Search This Blog

Friday, February 14, 2020

Conscious Free Choice and AI

The very essence of conscious free choice is first of all the freedom to choose an outcome based on feeling and not on coercion or even reason. Therefore, conscious free choice is a very good definition for conscious action because conscious free choice has a simple meaning as opposed to the many complex and contradictory meanings for consciousness. For example, there is a medical definition and all kinds of tests to affirm a conscious state having to do with the thalamus. At the root of all medical tests, though, is still the action of conscious free choice. In contrast, the term consciousness has broader psychological, philosophical, religious, mystical, and neuro-scientific meanings that seem to be beyond action. As a result, the concept consciousness is much less useful while the simplicity of conscious free choice makes it a very useful definition of conscious action.

Artificial intelligence has choice determined by algorithms and so AI choice is not free choice. Unless AI has a feeling driven by emotion, there is no possibility for conscious free choice. Conscious free choice is most apparent with the issue of free will, but there are many descriptions about the hard problem of consciousness that do not seem to involve free choice. Some people describe consciousness as self-awareness or introspection while others define consciousness with a set of questions and answers like the Turing test. Others say that how we feel about seeing the color red as qualia is consciousness and different from the fact of something that is red.


Philosophical zombies are hypothetical people without consciousness, but with otherwise normal behavior including conscious free choice. People argue that just the possibility of philosophical zombies shows consciousness as distinct from the machine of the brain. However, since people freely choose to think about philosophical zombies simply means that they are conscious. People also freely choose to think about the color red and so all of these descriptions of consciousness all are all equivalent to conscious free choice. Philosophical zombies look and act like conscious people, but have no consciousness. Since a philosophical zombie does have conscious free choice, such a zombie would then be as conscious as anyone else.

After all, people make free choices based on feeling and not really based on rational thought at all. Free choice outcomes are often then rationalized afterwards in spite of the lack of any rational precursor for free choice. Furthermore, the persuasion of another person can strongly affect a free choice. Persuasion can certainly affect how a person feels and therefore can affect a free choice, but that does not change the mysterious nature of free choice.

There are many people who claim that they somehow know the world is determinate and so that there are really no conscious free choices. They argue that the mind is a neural machine and that free choice is simply a result of the mind machine inputs and so not free at all. Even when free choice comes from feeling, determinism argues that the free choice was always a fated outcome and so that people simply have the illusion of free choice. Science very often makes the claim that free choice is an illusion of an otherwise determinate universe despite the fact that science does not have a measurement of free choice. Science admits that quantum superposition exists and limits the certainty of any measurement. Therefore, it seems especially perplexing that science makes any claims about free choice without a measurement of free choice.

A free choice outcome based on feeling does not have completely knowable precursors. In other words, we simply do not always know for certain why we feel that way that we do. In fact, we cannot predict free choice since free choice depends on feeling and we cannot always predict how we feel, either.

Artificial intelligence is often cited as a form of consciousness since AI makes choices in games like Chess or Go. However, AI is based on deep learning and so each choice of an outcome has completely knowable precursors. Moreover, neural emotion and feeling were not involved in AI choice, although one version of the deep learning process did involve competing policy and value networks. While policy played with more probability to win by as much as possible, value played with lower risk to win as simply as possible by one piece. Later versions simply played the computer against itself and so learned to choose moves from scratch over time to make better and better choices using both value and policy for both sides.

The AI computer is then all about choices with more or less risk, but not free choice since there is no neural emotion or feeling involved, just completely knowable machine logic precursors. Free choice also involves more or less risk, but with neural emotion and feeling. Feeling simply does not have completely knowable precursors, which makes free choice different from machine choice.

Now suppose the machine used quantum superposition as part of its decisions. With quantum superposition, the machine would now have free choices that would be as unpredictable as neural free choice and therefore also involve unknowable precursors. Quantum computers would then be the first true AI and should then be conscious with complex emotions and feelings. The AI emotions and feelings would then be as difficult to understand as are human or animal emotions and feelings.

Monday, January 27, 2020

McTaggart Dynamic A and Static B Times

The Scottish philosopher John McTaggart described two different theories for time. His A time was a dynamic time that flowed from past to a knife edge present into an indeterminate future. McTaggart argued that this A time could not be real since the infinity of present moments was inconsistent with any past or future moments.



McTaggart then supposed a B time that was a static instead of flowing time with a series of determinate future moments that already exist like a videotape waiting to be played. Ironically, McTaggart concluded that neither theory of time was valid and so that time was therefore not actually a part of reality. Reality was, rather, timeless and changeless despite our experience and memory of change.



Emily Thomas has recent essay in Aeon discusses McTaggart theories, but she does not really say if she agreed with McTaggart. Rather, she is more interested in McTaggart’s motivation in describing time in the ways that he did.

Of course, time has many very different definitions and many different people have struggled for a long time to define time. One of the difficulties of defining time is that a definition of time necessarily occurs in the same time that the definition tries to define. However, instead of first defining time as an independent dimension, it is important to first define the nature of physical reality. Since we do experience changes in a seemingly static world of matter, it is clear that time somehow must emerge from matter changes in physical reality. Furthermore, those matter changes are causally related to each other as precursors and outcomes and changes therefore have relationships to one another from which time then emerges.

Change seems to occur as a dynamic reality not unlike A time and this dynamic change seems to likewise occur in a backdrop of a seemingly static reality of matter, much like B time. These two realities indeed seem reminiscent of McTaggart’s time definitions and so there are actually two dimensions for matter-action time. The static reality really just represents very slow changes since the universe changes only very slowly. This very slow time is then universe time and differs from the dynamic or very fast atomic time, which changes on the order of the speed of light.

This two dimensional matter-action time means that there are two kinds of changes in physical reality and the two time dimensions emerge that are not the same. Our feeling of time then emerges from changes that we remember and so those changes do not occur in time. There are very slow changes along with very fast changes and so there are two different time dimensions that emerge from the nature of physical reality.

Light exchange is the glue that holds matter together and both space and time then emerge from that light exchange. While the speed of light does not depend on the velocity of its source, light does accelerate very slowly over the very slow universe time. Quantum gravity relativity emerges from the very slow acceleration of light, which makes gravity relativity seem determinate, while quantum charge emerges from the very fast speed of light. While the very slow acceleration of light binds neutral matter with light exchange, the very fast speed of light binds charge with light exchange.

The Scottish philosopher John McTaggart described two different theories for time. His A time was a dynamic time that flowed from past to a knife edge present into an indeterminate future. McTaggart argued that this A time could not be real since the infinity of present moments was inconsistent with the past and future moments.

Mind-Body as Idealism versus Materialism

The mind-body problem is about the limits of what we can ever subjectively know with our mind about the objective nature of our body, which includes all physical reality outside of our mind's free choice. Sometimes people use the words idealism-materialism instead of mind-body and sometimes mysticism and the soul creeps into idealism as well. The mind-body question is among the many questions that people often ask that really have no unique answers and the mind-body problem is just such a question about idealism-materialism without a single unique answer, except of course free choice.

Typically, there are two kinds of answers;  a subjective idealism and an objective materialism, and idealism can include not only mind, but mysticism and soul as well outside of the physical world. However, the same subjective mind limits both idealism and materialism since what we freely choose about any objective materials outside of our mind is necessarily limited by our subjective minds. The figure below shows the mind's retina subjectively seeing a mirror reflection of that same retina that is doing the seeing. At the same moment that we see our retina, our subjective mind sees an objective retina of the body that others can see as well. However, no one will ever see exactly the same retina since their eyes and minds all see differently.


Note that people do not seem to associate morality with either the mind or the body even though there are both objective as well as subjective moralities. Thus, the world necessarily starts off for each of us with our subjective mind and it is only the narratives and images like retinas that we share with others along with the free choices that we make that show an objective reality outside of our minds.

While materialism supposes that there is an objective world of matter, like retinas, outside of the mind, idealism supposes that there are only neural matter actions in each mind's retina seeing itself despite the fact that the mind makes free choices. Furthermore, there are other minds that share narratives about the nature of reality that include retinas and free choices. Materialism further supposes that the mind’s mental states and free choice are results of material interactions of the body and so the mind is then just a product of that objective physical reality. The definition of materialism also includes the changes due to material interaction. It is after all only with the duality of both matter and action that the universe exists and so it is important to also consider action or change as a part of any physical reality.

In contrast to objective materialism, subjective idealism is the simple assumption that the mind and free choice are actually what determines the illusion of objective materialism. Idealism supposes that the subjective free choice of the mind that sees its own retina and that free choice determines the illusion of objective matter changes as a retina. Subjective idealism further argues that objective materialism is an illusion of the mind and that the subjective actions of the mind determine the only true reality. Even though the mind and free choice are made up of the action potentials of neural matter, idealism somehow still assumes that there is no objective materialism outside of the subjective mind.

Free choice is a mystery of the mind and is how minds affect matter action and while there are many different definitions of consciousness, in contrast, free choice has a simple definition. Free choice is how we make the world more desirable given a feeling that we have about a choice. Since we only perceive the objective world of retinas with the subjective mind's retina, the mystery is whether objective materialism of retinas exists outside of subjective free choice of the mind's retina or whether subjective free choice of the mind's retina is how objective materialism of retinas seems to exist.

We use knowledge of the world of objective materialism of retinas to predict likely outcomes from precursors, like seeing a retina with a retina, but knowledge has no meaning without free choice. There is a free choice of the mind's retina to see an objective retina, but without knowledge of retinas and mirrors, the image would have no meaning. The very meaning of free choice is tied to a lifetime of knowledge and experience.

Very simple organisms have likewise very simple neural networks that nevertheless also provide free choice to those organisms. The neural networks of the hydra or nematode both freely choose outcomes that depend on precursors, but those free choice outcomes are never completely predictable or determinate from those precursors. Classically, it is the chaos of random noise that limits the precision of predictions and there is no limit to the possible precision of a prediction. However, there are quantum limits to the precise prediction of all action in the universe is subject to a well-defined and discrete quantum limit.

Objective materialism predicts most likely outcomes from matter, action, and quantum phase given a set of precursors along with some random chaos. Since we can share those predictions with others, these predictions are the objective reality of materialism despite the random chaos. However, materialism still means free choice based on a set of precursors that determine feeling and so those objective materialist choices are still part of the same subjective reality of idealism.

Subjective idealism also chooses an outcome based on a set of precursors that determine feeling and that feeling is not possible to completely know. Since we choose based on feelings and feelings are unique for each person, free choice forms a subjective reality that is unique for each person. Feeling is a neural action that derives from the action of a moment of thought, a lifetime of precursor memories, and sensations of the moment. Even though we can share measurements of matter action with others, idealism still supposes that objective reality is just an illusion of our subjective reality.

Friday, December 20, 2019

Accelerating Light

Einstein first proposed the equivalence of atom mass and energy in 1905 and by that equivalence showed that the energy of magnetism was then simply due to the kinetic energy of moving charge. This simple equivalence between energy and mass amazingly showed that while electricity came from static charge, magnetism came from moving charge and so united electricity and magnetism. The equivalence of mass and energy also led to matter warping space and time with gravity as he further showed in 1915. However, Einstein never completed the quantum gravity link between relativistic gravity and quantum charge. Relativistic paths in space time are, after all, like straight lines in just space and so gravity really does not exist in the straight paths of 4D spacetime.

Planck showed in 1899 the quantum or particle nature of light by equating light frequency to the energy of photon particles. Einstein later showed in 1905 that the equivalence of matter and energy also meant that matter was equivalent to frequency as well. The notion of matter oscillating just like light is really the basis of quantum charge and that matter frequency is equivalent to its mass.

The final assumption that resolves the quantum gravity puzzle is a similarly simple assumption as the equivalence of matter and energy. The further simple assumption of the equivalence of the simplest quantum matter particle and the energy and frequency of the universe. The assumption that the energy of the universe is equivalent to its frequency means that there is a very slow acceleration of light over cosmic time. A very slow light acceleration means also that while static matter results in simple gravity, moving matter results in a gravity vector force, which then unifies quantum gravity and charge with light acceleration. Just as moving charges couple to each other with magnetism, moving matter decays couple to each other with gravitization, which is the quantum gravity vector force of dark matter. The matter decay of stars as radiation couples them together with gravitization just as moving charges couple as magnetism.

Einstein showed that the speed of light does not depend on source velocity, but he never considered the possibility of light accelerating over time because the speed of light essentially defines the atomic time of relativistic rest mass. While the speed of light does not change with source velocity, the acceleration of light does slow with increasing source velocity. Instead of the speed of light and atomic time being constant, light accelerates very slowly over universe time and atomic time increases very slowly over a universe time. The acceleration of light means that the equivalence of matter decay and force growth is the primal axiom of all changes in the universe.

As opposed to atom time of rest mass, which is proportional to the speed of light and photon frequencies, universe cosmic time is from the universal decay frequency of quantum matter, mae/hae = 1.18e-18s-1, the aether particle mass divided by the matter-scaled Planck constant, hae = h/c2. The universe mass shell is then a wave function collapsing into our reality at that very, very slow frequency. Accelerating light and force does mean that atomic clocks also accelerate in universe cosmic time. Universe cosmic time is the universal aether decay frequency, which ticks at the very slow rate of aether decoherence and universe mass shell collapse. 

From the equivalence of mass and energy, it necessarily follows that the speed of light does not depend on source velocity. The acceleration of light through space and over universe time does mean that the same light that we see now moved more slowly in the past. Since forces were also weaker in the past, light from distant galaxies is therefore red largely because of time and not because of expanding velocity red shifts. In fact, the universe mass shell is shrinking not growing even while the matter action universe forces are growing along with the speed of light.


Light accelerates over universe cosmic time and so atomic time also accelerates over universe cosmic time and and that acceleration unifies charge and gravity into a common matter action causal set. Light acceleration is therefore completely consistent with gravity relativity since both space and atom time emerge from matter action. Gravity is an exchange of biphoton quadrupoles just like charge is an exchange of photon dipoles.

Saturday, December 7, 2019

Newton's Aether in Matter Action


Newton was the first to accurately predict gravity motions of the sun, moon, and planets and Newton’s predictions assumed space was absolute and filled with a luminiferous aether. In addition, Newton’s predictions assumed time was the independent of velocity and gravity, which of course Einstein showed is not true. Mainstream science now also rejects Newton’s notion of aether and since Einstein, science also accepts that time slows and space shrinks with increasing velocity and gravity.

Now, Newton’s aether returns in matter action but aether action does not then fill space. Rather, space and time emerge from aether action and so space and time are not axiomatic in matter action. The ancient archetypes of space and time seem so self evident and undeniable and yet space and time are really just convenient shortcuts for consciousness. Matter and action are the axioms upon which existence itself and even consciousness emerge even though it is very hard to imagine a world starting with only matter and action without the primacy of space and time...but such a world does indeed exist.

Although ancient narratives describe the world in many different contexts, ancient narratives often include notions of a smallest particle filling all of space...aether. Up until Einstein, aether was a very popular working fluid for the universe and aether filled all space as the medium for the changes of gravity and charge. Even though Newton’s gravity seemed to act through space without any aether, Newton always presumed that gravity was somehow still based on an aether filled space.

In fact, Newton’s motion of light through space depended on his luminiferous aether and so the speed of light should depend on motion through aether as well. Western alchemy filled all space with aether as the fifth element that often complemented earth, fire, water, and air. However, in the Eastern alchemy, the essence qi filled the heavens and was never an Eastern element of the five Feng Shui elements of earth, air, wood, metal, and fire. However, the Eastern qi was still the essence of heaven and so complemented the elements of the world below heaven.

Thus the archetypes of both Western aether and Eastern Qi both filled similar needs in the Western and Eastern narratives as a universal medium for microscopic action. There must be something to fill space since a truly empty void seemed incomprehensible. In order to move, there must be something to push against like walking on ground and so light’s motion must push against aether. Although mainstream science avoids the aether or Qi narratives, science narratives do now fill space with vacuum oscillators and Higgs bosons. Light, you see, moves by hopping through space by means of a large number of vacuum oscillators and so Newton’s aether has returned to science. While mainstream science well accepts the different notions of discrete vacuum oscillators and Higgs bosons, there is no corresponding notion yet like discrete aether action.

Aether action has precursors and outcomes for change and so aether action represents a causal set of precursors and outcomes without space and time. Instead of filling the universe with an infinity of vacuum oscillators as a basis for change, the universe of aether action is a finite causal set of aether actions. Instead of matter and light existing in space and time, space and time emerge from the precursors and outcomes of matter action.

Mainstream science accepts gravity relativity even though gravity relativity is not consistent with the quantum charge narrative of discrete action. This inconsistency is because gravity relativity depends on the existence of continuous space and time independent from matter and action. The matter action of gravity relativity shapes space and time while quantum matter action does not affect space and time at all. In fact, precursors and outcomes of quantum matter action do not depend on either space or time.

Thus, space and time are not consistent with any kind of unification of gravity and charge, but rather unification is only possible with the conjugate dimensions of matter and action instead of space and time. Discrete matter and action along with quantum phase then represent the changes with both gravity and charge and so quantum aether action is a narrative that does unify gravity and charge. Quantum aether action does mean that there is an important distinction between the slow changes of the universe and the very fast changes of atoms. While the very slow changes in the universe represent quantum gravity as biphoton exchange, the very fast changes of atoms represent quantum charge as single photon exchange.

In space and time, the speed of light limits the fast changes of charge action and the progressive galaxy red shifts represent the very slow changes of gravity in an expanding universe. Light is made up of particles of pure aether phase whose frequency is proportional to energy with the Planck constant and therefore proportional to matter with the speed of light squared. In addition, electrons and protons are also made up of particles of pure aether action, aether that was frozen at creation into the atoms of existing matter.

The limit of discrete matter action for fast change is an action constant, hae=h/c2, the matter scaled Planck constant along with the limit of matter as the smallest particle, mae, aether. Once again, progressive galaxy red shifts represent the very slow changes of gravity in a shrinking universe. The aether particle is that fraction of the hydrogen atom stabilization that is due to gravity and aether is slowly decaying just as hydrogen stabilization grows. Both of the matter action constants are then also space time constants, but mainstream science has a plethora of other constants as well. For example, proton and electron masses are both space time constants, but simply emerge from the discrete matter action nature of the universe collapse. The aether period, Tae=hae/mae, is 13.4 Byr and is simply the antiverse/universe pulse period and therefore also the time width of every aether particle. Thus the mass of the aether particle and the size of the universe determine the stabilization energy of the hydrogen atom.

The time width of atomic action is the period of electron spin, which emerges from the spiral collapse of aether at creation into electrons and protons. Electron and proton masses both emerged when force growth from matter collapse stabilized hydrogen at creation by freezing a very small fraction of total aether into observable matter at creation. The first light of creation continues to bathe us in the warm glow of the cosmic microwave background of deep space that completely surrounds us.

Photons are the glue that binds the universe together with matter, action, and phase. A photon is an aether time pulse with a spectrum of frequencies and phases. Each photon has a matter spectrum that comes from the action of atomic matter as an action through space and time. A photon frequency spectrum emerges from its matter spectrum along with a polarization or spin = +/-1. A single photon polarization can be linear, circular, elliptical, or anywhere in between and even unpolarized. However, an unpolarized single photon still has the property of polarization or spin as a random superposition of phases.

An electron binds with a proton to stabilize a hydrogen atom by the exchange of a binding photon and complementary emission of another photon. The electron and proton each have polarization or spin = ½ and so an electron spin can exist as +½ or -½ or anywhere in between and even unpolarized, just like a photon. In fact, the hydrogen atom has a spin = 1, but now as -1, 0, +1 and unlike a photon, has a spin = 0 state when the electron and proton spins are antiparallel.

Each hydrogen atom bonding photon has a complementary emitted photon from its CMB creation. The complementary emitted photon is what binds the hydrogen atom to the universe and represents gravity as well as the size of the universe at creation. The gravity biphoton or graviton has a spin = 2 and complementary graviton exchange is the bond of quantum gravity. Each graviton particle mass is a very small fraction, 1e-39, of the stabilization mass of hydrogen scaled with the size of the universe.

While a single photon has both matter and action spectra, a graviton exchange is always complementary. This is because a quantum graviton exchange is always a superposition of complementary action spectra from its biphoton complements that always result in a single mass and not in a mass spectrum. This means that the graviton as a biphoton exchange is not subject to the same quantum uncertainty principle as a single photon.

Thus, the matter action of quantum gravity exchange shows the symmetry of monopoles and quadrupoles instead of the asymmetry of single photon dipoles. This means that quantum gravity matter and action are antiparallel and so anticommute in contrast to quantum charge matter and action, which are orthogonal and so do not commute at all. While both space and time emerge from the action spectra of quantum charge, the null action spectra of quantum gravity are always complementary. It is ironic, then, that it is atomic quantum matter action that shapes space and time and so quantum graviton exchange simply conforms to the space and time of quantum charge.

Gravity relativity shapes space and time because increasing velocity dilates space and time. In gravity relativity, there is no absolute space and time, only relative space and time. Because light is an oscillation from which space and time emerge, the speed of light does not depend on relative velocity. However, matter and action do both increase with increasing relative velocity. So increasing velocity actually emerges from increasing matter and action. Impulse in space and time comes from the release of potential energy as kinetic energy, and so impulse emerges from the quantum matter action of potential matter becoming kinetic matter.

In matter action, Newton’s aether returns with a narrative of discrete quantum matter action for our very, very large but finite universe. Matter action shows gravity relativity as a consequence of the light emitted at creation subsequent biphoton or quantum graviton exchange. Matter action also shows quantum charge as a consequence of single photon exchange consistent with mainstream science. Since the standard model of nuclear physics is already consistent with quantum charge, matter action is now a completely consistent narrative for physical reality.

Random versus Quantum Noise


Random noise is a very important and yet unknowable part of physical reality that we usually simply take for granted. However, all random noise is actually inherently quantum and not classical at all. A classical coin toss, for example, results in a random landing of heads or tails because it is otherwise impossible to predict the outcomes of a hand-tossed coin. A hand coin toss is therefore officially accepted as random by the highest levels in sports and government...and even science. A classical coin toss will resolve a tied political election, for example, or the selection of sides in a football game and a coin toss is a measure of random noise in science. Thus, random noise is the ultimate arbiter of choice when two sides cannot otherwise agree and that includes the two halves of every brain.

However, determinist logic argues that even a random result is actually the product of a determinate big-bang creation and so there really are no truly random events in destiny, merely chaotic events. Thus the classical outcome of a coin toss is determinate and a mere function of precursors albeit subject to the random noise of classical chaos. So classical science accepts the unpredictable outcomes of random noise like a coin toss, since a large number of classical events means classical chaos determines an outcome from precursors. Classical noise, you see, is just something random and unpredictable that happens without any reason despite our classical determinate universe.

Unpredictable outcomes in the quantum universe, in contrast to classical chaos, are due to superposition and entanglement of precursor quantum phase. Thus quantum phase noise is always the actual source of even classical noise since classical chaos is simply due to a large number of similar repeated actions. While a single classical action like a single flip precursor has a very predictable outcome, a coin toss drives from highly variable neural actions of the thumb and fingers to a random outcome. Thus all random noise is inherently quantum and not classical after all...

Saturday, November 23, 2019

Classical versus Quantum Coin Toss

The outcome of a classical coin toss is a classically random outcome of heads or tails. However, it is classically possible to measure the actions of a classical coin toss to an arbitrary precision and therefore it is possible to predict a classical coin toss, despite chaos.

A quantum coin, though, has one more attribute besides heads and tails and that is quantum phase. With quantum phase, the coin can still exist as heads or tails, but the quantum coin can also exist as a superposition of both heads and tails. There is no role for quantum phase or superposition in a classical coin toss. A classical coin toss begins with either heads or tails up and then executes a number of flips according to the person or mechanism doing the flipping and then lands either heads or tails up. Classically it is then possible to precisely measure all of those classical actions and therefore to predict a classical outcome to arbitrary precision.
However, any large number of classical actions necessarily entangle some quantum actions as well. This is because the microscopic universe is quantum and uncertain, not classical. A dephased quantum coin in flight will persist in a microscopic superposition until the macroscopic coin lands as heads or tails. Unlike the precise classical measurements that can predict a classical coin toss, there are no measurements that will predict the outcome of a quantum coin toss from a superposition state better than 50%.

In fact, there is really no such thing as a classical coin toss in our quantum world. Instead, a large number of classical macroscopic actions like a flipping coin will ultimately access many microscopic quantum outcomes of quantum phase noise. The classical random noise of chaos is just a convenient macroscopic archetype for the underlying microscopic quantum phase noise of physical reality.

Note that not only the quantum coin exists as a superposition, the quantum actions of starting, flipping, and landing also exist as superpositions with quantum phase. A large number of actions like flipping or neural impulses will also entangle quantum phase noise and therefore be subject to the limits of uncertainty of quantum knowledge. The fact that we cannot therefore ever precisely know a precursor feeling or precisely predict an outcome feeling gives us the archetypes of free will and free choice...

Saturday, November 9, 2019

Classical versus Quantum Photons

Einstein was the first to explain the electric impulses of the photoelectric effect as a quantum consequence of single photons in 1905. Although Planck had some years earlier in 1900 proposed the notion of a quantum of light to explain the nature of blackbody emission, it was Einstein who first recognized the quantum nature of light photons as particles in the photoelectric effect. Light made up of finite photon particles instead of the classical determinism of infinitely divisible light waves birthed the uncertainty of discrete quantum mechanics.

Classical physics had long accepted the notion of light as an infinitely divisible wave and then quickly adapted to the semiclassical notion of light as a large number of single photons or electromagnetic pulses in time and space. However, even such a semiclassical photon of light shows the uncertainty principle and so photons are not subject to classical determinism. Rather, a single quantum photon obeys the quantum uncertainty of superposition of many paths, polarizations, and energies. Specifically, while classical determinism argues that a classical single photon particle can only be on one path at a time with well-defined polarization, frequency, and location and all simultaneously knowable to arbitrary precision.

The single quantum photon exists instead with an uncertain outcome as a superposition of paths, polarizations, and frequencies. As a result, there is a well-defined limit to the precision of any simultaneous single photon measurement of path, polarization, and frequency. Nevertheless, many of the semiclassical notions of a photon survive and result in much quantum confusion that precludes determinate outcomes.

Photon exchange is the basic quantum glue that bonds all matter together and photon exchange is what bonds both charge and gravity matter. The outcome of a photon precursor is a quantum bonding state between emitter and absorber matter. While single photon exchange bonds charge matter by exchange and complementary ephoton mission, biphoton exchange bonds gravity matter by the complementary exchange and emission of biphotons.

A photon is an electromagnetic pulse that has a spectrum of frequencies in its Fourier transform. This fundamental relation between time and frequency is the foundation of the uncertainty principle. A short pulse of light is made up of a broad frequency spectrum and a long pulse of light is made up of a correspondingly very narrow spectrum. Thus a photon is a fundamentally quantum object that can nevertheless behave like a classical particle of matter under certain conditions. A classical particle of matter has a well defined path, mass, polarization, and location and a particle of matter can behave like a photon under certain conditions as well.

A charge bond is a photon exchange with complementary emitted photons since it is necessary to lose heat to bond charges. A gravity bond is a biphoton exchange that also has a complementary emitted biphoton since it is also necessary to lose heat to bond gravity matter. As a result of quantum gravity, atomic hydrogen can exist as a cold vacuum lattice cloud. As the cloud density grows with more and more cold hydrogen, eventually molecular hydrogen forms and the lattice spacing decreases until it nucleates. At this point, there is a transition from gravity to charge dispersion and nascent stellar binary nucleates condense with orthogonal spins. One-half of the cloud lattice collapses into one spin while the other half collapses into the orthogonal spin.

Quantum gravity bonds form and emit heat in a concerted spiral of condensation in the nuclei of molecular clouds. However, quantum gravity biphotons are 1e-39 less than quantum charge photon and so represent a virtual continuum of spiral states with orthogonal spins. While one spin condenses with like spins into one spiral, the orthogonal spin condenses with complementary spins into the complementary spiral of a stellar binary. It is important that the stellar nuclei continue to lose heat as the molecular cloud collapses with radial accretion. Heat loss occurs from hot axial jets that result from the cold radial accretion until fusion eventually ignites the stellar nuclei into nascent stars.

Once again, there is really no such thing as a classical photon because a photon is a pure quantum manifestation. Complementary to an atom as a discrete quantum of matter that is a superposition of electrons and protons, a photon is a discrete electromagnetic quantum that is a superposition of frequencies, polarizations, paths, and locations. However, there are various semiclassical simplifications for a photon that people find useful in certain contexts just as there are for atoms. For example, a simplified semiclassical photon may have a single frequency even though a quantum photon is always a spectrum of frequencies and never a single frequency.

A semiclassical single photon may have a single polarization state  even though a quantum photon is always in a superposition of polarizations. A polarized photon will pass an aligned polarizer, which then reflects other polarizations. In contrast, a single quantum photon always exists in a superposition of polarization states until interacting with a polarizer to form a probabilistic polarization for each single quantum photon. Thus a single quantum photon may not have a well-defined polarization state before it interacts with the electrons of a polarizer. Note that a linear polarized single quantum photon is still a superposition of right and left circular polarizations.

A semiclassical single photon has a well-defined pulse path and location and cannot be in two places at the same time. However, a quantum single photon exists as a probabilistic superposition of all locations in the universe. At any given moment, that single quantum photon can exist as any number of paths and locations with various probabilities.

A semiclassical single photon still has a well defined frequency distribution and phase called a spectrum. A semiclassical photon spectrum exists as a Fourier transform of its time pulse and so the photon spectrum relates the time pulse and frequency. A quantum single photon is a superposition of frequencies and phases that are its spectrum and the Fourier transform relates photon pulse and spectrum. The quantum photon spectrum and pulse relationship is the quantum uncertainty principle between time and frequency.

Classically, there is no limit to the precision of simultaneous measurement of a particle momentum and location. A photon, however, has a discrete quantum limit to the precision of simultaneous measurements of both photon frequency and location. As a result, the more localized the photon, the broader the frequency spectrum becomes and eventually, the light wavelength exceeds the apparatus size. At that point, the measurement becomes meaningless.

Likewise, a semiclassical photon may have a well defined average location in time, but a quantum photon is always a distribution of locations, never a single location. A semiclassical photon may have a well-defined single path, but a quantum photon always exists on a distribution of paths, never just a single path. Moreover, matter has the complementary quantum properties of light.

Matter has a well-defined average location in time and matter is stationary while light only moves at a constant speed. Matter also oscillates complementary to light with a distribution of frequencies and also has a distribution of locations about an average location. An atom of matter has an average mass or frequency, but matter is also a distribution of masses about that average mass. While there are fundamental particles with very well-defined rest masses, quantum particles really only have inertial mass complementary to light. Rest mass just represents a particle’s interaction with other matter, which photons of course mediate.

Finally, classical matter has a well-defined average path, but quantum particles exist on a distribution of paths. However, upon interaction with other matter, any such distribution decays very quickly into the one path that we call our rest frame reality.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Classical Versus Quantum Narratives

Classical versus quantum are really two very different but still related narratives that underpin physical reality. While our macroscopic reality is very classical, our microscopic reality is quantum and so the two narratives derive from the very different natures of our macroscopic versus microscopic realities. Classically, the visual, audio, touch, taste, and odor contrasts of matter motion through space and time define our macroscopic reality, while the quantum amplitude and phase of much higher resolution spectra refine our microscopic reality.

In particular, we only sense a very low resolution and limited visible light spectrum and do not sense the phase or polarization of that light at all and there are similar low resolution spectra for all of our other senses as well. These low resolution spectra contrast with the very high resolution spectra that science records from many different devices. Science measures light, sound, impulse, chemistry, and odor not only at other vastly different wavelengths, but also at much higher resolution that also include phase as well as wavelength in its spectra. While there is a great deal of overlap between our macroscopic and microscopic narratives, there are many dramatic differences as well.

In our macroscopic reality, matter does not appear to exist in the same exact place at one time nor does the same matter appear to exist in more than one place at a time, either. Classically there are knowable precursors for every outcome in spite of the fact that we might not know those precursors because they might be hidden or otherwise obscured by noise. In other words, there is no classical limit to the precision of our knowledge of classical precursors despite the noise.

In our microscopic reality, though, matter can exist in the same exact place and time as other matter and the same matter can also exist in more than one place at a time as well. This is simply a consequence of quantum superposition and entanglement and does not violate causality. Thus there are still quantum precursors for every quantum outcome, but we may not be able to precisely know or measure those quantum precursors. Unlike the unlimited precision of classical knowledge, there is a discrete quantum limit to the precision of our knowledge of quantum precursors.

In both classical and quantum narratives, a pulse of light exists with both an average frequency as well as an instantaneous amplitude versus time and amplitude versus frequency. In addition, a pulse of light also has a single classical polarization state, but always a quantum superposition of two orthogonal polarization states. While a classical light pulse exists with a single well-defined polarization state, a quantum light pulse exists in a superposition of two orthogonal polarization states.



Therefore a single quantum photon always exists as a superposition of polarizations in contrast to a single classical photon that only exists with a well-defined single polarization. It is not possible to reconcile the notions of non oscillating classical matter with the oscillation of classical light. This represents the irreducible conundrum of classical versus quantum narratives. While a pair of correlated oscillating quantum states can represent a classical state, there is no classical representation for a single quantum state.

The quantum gravity biphoton reconciles classical determinate gravity relativity with the discrete uncertainties of quantum charge. While the photon-matter exchange of charge is necessarily quantum, biphoton-matter exchange is classical because of the entanglement and symmetry of quantum phase. Unlike the microscopic single photon exchange of charge with uncertain outcomes, the macroscopic biphoton exchange of gravity occurs with the determinate outcomes of universe change. The uncertainties of quantum gravity only show up at the scale of the universe while the uncertainties of atomic charge show up at the atomic scale.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

Fast Changes versus Slow Changes

There is a fundamental confusion between very fast changes and very slow changes in the universe. There are two very different clocks for slow versus fast changes even though mainstream science believes that there is still only one time dimension. While the universe changes only very, very slowly, atoms and molecules literally change at the speed of light and even the atoms and molecules of rest matter undergo very fast and perpetual changes. What looks like quiescent matter is actually a cauldron of seething electrons, protons, and neutrons in perpetual motion and change and yet on the scale of the cosmos, we sometimes see no change at all.

Mainstream science believes that the very slow changes in the universe are simply manifestations of the very fast atomic changes of a single time dimension. This is not correct. While atomic clocks show a very precise time for atoms and molecules, the dephasing of two atomic time clocks reveals a second time dimension of very slow universe time. Mainstream science believes the very slow changes in the universe today stem from the very fast changes of a big bang followed by another whole universe of very fast changes known as inflation. Finally, the very slow changes we see today just derive from the CMB (cosmic microwave background) creation.

However, there is no sense to what caused the big bang and there are over twenty fundamental particles and constants as well as their antimatter equivalents and those constants have existed since just after the very fast changes of the big bang and inflation. Thus, the patchwork belief of mainstream is a narrative of a very slow universe changes evolving from very fast matter action. In fact, mainstream science must believe in an origin along with a large number of particles, constants, and other leaps of faith to make sense out of the very slow changes that we see today in the universe.

Mattertime is an alternative belief that still makes sense out of the CMB creation and that there are actually two time dimensions; the very fast atom changes result in an atomic clock and the very slow universe changes of the dephasing of two atomic clocks . Mattertime is a very simple alternative belief that is also consistent with all observations and in fact, mattertime simply reinterprets many observations of matter decay and force growth that the mainstream attributes to other things or can't otherwise explain.

Mattertime expresses all change with just two quantum dimensions or conjugates of matter and action which along with quantum phase complete the trimal of quantum change.

There are just two mattertime constants and all other constants and particles emerge from just these two. Of course, the two mattertime constants, aether particle mass and action, are just simplifications of all spacetime constants and particles. All matter including even space and time and black holes emerges from the actions of aether particles and the fundamental quantum Schrödinger equation.

The Planck constant, h, is the action constant of light since it gives the energy of each photon of light from the light's oscillation frequency. Since photon exchange bonds all matter, h is  a part of all matter, not just light. Likewise, hae = h/c2 is the action constant of mattertime since it relates an equivalent mass to any action oscillation frequency. All quantum aether oscillates and the relative phases of matter's quantum oscillations are what either bonds or scatters matter with aether exchange. This means that each photon of light is actually a bound aether pair and the photon energy is equal to the strength of that bond.

The aether particle mass is the second mattertime constant and is simply the fraction of hydrogen atom action mass, hae/tB, due to gravity versus charge, forcecharge/forcegravity. The ratio of the Planck constant, hae, to Bohr hydrogen orbit period, tB, is the mass equivalent bonding energy of a hydrogen atom and so the aether particle mass is then the matter equivalent bonding energy of the universe to itself.

The incredible and complex universe emerges from the very simply building blocks of matter and action along with the quantum Schrödinger equation. The universe is really a causal set of precursors for every outcome and our own purpose and meaning emerge from that family relationship. However, since we ourselves are all causal sets embedded within the universe causal set, there are limits to what we can know about precursors of outcomes. This limitation is enshrined in something called the quantum uncertainty principle and is really a direct outcome of the nature of quantum phase.

Fundamentally, we are quantum beings with matter, action, and phase in a perpetual oscillation embedded in the quantum matter, action and phase of the universe. The fact that we cannot know our quantum phase limits how well we can know other quantum phase and that limits the precision of our knowledge of matter action. While we can predict matter action quite well, there is a fundamental mystery of matter action in which we must simply believe.

Mattertime is completely consistent with the matter-energy equivalence of gravity relativity since all energy is a form of aether in mattertime. In fact, the entire universe is made up of matter action and time and space and black holes all emerge from matter action and phase. Therefore, mattertime includes quantum gravity and gravitons become the biphotons of CMB creation. The dark biphotons of gravity waves are the glue that pulls the universe together and there is no need to invent dark matter or dark energy. The mattertime universe already makes sense as a pulse of matter and the fundamental gauge or measure of all action is the aether particle.

Tuesday, October 1, 2019

Single Photon Resonator

There are many questions about the nature of the universe that do not have precise answers, but people still ask and answer them anyway. Even very smart people ask about the location of a photon in beamsplitter device, but a single quantum photon exists in a superposition of locations with a superposition of frequencies inside any resonator. A single quantum photon is necessarily defined by both its locations and its frequency spectrum, which includes its phase or polarization. The more precisely you measure the photon location, the less precisely you can know the photon spectrum and vice versa.

A single classical photon exists as a pulse of light with both a location and a spectral superposition of frequencies and phases called a spectrum. A single quantum photon location in a beamsplitter device can be in a superposition of locations and any measurement will affect the single photon spectrum since the measurement becomes part of the device. Any simultaneous knowledge of both photon location and spectrum is necessarily limited by the uncertainty principle and the fact that it is a single photon.

Even very smart people can ask the absurd question about a quantum photon location in a beamsplitter resonator and location has no meaning since single photon has no classical meaning. A photon is a superposition of all frequencies and phases and all locations in the entire universe that happen to make up what we call a pulse of light that shows up on one path with one spectrum. This is how the universe works and yet, these same very smart people seem forever confused by the discrete nature of quantum matter and action.

Why is the universe full of things that happen? Why do things happen at all? Why do things happen to one person and not to someone else? These are questions that people ask and answer all the time, but there are no single precise answers to such questions. The things that happen to us are simply how the universe is and there is no further explanation needed, just belief in the way the universe is.

However, all things that happen are outcomes that have matter action precursors and so we can find out a lot about the matter and action that causes something to happen, but we cannot know everything. Even though there are answers to all questions about the matter and action precursors that cause something to happen within the universe, there are limits to the precision of any answer. Classically, however, there is no limit to the precision of knowledge besides the complexity of chaos. However, in quantum space and time, precise knowledge of both location and momentum is not possible. In fact, a more precise measurement of location results in more uncertainty in the spectrum of a photon. Thus, there is a discrete quantum limit to simultaneous knowledge of both the matter and action that causes something to happen.

Both double slit and beamsplitter resonators as well as any laser resonators are all examples of photon resonators and there are many ways to fabricate a single photon resonator at light wavelengths. Such a light resonator includes a source, confinement of some sort with mirrors and beamsplitters, lenses and apertures, and a detector. Depending on dephasing time and frequency of the source and detector, there are any number of semiclassical approximations or simplifications for the quantum phase superposition and entanglement that are a part of even a single photon resonator. However, since quantum superposition and entanglement of a single photon with itself has no completely classical meaning, and the many semiclassical questions will necessarily result in absurd semiclassical answers.

For example, a 1996 sciAm article reported a photon resonator that detects objects with a photon that never hits those objects. The underlying assumption is that it is only by photon absorption or emission that we detect objects, but of course this is not true. A shadow is a perfect example of detecting an object with the photons that do not hit the object instead of those that do. Since there are two or any number of paths in superposition within this single photon resonator, this resonator recorded an object shadow by blocking one path and thereby changing the photon output along the other path. Therefore, the photon that passed through the resonator recorded a change without ever hitting the object. The authors then implied that the photon was identical before and after, but that was really not true either. The photon spectrum did change and in particular, the phase and polarization of the photon changed and that recorded change showed the blockage of one path.

In other words, a single photon carries both frequency and phase information and so the photon did change even though it did not hit the inserted object. This single photon resonator is analogous to the hydrogen atom, since hydrogen is also a single photon resonator where photon exchange between the electron and proton binds the hydrogen orbits. Thus, a hydrogen atom resonator is an electron source, a proton detector, and photon confinement due to exchange. Note that a hydrogen atom is completely symmetric (actually, not quite because of spin polarization) and therefore also equivalent to a proton source and electron detector. Creation formed each hydrogen atom in the universe by emitting a photon of light complementary in frequency and phase to the photon exchange that binds hydrogen. In fact, this complementary photon pair is the biphoton that we call gravity force.
There are many semiclassical approximations for single photon resonators including the hydrogen atom and these approximations often result in semiclassical confusion. This confusion is due to the underlying quantum phase correlation, interference, and entanglement that have no classical meanings. A single photon, electron, or proton can actually interfere or entangle with itself while in relativistic gravity, there is no such self-energy of quantum phase coherence. A very common semiclassical approximation is to completely neglect of the role of quantum phase and in particular, to completely neglect the roles of source and detector phase entanglement.

Thus, just as there is no way to really explain the bonding of a hydrogen atom without quantum phase or to locate the photon being exchanged, there is likewise really no way to precisely locate a single photon in a quantum resonator, either. Hydrogen is made up of two opposite semiclassical charged particles, but what bonds the electron and proton of hydrogen is photon exchange, which makes no classical sense at all. The semiclassical observer can then imagine the photon as a free particle independent of its source and detector traveling independently in space and time. While this is often a very useful semiclassical approximation, the neglect of source and detector quantum phase entanglement can lead the observer to many absurd semiclassical conclusions.

One absurd conclusion is that a semiclassical electron falling into a proton eventually exceeds the speed of light. Another absurd conclusion is that since a semiclassical electron moves through space and time in its orbit around a proton, there is instantaneous communication across the diameter of the orbit. In fact, these same absurd semiclassical conclusions result from any single photon resonator given semiclassical approximations.

A second very common semiclassical approximation that a single photon behaves in a similar manner to a large collection of photons. However, while a large number of uncorrelated photons give a classical statistical average classical behavior, a single photon will necessarily show only a quantum outcome just as a large number of highly correlated photons become a laser. Therefore, a single photon does not have a single classical determinate outcome because even a single photon represents a quantum superposition of many possible outcomes and not just a single classical outcome like a classical cannonball.

Unlike a classical cannonball, which only has a semiclassical mass, a photon and indeed all quantum matter, even cannonballs, have both masses and a spectrum of frequencies and phases and so no two photons or particles are ever exactly alike. Even though two photons may come from the same source and end up at the same detector, they never have exactly the same spectrum. Therefore, ignoring quantum phase entanglement for any single photon resonator like a double slit or a beam splitter can lead to absurd semiclassical determinate answers instead of uncertain quantum answers.

Including quantum phase entanglement and decay in a single photon resonator resolves all of these semiclassical paradoxes with probabilistic quantum answers. Quantum nonlocality and action at a distance are both the direct outcomes of semiclassical and determinate assumptions that completely ignore quantum phase entanglement and decay. Classically, there is no limit to the precision of the simultaneous knowledge of the mass and action of a particle or body like a cannonball. However, there is a discrete quantum limit to the precision of the simultaneous knowledge of matter and action, the uncertainty principle, because quantum matter and action have quantum phase and entanglement.

A classical cannonball has a classical mass measurable to an arbitrary classical and relativistic precision as long as the cannonball is at rest. However, the electrons, protons, and neutrons of the quantum cannonball are never at rest since they are all in perpetual motion, even at absolute zero temperature. Therefore, the cannonball mass actually depends on its temperature as well as on the atmosphere it is in contact with and so on. Thus, there are a large number of semiclassical approximations that we make when we measure a classical cannonball rest mass. When we measure the quantum mass of a cannonball, its action is always a part of that quantum measurement and the relativistic rest mass is then just a semiclassical approximation that has no quantum meaning. And there is a semiclassical assumption that the universe does not change during the course of the measurement, but the universe does in fact change all the time and those changes do actually affect the measurement, if only very slightly.

Quantum phase entanglement and decay can lead to very complex analyses called two-dimensional photon spectroscopy. The more complex the photon resonator, the more complex the spectral analysis and even very smart people can end up with absurd semiclassical answers given semiclassical approximations. There are really two outcomes for source and detector phases and pure decay to heat is just one outcome while pure dephasing is a second outcome that results in no heat. Semiclassical approximations usually assume pure decay and completely neglect the pure dephasing of quantum phase, but many of the absurd semiclassical conclusions of the double slit and beamsplitter resonators result from the neglect of pure dephasing and entanglement.

Classically, atom excitation energy decays only to heat and results in a classical emission spectrum after quantum phase decay. However, it is possible for quantum phase to diffuse to other matter and couple source and detector even though the excitation energy does not decay to heat. Rather, quantum phase entanglement persists and the emission spectrum evolves and can result in photon echoes and other pure phase entanglements that have no classical meaning at all.

Thus there is no Wittgenstein sense to the many absurd questions about semiclassical single photon resonators. Single photons as well as large numbers of highly phase correlated photons in resonators have only quantum and not really classical answers. Thus, the determinism of gravity relativity is a very misleading semiclassical approximation for the biphoton phase correlation of quantum gravity. It is the biphoton phase entanglement and correlation of the emitted and exchanged photons of hydrogen and all matter in the universe that is gravity force. In other words, gravity force is due to a persistent biphoton quantum phase correlation and so gravity relativity is a very good approximation that neglects the fundamental role of phase for the biphoton of quantum gravity.

The penultimate photon resonator is a black hole where only photon phase exchange binds matter into a pure phase gravity photon resonator while the ultimate photon resonator is the universe itself. A black hole outcome represents a pure quantum phase matter action that really has no meaning in classical space and time. A black hole quantum phase or spin outcome preserves all of its precursor matter action information as both matter and pure phase and there is no meaning for black hole space and time. Our notions of space and time as well as black holes then all emerge from things that happen and really space and time and black holes do not therefore have meaning without things that happen. Space, time, and black holes all emerge from the causal set of the precursors and outcomes of discrete matter action.

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Measuring Free Will

In a recent FQXi conference, Ian Durham proposed a measure of free will as the distance, zeta, in a Mahalanobis phase space of possible outcomes from a precursor to the outcome of a free choice. His argument was then that a free choice is somehow inevitable and therefore would be a shortest zeta path in the multidimensional decision space of all possible outcomes. However, if a choice is truly inevitable based on its zeta distance, then that choice would be determinate and not free after all.

One thing is very clear...it is even more difficult to define free will than it will ever be to measure free will and so it is important to first define free will in order to ever hope to measure free will. If it is not clear exactly how we make free choices versus determinate choices in the first place, measuring free choice would then be undefined as well.

However, if there were a determinate measure of free will precursors to a choice like a scalar zeta, it is clear that that would not then be free choice since a predictable choice cannot be a free choice. There are only two ways out of the determinate conundrum of individual freedom versus social responsibility; the noise of classical chaos and noise of quantum phase. In particular, a free choice is one that we make based on gut feeling and so there may be any number of constraints on that free choice. Feelings derive from emotions and how exactly we feel about a choice can be impossible to truly know.

There are many things that we cannot ever truly know and neither the noise of classical chaos nor the noise of quantum phase have completely knowable precursors even though those precursors do exist for each in the causal universe. Unknowable precursors represent the mystery of free choice and being and feeling and are things that we must simply accept. The universe is after all just the way that it is first of all. The precursors of free choice must be unknowable since free choice represents the balance between individual freedom and social responsibility and we achieve that balance with our feelings and not by reasoning. The noise of classical chaos, Shannon noise, is what we call random action but the noise of classical chaos is actually not really random at all. In fact, classical chaos is in principle infinitely resolvable and therefore knowable with infinitely resolvable space and time. Therefore classical random noise is actually just a recognition of a practical limit of the knowable precursors precursors of random noise. However, the noise of a quantum superposition outcome has a well-defined discrete limit and yet will still not have completely knowable precursors even though quantum choices can be very likely.

While classical choices all have knowable precursors, quantum choices do not since they are superpositions of precursors and outcomes and do not have infinitely resolvable precursors. The decay of quantum phase results in a real outcome and so even a real outcome does not have any precisely knowable precursors, just more likely precursors. Quantum phase decay is a consequence of the very slow intrinsic change in the universe. Quantum outcomes do have more likely precursors and our individual freedom and social responsibility mean that we cannot know the precursors of free choice with infinitely resolvable precision even though those precursors do exist in a causal universe.

In other words, while we believe might that we are free and socially responsible, we cannot ever be completely certain about individual freedom or about social responsibility, we just have feelings about them. This means that there is a discrete quantum limit to the knowledge that we may have about our individual freedom and so there are fundamental mysteries about the universe that we must simply accept as the way that the universe is.

Thus, individual freedom exists in a balance with social responsibility as the fundamental duality of the mystery of free choice. Random choices are unpredictable just like free choices are unpredictable and so Durham argues along with many others that random choices are not free choices. Likewise, choices by instinct, Durham further argues, are also not free choices and so the classical reasoning of chaos imposes its infinitesimals and infinities upon our discrete causal quantum universe. Random action is just a convenient shortcut for the practical limit for knowledge of precursors and it is always ironic that in a causal universe things can ever happen for unknowable causes.

What classical physics really means by random is not that random things are fundamentally unknowable, but rather that random things are just practically unknowable. Classically, there is no limit to resolving uncertainty except just a practical limit since all action has infinitely divisible momentum along with infinitely divisible displacement. Thus random simply represents the practical limit to knowing the classical precursors of classical outcomes.

In fact, there is a classical practical limit to knowing Shannon noise, but that does not then mean that noise is truly random. In fact, computer algorithms simulate random noise to arbitrary precision quite well with determinate algorithms. Therefore, the universe really is not fundamentally random as Durham claims, but more like effectively random just like the determinate computer algorithms of noise are not fundamentally random. Classical Shannon noise is then what we call random but in a classical causal universe, each bit of Shannon noise does actually have knowable precursors in an infinity of divisibility.

Quantum phase noise is really very similar to classical Shannon noise, but quantum phase noise includes quantum phase and the phase decay of the universe. Quantum phase decay is the fundamental driver in the discrete causal universe and quantum phase decay is therefore not really random in the classical sense. Quantum phase noise is random in the quantum sense of superposition and correlation and the likelihood of Schumacher's qubits and von Neumann's density matrices. Unlike the unlimited divisibility and knowledge of Shannon's bits, qubits represent the discrete limit of knowledge in the quantum universe.

Free choice is of course an essential part of our nature and we have a free choice between the selfishness of individual freedom and the compassion of social responsibility. The most direct free choice is how we freely choose to act like other people and then how they freely choose to act like we act. When we agree with other people about a conscious state, our subjective feeling becomes an shared objective feeling, but even very smart people like Durham can still disagree about the natures of free choice and free will as well as individual freedom versus social responsibility.

Even more objective measures of free choice are in the resonances of neural action potentials as EEG spectra. Although EEG resonances are objective measures of the conscious state, EEG’s do not necessarily measure the quality of any conscious state...at least not with present technology. In fact, every neural action potential network, even those of a mouse or even a house fly or indeed a pond hydra, show the resonances of some kind of limited neural free choice. However, fundamental particles do not show neural resonances and therefore are not conscious. Measuring both waking and sleeping state EEG's of neural networks provides objective measures of awake conscious spectra versus the unconscious spectra of sleep as resonance frequencies and resonance widths.

The EEG spectrum delta mode is a fundamental resonance of human neural action potentials at 1.5 Hz with a full width of 1.5 Hz. The fundamental modes of free choice are the overtone alpha modes at 11 Hz = 7x delta and beta modes at 21 Hz = 14x delta and represent the human conscious state, all with similar widths. These multiples are not accidents of nature but rather are a consequence of the neural structures of the hexagonal close-packing of the eye's retina and the sound octaves of the ear's cochlea. Thus humans have many of the same neural resonances as other sentient neural action potentials.



While the peaks and overtones of each neural spectrum represents the complexity of a moment of thought, the peak widths represent the phase decay from a precursor thought to an outcome thought. Thus, an objective measure of free choice is in the state-to-state neural transition of a precursor to an outcome spectrum as thoughts. It is then the phase decay of each moment of thought from one EEG spectrum to another that is the objective measure of free choice and not really an inevitability of some sort of determinism. Human choice is due to the primitive brain's amygdala, one of many organs of the primitive brain of subconscious thought versus the cerebral brain of conscious thought, and so the phase decay of choice is somehow due to the amygdala.


A classical determinate argument supposes that a precursor spectrum completely determines an outcome spectrum, but that is clearly not the case. Rather, there are a large but finite number of possible outcome spectra that exist in superposition with a precursor spectrum. Therefore free choice is not Durham's determinate scalar zeta but rather a complex zeta that includes phase and a phase decay along with uncertainty for our quantum choices. Since it is not possible to know our own quantum phase and all possible outcomes, it is also not possible to precisely know the precursors for choices that we make even though some outcomes are more likely than others. All of the possible outcomes affect free choice just as do all of the precursors for a moment of thought.

Our morality then arises from a the decay of a superposition of the spectra of choice between the many but finite possible spectra of individual freedom and social responsibility. These spectra are all Jungian archetypes, some intrinsic and some that we learn from persuasion and imitation of others as we grow up and mature. While we can change how we feel about a choice by learning new archetypes, it is simply not possible to always know precisely why we feel the way that we do feel and that is the uncertain nature of free choice.

Saturday, August 17, 2019

Quantum Causal Asymmetry

Causal Asymmetry in a Quantum World

PHYSICAL REVIEW X 8, 031013 (2018)

Jayne Thompson, Andrew J. P. Garner, John R. Mahoney, James P. Crutchfield, Vlatko Vedral, and Mile Gu

Start excerpt...
...Consider a cannonball in free fall. To model its future trajectory classically, we need only its current position and velocity. This remains true even when we view the process in reverse time. This exemplifies causal symmetry. There is no difference in the amount of information we must track for prediction versus retrodiction.

However, this is not as obvious for more complex processes. Take a glass shattering upon impact with the floor. In one temporal direction, the future distribution of shards depends only on the glass’s current position, velocity, and orientation. In the opposite direction, we may need to track relevant information regarding each glass shard to infer the glass’s prior trajectory.
Does this require more or less information? This potential divergence is quantified in the theory of computational mechanics [6]...

[6] J. P. Crutchfield, Between Order, and Chaos , Nat. Phys. 8, 17 (2012).
End excerpt...

This paper shows a quantum causal asymmetry that does not exist classically and uses a cannonball as an example of classical time reversal symmetry of prediction and retrodiction. However, including the atmospheric friction around the cannonball trajectory results in the same classical versus quantum complexity dilemma as this actual cannonball trajectories as a painting in1628 by Diego Ufano shows.



Even the simplest actual classical cannonball trajectory involves much more classical than quantum information since the trajectory is continuous and infinitely divisible but chaotic due to atmospheric friction. However, the quantum trajectory involves discrete jumps or hops and quantum therefore ultimately limits the information needed for retrodiction. However, the price to pay for that quantum limit is in a limited uncertainty while classically, there is no limit to the uncertainty and therefore the information is unbounded.

The cannonball trajectory makes up a causal set of precursors and outcomes and are all predicated on atmospheric eddies at a higher resolution. Eventually, a discrete quantum limits the information for quantum retrodiction and so provides a kind of quantum arrow of time. Although not discussed in this paper, it is quantum phase decay that brings quantum and classical retrodiction together as one.

Saturday, August 10, 2019

Our Subconscious Free Will

It is now well established that we make decisions based on irrational subconscious feeling and not based on conscious rational reasoning. Perhaps the most compelling evidence is that of the delay between when we are conscious of a choice and when that choice shows up in the brain MRI. However, it is not then true that we do not have free will or free choice despite the fact that our subconscious and not conscious mind determines choice. Many people argue that since subconscious decisions are based on irrational feeling and not based on rational reasoning that we then do not have free choice and our choices are all somehow persuaded by a determinate universe.

However, how we feel about things and therefore how we make choices derives from a spectrum of emotions that in turn arise from a spectrum of subconscious archetypes of free choice. Free choice involves a recursion of thought, memories, and feeling and archetypes are what we believe in and expect and are what affect our emotions and therefore feelings and memories. Some of our subconscious archetypes are innate but they are by no means completely fixed and constant and constantly evolve in life. As other people and things that happen persuade us to believe differently, so our beliefs evolve as a result of the persuasion of others and how they act. Instead of directly perceiving reality, our archetypes provide a template of what we call perception and we respond to things that happen with emotions and feeling. Irrational feeling then determines how we make free choices and why we have free will.

The technical reason that we have free will is that we actually cannot always know the reasons why we make the choices that we make even though those reasons do exist. What we do is first make a choice based on our subconscious feeling and then we rationalize that choice with conscious reasoning that may or may not have had anything to do with our choice. In very technical terms, we each live in our own subjective quantum universe of matter, action, and phase and while matter action is how things change, quantum phase is also a part of how things change and we also have quantum phase that affects how we feel. In fact, the very nature of neural action potentials has to do with quantum phase so our quantum phase affects how we see matter action and then also how we perceive reality.

A large number of classical events like flips of a coin toss or neural action potentials, necessarily also entangle quantum phase noise. This is because even though a macroscopic event entangles only very small amounts of quantum phase noise, large numbers of such events by design do. While a classical event is never really random, a quantum event is truly random in the sense that quantum is not predictable with arbitrary precision.

Each moment of thought is an EEG power spectrum of neural resonances of a large number of neural actions and each free choice represents an outcome EEG spectrum. Every precursor spectrum of thought is a superposition with a large but finite number of outcome spectra and it is quantum phase decay that transitions from the precursor to outcome spectrum in what we call a free choice. Although each free choice is an outcome spectrum due to the collapse of precursor spectra superposition, it is not possible to predict the precise outcome of free choice from just the precursor spectra superposition even though it is possible to often predict the most likely choice. Therefore, there are no precisely certain outcomes given a known precursor and this is why we have free choice and free will.

Therefore it is also not possible for anyone to know all of the precursors for their free choices even though those precursors do exist in a causal discrete set universe. Our free choices are free precisely because it is not possible for anyone to actually know all of the precursors for our free choices. The very definition of free choice is that these choices are ours and ours alone and we are free to choose to bond or conflict...



The outcome of a precursor superposition is not precisely certain and neural superpositions exist for only very short times. Once we make a free choice, the outcome follows even though the precise precursor remains uncertain.
One of the most important free choices we make is the balance between the conflict of individual free choice and the bonding of compassionate social responsibility of coerced choice. We actually need free choice to survive even though it leads to conflict and we need as well as some compassion to bond with others, cooperate, mate, and have a family. Our subconscious archetypes are how we perceive the world as well as how we feel about what we perceive. Although some archetypes are innate, we learn most archetypes from the many narratives that we see, hear, and feel as well as in how we see others act, since we often then act like we see others act. This is all part of the mystery of free choice.