[ExI] Non-locality of conscious observers implies panpsychism without omniscience

Ben Zaiboc ben at zaiboc.net
Sun Mar 29 17:12:48 UTC 2020


On 29/03/2020 17:14, Stuart LaForge asked:
> Consciousness (but not knowledge) might be non-local phenomenon. So 
> here is an interesting thought experiment:
>
> Imagine a conscious observer. Now notice that while a conscious 
> observer must have some none-zero rest mass, it is at all times at 
> rest with respect to itself by definition of its own frame of 
> reference. Consequently, its velocity and therefore momentum relative 
> to itself is zero. This means that the uncertainty in the conscious 
> observer's momentum is also zero. Since by the quantum mechanics of 
> wave functions and Heisenberg uncertainty, zero uncertainty in your 
> momentum is equivalent to infinite uncertainty in your position, the 
> conscious observer exists throughout all of space. In other words, you 
> have no clue which universe you are in BECAUSE you are in an infinite 
> number of universes BECAUSE you are a conscious observer. And as a 
> corollary no conscious observer is allowed by physics to be omniscient.
>
> Think about it as your soul passing through a slit of zero width and 
> diffracting everywhere. This idea sounds very Deepak Chopra to even to 
> me so be brutal. Tell me why it is wrong.

Easy.
Heisenberg Uncertainty only applies to subatomic particles, not 
macroscopic objects. Zero subatomic particles have been demonstrated to 
be conscious observers but billions of macroscopic objects have been 
demonstrated to be. Therefore, Heisenberg Uncertainty /almost certainly/ 
(I have to say that for legal reasons) does not apply to conscious 
observers.

Apart from that, I have difficulty with the notion above about 'souls 
passing through...'. Before that can even potentially mean anything, you 
need to define the word 'soul'.

-- 
Ben Zaiboc

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