Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Before reading this book my thinking on the interaction of quantum mechanics and consciousness was: 1. Quantum mechanics states that "nothing exists until it is measured." 2. An object can't be measured unless there is a conscious mind to measure it. 3. Therefore Quantum Mechanics implies that consciousness (God) created the universe. This book was important to me because it broadened my understanding of the "enigma" that I have thought about for much of my life --- did consciousness create the universe or did the universe create consciousness? It is miraculous that this book was ever written. Scientists, at least in their public lives, must rigorously separate their work from their philosophy or theology. It is career suicide for a scientist to even speculate on the idea of consciousness creating the universe. The authors have engaged in exactly that kind of speculation. They have trespassed into the forbidden encounter of consciousness with the universe. The starting point is that even the most agnostic of physicists have pointed out how amazing it is that the universe, from its largest macrostructures to its tiniest subatomic particles, conforms to precise mathematical formulas conceived by the human brain. Why IS the universe so orderly when odds are it should have been disorderly? Was the universe conceived by the "Old One" (Einstein's reference to a Divine Creator)? Did the universe imbed itself in the creation of consciousness, or did consciousness imbed itself in the creation of the universe? Does OUR IMAGINING the past, present, and future bring it into being for our micro-universe of personal experience? The ENIGMA of Quantum Mechanics is whether reality creates consciousness or whether consciousness creates reality. That is because the heart of Q.M. is that an object does not come into existence until it is observed and measured. This is not only a weird idea, but a revolting one. Albert Einstein never reconciled himself to it. He famously said, "I like to believe the moon is there even when I'm not looking at it." Einstein dedicated the later years of his life to refuting Q.M, debating furiously with the likes of Niels Bohr. He always came up short. The authors make clear that despite its counterintuitive weirdness that: ============ Quantum mechanics is stunningly successful. Not a single prediction of the theory has ever been wrong. One-third of our economy depends on products based on it. However, quantum mechanics also displays an enigma. It tells us that physical reality is created by observation, and it has "spooky actions" instantaneously influencing events far from each other-without any physical force involved. Seen from a human perspective, quantum mechanics has physics encountering consciousness. ============ To comprehend this enigma you'll need to be intimately familiar with the thought experiment of Schrodinger's Cat, understanding why the imaginary cat goes from an undetermined state to life or death the instant it is observed, and why the transition to a state of life or death appears to create a history of causality. Observation appears to define the life or death event. Causality is then created backward from the point of observation. Of course the "cat" is a proxy for all phenomena in the universe. It illustrates that at a macro-level cause appears to create effect whereas the quantum reality is that observation creates effect and effect creates cause. The essential insight of the book is whether the observation that materializes objects into reality has to be made by a CONSCIOUS entity. Does a distant star come into being when a scientist looks at it through a telescope, or does it come into being because its light impacts the telescope, even if no conscious mind is there to observe it? The book answers the question this way: =========== Entanglement with the world constitutes observation, and the atom collapses into one box or the other as soon as its wave-function enters the box pair and encounters the Geiger counter. After that, the cat is either dead or alive. Period! ============ I interpret that to mean that "big" objects at the visible level come into existence because their macro-effects such as emission of light and gravitational attraction make them "observable" to inanimate objects in their environment. Thus, the moon WAS "there" even when Albert wasn't looking at it. But at the subatomic level particles ARE too small to influence their environment and therefore they DON'T exist in any definite state of being UNTIL some conscious entity uses an instrument to measure them. Thus, the book proves, at least to my satisfaction, that there is no way of knowing whether consciousness created the universe or whether the universe created consciousness. Faith remains faith and science remains science. Both have survived their forbidden encounter and come away unscathed. However, this is just my interpretation. The authors explain that there are currently 10 interpretations of Quantum Mechanics that attempt to correlate consciousness to the physical realities of the universe. They are: 1. Copenhagen (named for Niels Bohr and other physicists at the University of Copenhagen) is the "orthodox" view that observation creates microscopic reality 2. Extreme Copenhagen - the view that consciousness creates ALL reality, macro and micro 3. Decoherence - an extension of Copenhagen dealing with the interaction of micro particles with the macro world. 4. Many Worlds - Each quantum possibility creates a separate universe 5. Transactional - an observation in the present instant creates the entire reality chain from the beginning of the event to its present observation. 6. Bohm (named for David Bohm) - Quantum events are not random but are cause by a hidden "quantum force" 7. Ithaca (named for the physicists working at Cornell University) - the uncertainty is in the observation, not the state of the particle that is being observed. 8. Quantum information 9. Quantum logic 10. GRW (Ghirardi, Rimini, and Weber) - objects are brought into reality by the RANDOM collapse of their waveforms (having nothing to do with observation). When one atom in an object materializes, it interacts such that all other atoms in the object materialize. That is why macro objects ALWAYS exist, but micro particles exist only when observed. Each individual atom might take a billion years to randomly materialize from its waveform, but large objects consist of quadrillions of atoms, so they materialize immediately. Thus, there is a sense of COMPLETENESS about this book in that it has discussed in some detail these ten interpretations covering the spectrum of current knowledge of Quantum Theory. IMO this book is not only intensely profound but outstandingly comprehensible and enjoyable for lay readers. It is one of the most meaningfully illustrated books I've ever read. It is lacking nothing in its explanation of the fundamental Q.M. concepts that govern the universe. Just make sure you have made a casual acquaintance with Schrodinger's feline of indeterminate life before you start reading!