The basic questions before us here in Doha are:

1
The basic questions before us here in Doha are

• What is the fundamental nature of the world?
• and
• How Do We Fit Into It?

2

These Questions Are Important Because

• Our Basic Beliefs Shape Our Values
• Our Values Shape Our Actions
• Conflicting Basic Beliefs Generate Conflicting
  Actions!

3
My Topic Is

• What does basic physics say about the
• Nature of the World,
• and
• Our Connection To It.

4
The Preliminary Main Points.

• Contemporary basic physics is Quantum Mechanics.
• Quantum mechanics is fundamentally different from
  the classical mechanics of the seventeenth,
  eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries.
• Quantum mechanics gives answers to our questions
  that are profoundly different from those given by
  classical mechanics.

5
The Connection to the Future of Humanity

• Different answers to lead to
• different basic values!
• A shift in basic values can significantly affect
  the sort of future we will strive to create!
• A shift in science-based beliefs and values opens
  the door to significant dialogs with
  non-scientists.

6
The Classical-Physics AnswerMaterialism

• The Precepts of Nineteenth Century Classical
  Physics Say
• There exists a material universe consisting of
  tiny localized bits of matter that interact only
  with their close neighbors.
• These interactions are governed by mathematical
  laws.
• These laws entail that the material future is
  determined by the material past ALONE.

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ALONE means

• There is no reference to human thoughts, choices,
  or efforts.
• This view is called The Principle of the Causal
  Closure of the Physical
• Contrary to Intuition, but intuition is claimed
  to be overruled by science!
• Science? Ideology and Dogma
• ? Conflict with Religions

8
But Quantum Mechanics Rescinds the Dogma of the
Causal Closure of the Physical!

• Yet the ideology continues to infect the thinking
  of many scientists and philosophers!

9
Classical Precepts versus Quantum
PreceptsQuantum Uncertainty
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A Conflict Between the Empirical and Theoretical
Aspects of Scientific Practice

• Quantum uncertainties at the atomic scale
• if left unchecked, would bubble up,
  irrepressibly, to the macroscopic scale.
• But that would conflict with empirical
  observation!
• The moon would cover the whole night sky

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Mind-Matter Parallelism--gtMind-Matter
Interaction.The Quantum Process of
Measurement/ObservationCreates a Firewall That
Protects the Empirical Realm from unfettered
intrusion of quantum uncertaintiesfrom the
Theoretical Realm

• This process specifies a highly nontrivial
  interface between the empirical and the
  theoretical aspects of scientific practice!
• It specifies an intricate connection between
• Mind and Matter!

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Von Neumann/Heisenberg Theory of
Measurement/Observation

• Each experience occurs in conjunction with an
  ACTION!
• This Action Poses a Yes-or-No question!
• The answer, Yes or No, is registered in the realm
  of experience/mind.
• Heisenberg a mathematics that representsour
  knowledge

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The Action Part of the Process of
Observation/Measurement!
14
The Response Part
15
Process 1 Has No Known Sufficient Cause.

• Von Neumann calls the physical/theoretical aspect
  of the action part by the name process 1.
• It enters importantly into the physical dynamics!
• But it is not controlled or specified by any
  known rule or law A Causal Gap!
• Thus quantum mechanics does not entail the Causal
  Closure of the Physical!

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Process 3 and the entry of randomness.

• The answers to the questions posed by the process
  1 action are, according to quantum theory,
  random they conform only to statistical
  regularities!
• Dirac calls the choice of answer
• a choice on the part of nature.
• Randomness enters only into the answer
• not into the action that poses the question.

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Process1 and the Freedom of Action

• Heisenberg call the choice of action,
• a choice on the part of the observer
  constructing the measuring instruments and
  reading their recordings.
• Bohr says
• The freedom of experimentationcorresponds to
  the free choice of experimental arrangements for
  which the quantum mathematical formalism offers
  the appropriate latitude.

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The Entry of Mind?

• This choice of the action is free, in the
  specific sense that it is not specified by any
  known law
• But our choices of actions appear to be
  influenced by reasons!
• There is no logical basis for rejecting the
  possibility that mind-based reason supplies the
  missing cause.
• Indeed, allowing mind to fill this causal gap
  gives our experiential aspects a functional role
  to play in the unfolding of reality!

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The Mind-Matter Connection.

• It is these choices of actions, not controlled by
  any known physical law, statistical or otherwise,
  but seemingly influenced by value-based reasons,
  that, in conjunction with the statistical process
  3 choices of feedbacks, controls what passes
  through the firewall.
• This filtering process constitutes a highly
  nontrivial connection of mind to matter.

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Conclusion 1

• Quantum Mechanics Rescinds the Materialistic
  Conception of Human Beings
• Foisted Upon By the Failed Precepts of
• Classical Physics.

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Conclusion 2

• Quantum mechanics elevates our science-based
  image of ourselves from material automata to
  agents able to act rationally on the basis of
  values erected upon this science-based image of
  ourselves.

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Conclusion 3

• This self-image casts us as partial creators of
  an unfolding universe that is NOT controlled
  exclusively by the material aspects of reality
  alone.

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Additionally

• Quantum mechanics entails also a deep
  interconnectedness of spatially separated
• aspects of reality that is incompatible with
  the causal precepts of classical materialistic
  physics.
• The next speaker will elaborate upon this
  important point.

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Main Conclusions

• Physics has shifted from classical materialist
  physics to a quantum psycho-physics of the
  mind-matter universe.
• Fundamental questions are thus opened up that are
  not necessarily completely resolvable within
  science itself.
• That opens the door to meaningful dialogs with
  followers of other approaches.
• I will discuss tomorrow the possible impact of
  this upon the future of humanity.