Can Quantum Physics Explain Consciousness?
Some philosophers believe dualism is the key link in wave function collapse
Everyday philosophy now uses the phrase “hard problem” to describe the problem of explaining consciousness within a physical system so often it is part of the common language. Yet the phrase was originated relatively recently by philosopher David Chalmers who used it to point out that scientific explanations that purported to explain consciousness were only explaining the “easy” problems of physical correlates and that the “hard” problem of why there is or should be actual experience remained unexplained, even remotely.
Chalmers since then has generally favoured a dualistic view of the mind, seeking an explanation for how consciousness as a non-physical property can be integrated into a scientific field of study. One way that he, and others before him, suggests this could in theory be done is through quantum physics.
Rather like the subject/object problem in consciousness there is a dual problem in quantum physics between the Schrödinger equation in which particles can exist in superposition, and the wave function collapse in which interaction with the external world causes “collapse” into a single quantum state. This is illustrated by the famous Schrödinger’s cat thought example in which a cat…
