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"Kuttner, Fred"
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Quantum enigma
'Quantum Enigma' is a readable guide to the basics of quantum theory for those with no detailed grounding in physics.
eBook
Quantum Enigma
The most successful theory in all of science--and the basis of one third of our economy--says the strangest things about the world and about us. Can you believe that physical reality is created by our observation of it? Physicists were forced to this conclusion, the quantum enigma, by what they observed in their laboratories. Trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics and found, to their embarrassment, that their theory intimately connects consciousness with the physical world. Quantum Enigma explores what that implies and why some founders of the theory became the foremost objectors to it. Schrödinger showed that it \"absurdly\" allowed a cat to be in a \"superposition\" simultaneously dead and alive. Einstein derided the theory's \"spooky interactions.\" With Bell's Theorem, we now know Schrödinger's superpositions and Einstein's spooky interactions indeed exist. Authors Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain all of this in non-technical terms with help from some fanciful stories and bits about the theory's developers. They present the quantum mystery honestly, with an emphasis on what is and what is not speculation. Physics' encounter with consciousness is its skeleton in the closet. Because the authors open the closet and examine the skeleton, theirs is a controversial book. Quantum Enigma's description of the experimental quantum facts, and the quantum theory explaining them, is undisputed. Interpreting what it all means, however, is controversial. Every interpretation of quantum physics encounters consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum physics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing. Readers are brought to a boundary where the particular expertise of physicists is no longer a sure guide. They will find, instead, the facts and hints provided by quantum mechanics and the ability to speculate for themselves.
eBook
The Only Objective Evidence for Consciousness
We describe what seems to be the only objective evidence for the existence of consciousness as an entity beyond its neural correlates. We display this evidence, the nature of observation in quantum mechanics, with a theory-neutral version of the archetypal demonstration of quantum phenomena, the two-slit experiment. This undisputed empirical result provides objective evidence for consciousness, the straightforward alternative being the assumption of not only a completely deterministic world, but a conspiratorial one as well. The objection to this evidence for consciousness, that a not-conscious robot could be the observer, is examined.
Journal Article
Response to Vandervert's \Final Note\
Vandervert's \"Final Note\" is based on a flawed distinction between theoretical and experimental physicists. Vandervert also incorrectly characterizes Kuttner and Rosenblum as \"experimental physicists.\" Moreover, the perspective of Einstein, which Vandervert advocates, includes precisely the type of thought experiment Kuttner and Rosenblum originally displayed and that Vandervert criticized.
Journal Article
Quantum enigma : physics encounters consciousness
In trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics, the most successful theory in science and the basis of one-third of our economy. They found, to their embarrassment, that with their theory, physics encounters consciousness. Authors Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain all this in non-technical terms with help from some fanciful stories and anecdotes about the theory's developers. They present the quantum mystery honestly, emphasizing what is and what is not speculation. Quantum Enigma's description of the experimental quantum facts, and the quantum theory explaining them, is undisputed. Interpreting what it all means, however, is heatedly controversial. But every interpretation of quantum physics involves consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum mechanics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing. Readers are brought to a boundary where the particular expertise of physicists is no longer the only sure guide. They will find, instead, the facts and hints provided by quantum mechanics and the ability to speculate for themselves. In the few decades since the Bell's theorem experiments established the existence of entanglement (Einstein's \"spooky action\"), interest in the foundations, and the mysteries, of quantum mechanics has accelerated. In recent years, physicists, philosophers, computer engineers, and even biologists have expanded our realization of the significance of quantum phenomena. This second edition includes such advances. The authors have also drawn on many responses from readers and instructors to improve the clarity of the book's explanations.
eBook
A Response to Vandervert's Critique
We respond to Vandervert's (2006, this issue) critique of our paper \"The Only Objective Evidence for Consciousness\" (Kuttner and Rosenblum, 2006) by refuting each of the three points he makes. Namely: (1) he improperly faults our defining of \"consciousness\"; (2) his complaint that we do not provide \"at the outset an explanation of the philosophical-theoretical interpretation of quantum mechanics\" misses the crucial point that the evidence we present is wholly empirical; and (3) his claim that we suggest data from \"impossible experiments could be treated as non-theoretical 'facts'\" is a misreading of our paper.
Journal Article
The Observer in the Quantum Experiment
A goal of most interpretations of quantum mechanics is to avoid the apparent intrusion of the observer into the measurement process. Such intrusion is usually seen to arise because observation somehow selects a single actuality from among the many possibilities represented by the wavefunction. The issue is typically treated in terms of the mathematical formulation of the quantum theory. We attempt to address a different manifestation of the quantum measurement problem in a theory-neutral manner. With a version of the two-slit experiment, we demonstrate that an enigma arises directly from the results of experiments. Assuming that no observable physical phenomena exist beyond those predicted by the theory, we argue that no interpretation of the quantum theory can avoid a measurement problem involving the observer.
Journal Article
Response to Nauenberg's \Critique of Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness\
Nauenberg's extended critique of Quantum Enigma rests on fundamental misunderstandings.
Paper
Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics: The Connection and Analogies
Consciousness and the measurement problem of quantum mechanics have a logical connection and an historical involvement. Moreover, current issues in the two arenas have striking similarities. Whether or not consciousness warrants quantum mechanical consideration, analogies between quantum measurement and consciousness are tantalizing and suggestive. After a review of how the issue of consciousness arises in quantum mechanics (but not in classical physics), and after a brief discussion of the implications of the measurement problem for reductionism, we develop a series of analogies between consciousness and quantum mechanics. We conclude that any substantial advance in one arena would at the least offer hints for routes to take in the other.
Journal Article