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                Subject:   AH+: Sarfatti on Einstein                 Date: 02/12/97

'The Universe's Architecture is Conscious'

Jack Sarfatti wrote:
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>There is a solid argument by Stapp that consciousness is not possible in classical physics except as an ad-hoc postulate.
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>There is a long history of connecting quantum phenomena with mind starting with Bohr himself and with Sir James Jeans who called the quantum wave function "mind stuff". Bohm has very convincing arguments, some of which I have quoted in this thread on "active information".
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>Bohm clearly shows that nonlocality plus the form-dependence/intensity-independence are disiderata for any theory of mind. Operating from the premise of "more with less", it is clear that one should attempt a theory in which the quantum properties of matter are thoughtlike in a fundamental sense. I use "fundamental" the way Chalmers does. In this, Stapp, Pen, Herbert, Wolf, Josephson, myself and others are all in qualitative agreement.
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>Mind is right there. There is plenty of room for mind as a fundamental physical phenomena "at the bottom". But, conscious mind is not possible in the world of classical necessity or in the world of quantum chance.  It requires the post-quantum back-action on the edge between chance and necessity (in Monod's sense).
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[JNR]  There is an equally compelling *interpretation* of existence and consciousness - one being that proposed by the Integrity Paradigm - which says that field gradients *are* innate samples of qualia. That would include any and all of the
*fundamental* forces.

It becomes a very easy step then to realize that the important aspect of physical structures - micro-tubules, neural retes, et al - are not "what" they are, or "how" they are connected and inter-related, but the various gradient fields they present and interact via, with all other gradient fields in their environment. A percentage of the field structure is used to maintain-form; a percentage is open to adapt to, or cause the adaptation of, other molecule's gradient fields.

This is already being explored using VR interaction techniques. Pharmaceutical companies are using ElectroMagnetic models of compounds and having VR-gloved researchers sit at consoles "physically manipulating" the fit of molecules together. Through transduction techniques, researchers are "directly" interacting with the qualia of molecules.

As many of us are standing up to counter the unneccesary introduction of "new" physics ... all we need is a better interpretation of the physics we have at hand.