biography of Wilson was published: Chapel Perilous: The Life and Thought Crimes of Robert Anton Wilson by Gabriel Kennedy which I intended to review. But I found that I could do no better than this wonderful report by Gareth Branwyn in BoingBoing. Read it and admire.

Robert Anton Wilson was eminently quotable. Here are a few of my favorites.

Reality is where two rival gangs of shamans fought each other to a standstill.

You should view the world as a conspiracy run by a very closely-knit group of nearly omnipotent people, and you should think of these people as yourself and your friends.

The First Religion

THE FIRST RELIGION

 Philip Wagner, a prominent member of the Boulder Creek BistroScene, is now busy painting landscapes in Moab, Utah.