Rescuing the Self Chris Isham Theoretical Physics Group Blackett Laboratory Imperial College, London c.isham@imperial.ac.uk June 21, 2013 1 / 16
Prologue Hazel &I have debated free will for many years I have a somewhat different theoretical view. However, we both have the same moral code! Caution: Hazel s talk is based on hard experiential data (clinical experience) and experimental data (neuropsychology). However, my talk is (a) shorter, and (b) mainly speculation on what theoretical developments might be possible in the future. Therefore, I could be wrong! 2 / 16
Google knows everything Free Will: A capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from various alternatives. A rational agent is a conscious agent, so the whole problem of the consciousness arises. This inevitably leads to the mind-body problem. 3 / 16
Google knows everything Free Will: A capacity of rational agents to choose a course of action from various alternatives. A rational agent is a conscious agent, so the whole problem of the consciousness arises. This inevitably leads to the mind-body problem. No one disputes that we experience the world as if we have free will, but how free is free? What is the I that decides to do something? How does that I interact with the physical world? 3 / 16
1. Similarity of How do I interact with the world? with How does God interact with the world? 4 / 16
1. Similarity of How do I interact with the world? with How does God interact with the world? 2. I am biased by my deep interest in C.G. Jung and his notion of the collective unconscious, especially ideas of synchronicity (space & time) unus mundus and psychoid (matter). 4 / 16
What can a physicist say that is of interest and relevant? Physical world brain consciousness free will physics neuropsychology psychology 5 / 16
What can a physicist say that is of interest and relevant? Physical world brain consciousness free will physics neuropsychology psychology 1. A very material reductionist view of the human psyche. 5 / 16
What can a physicist say that is of interest and relevant? Physical world brain consciousness free will physics neuropsychology psychology 1. A very material reductionist view of the human psyche. 2. Note that (i) thermodynamics, and (ii) quantum theory, both lead to probabilistic evolution of any physical system 5 / 16
What can a physicist say that is of interest and relevant? Physical world brain consciousness free will physics neuropsychology psychology 1. A very material reductionist view of the human psyche. 2. Note that (i) thermodynamics, and (ii) quantum theory, both lead to probabilistic evolution of any physical system 3. The brain is warm and made of atoms. It does not behave deterministically at a fundamental level. (e.g., EEG traces) Does this matter? Not necessarily! Note analogous situation for a digital computer! 5 / 16
There is no knock-down argument from physics that either supports or falsifies the concept of free-will. Physics is neutral on the matter. At this level of discourse it is not the appropriate language in which to conduct the debate. But, the revolution in physics last century was profound and suggests many new ways of thinking about reality, and these could carry across. 6 / 16
Quantum Physics and the Brain How relevant is detailed atomic physics of the brain? 7 / 16
Quantum Physics and the Brain How relevant is detailed atomic physics of the brain? 1. Quantum theory: reification (popular 50+ years ago). 7 / 16
Quantum Physics and the Brain How relevant is detailed atomic physics of the brain? 1. Quantum theory: reification (popular 50+ years ago). 2. Global aspects of consciousness: analogue of Bose-Einstein states? (Fröhlich) 7 / 16
Quantum Physics and the Brain How relevant is detailed atomic physics of the brain? 1. Quantum theory: reification (popular 50+ years ago). 2. Global aspects of consciousness: analogue of Bose-Einstein states? (Fröhlich) 3. Penrose & Hameroff: microtubules. 7 / 16
Quantum Physics and the Brain How relevant is detailed atomic physics of the brain? 1. Quantum theory: reification (popular 50+ years ago). 2. Global aspects of consciousness: analogue of Bose-Einstein states? (Fröhlich) 3. Penrose & Hameroff: microtubules. All rather speculative, but there are some spooky similarities between some of the central problems in consciousness studies and the central problems in quantum theory, especially reification. 7 / 16
Free Will and Time? St Augustine on time What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know. 8 / 16
Free Will and Time? St Augustine on time What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know. Chris Isham on free will What then is free will? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know. 8 / 16
Free Will and Time? St Augustine on time What then is time? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know. Chris Isham on free will What then is free will? If no one asks me, I know what it is. If I wish to explain it to him who asks, I do not know. N.B. It is not a coincidence that free-will and time get mentioned in same breath. The importance of the arrow of time Backwards causality in quantum theory! 8 / 16
Rescuing the Self Modern science/thought has lurched too far towards the physical? Should there be a mental and/or spiritual pole? This seems a natural arena in which to employ the metaphysical position of dual-aspect monism. A monistic theory that holds that mind and body are not distinct substances but merely different aspects of a single substance. (e.g., Spinoza, Whitehead, Teilhard de Chardin, Carl Jung) 9 / 16
Jung s Remarks Psyche touches matter at some point, and that matter has a psychic aspect Sooner or later nuclear physics and the psychology of the unconscious will grow closer together as both of them, independently of one another and from opposite directions, push forward into transcendental territory, the one with the concept of the atom, the other with that of the archetype. 10 / 16
Questions Role for the unconscious? Jung: the relative nature of space and time in the unconscious. E.g., the arrow(s) of time; synchronicity. 11 / 16
Questions Role for the unconscious? Jung: the relative nature of space and time in the unconscious. E.g., the arrow(s) of time; synchronicity. Triple-aspect monism? (Body, mind and soul) 11 / 16
Questions Role for the unconscious? Jung: the relative nature of space and time in the unconscious. E.g., the arrow(s) of time; synchronicity. Triple-aspect monism? (Body, mind and soul) An important analogue from quantum theory: Instrumentally speaking, not all physical quantities can be measured simultaneously. However, there are many subsets that can be measured at once. This is the concept of complementarity. 11 / 16
Questions Role for the unconscious? Jung: the relative nature of space and time in the unconscious. E.g., the arrow(s) of time; synchronicity. Triple-aspect monism? (Body, mind and soul) An important analogue from quantum theory: Instrumentally speaking, not all physical quantities can be measured simultaneously. However, there are many subsets that can be measured at once. This is the concept of complementarity. From a realist perspective, quantum reality is contextual: only consistent subsets can be deemed to exist in normal sense. Note that this leads to a multiple-aspect monism! 11 / 16
Just a little bit speculative:-) An analogue of the Higgs Boson for mind/spirituality?!!! 12 / 16
Just a little bit speculative:-) An analogue of the Higgs Boson for mind/spirituality?!!! The Hazelon 12 / 16
Unused: In Classical Physics 1. In classical physics, the way things are at a given moment in time is represented by a state. The collection of all states is a mathematical space called the state space, S. 13 / 16
Unused: In Classical Physics 1. In classical physics, the way things are at a given moment in time is represented by a state. The collection of all states is a mathematical space called the state space, S. 2. The state evolves in time according to some deterministic equation. 13 / 16
Unused: In Classical Physics 1. In classical physics, the way things are at a given moment in time is represented by a state. The collection of all states is a mathematical space called the state space, S. 2. The state evolves in time according to some deterministic equation. 3. Uncertainty in initial state leads to a tube. How stable is the evolution? 13 / 16
Cautionary Remarks What appears to us as reality is carefully processed images. Carl Jung Where science has progressed the farthest, the mind has but regained from nature that which the mind has put into nature. We have found a strange foot-print on the shores of the unknown. We have devised profound theories, one after another, to account for its origin. At last, we have succeeded in reconstructing the creature that made the foot-print. And Lo! it is our own. Sir Arthur Eddington 14 / 16
The View of Kant Consequent upon Kant s doctrine of the ideality of space and time, we understand that the Ding-an-sich, in other words the only reality in all phenomena, being free from these two forms of the intellectual categories, knows nothing of the distinction between near and far, between present, past and future. Schopenhauer 15 / 16
The View of Kant/Jung Time and space are forms of perception, and causality is a form of thought. These three are a priori categories, i.e., they are judgements prior to experience. 16 / 16
The View of Kant/Jung Time and space are forms of perception, and causality is a form of thought. These three are a priori categories, i.e., they are judgements prior to experience. The mind cannot function without them, for there is no such thing as a mental image that does not unfold within the structure of time and space, and there is no such thing as a thought process whose innermost nature is not causality. 16 / 16