BULLAKI
Quantum physics is spooky and weird and consciousness is spooky and weird so…?
This is part of a longer podcast with Michael Shermer: https://youtu.be/p8ls1oSQvc0
#bullaki #science #podcast
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SL. Quantum quackery and mysticism. Why do you think people again want to merge mysticism with quantum mechanics?
MS. Quantum physics is spooky and weird and consciousness is spooky and weird so they must be connected. How about there’s just a lot of spooky and weird things out there, doesn’t mean they’re necessarily connected. We will have an explanation for consciousness that neuroscientists are working on. There’s some interesting ideas there or maybe it’s conceptually the wrong question to ask. It may just be a brute fact of nature that consciousness exists full stop, whatever it is, who knows. But that has nothing to do with quantum physics. Quantum physics as far as I know is very very very well supported. But it’s in the realm of the subatomic, it’s not at the macro level, although there are some claims that you can get some quantum effects at the macro level. Okay then what does quantum mean, if it’s at the macro level? Anyway that’s a different story. But in terms of what you’re asking, is again as soon as there’s something super interesting and weird in the physical sciences isn’t long before people in psychology or social psychology or whatever glom onto it or particularly in ESP research looking for some causal explanation. Now the part of the problem is there’s nothing to explain, people cannot read other people’s minds, people cannot read the backs of playing cards, they cannot do any of those ESP paranormal PSI-type phenomenon that therefore needs an explanation like quantum physics, there’s nothing to explain because they can’t do it.
SL. Do you remember the documentary What the Bleep?
MS. Yeah, What the Bleep Do We Know!? Yeah, of course, I saw it, we reviewed that and I wrote about it. Yeah it’s the same thing. There’s nothing to explain beyond statistical chance and randomness and coincidence and so on that are alleged to be mysteries that need some kind of spooky explanation, no explanation is needed because there’s nothing that needs explaining.
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