CONSCIOUSNESS

4. Physical and Biological Sciences 157
of nature and elementary particles now supersede the role of the creator. 2. Rene Descartes
takes into considering a second mindset, where the subject or the subjective model of thought
is fundamental. Everything else is nothing but derived from it. 3. According to a third holistic
mindset, the fundamental reality should consist of both, subject and object. Everything should
be one. Everything should be connected with everything. 4. A fourth and very modern mindset
neglects reality. We could call it instrumentalism. According to this way of thinking, our
concepts do not reflect a single reality in any one way. Our concepts have nothing to do with
reality but only with information. Buddhism refuses these four concepts of reality. Therefore
it was confronted with the reproach of nihilism. If you don?t believe in a creator, nor in the
laws of nature, nor in a permanent object, nor in an absolute subject, nor in both, nor in none
of it, in what do you believe then? What remains that you can consider a fundamental reality?
The answer is simple: it is so simple that we barely consider it being a philosophical statement:
things depend on other things. For instance: a thing is dependent on its cause. There
is no effect without a cause and no cause without an effect. There is no fire without a fuel,
no action without an actor and vice versa. Things are dependent on other things; they are not
identical with each other, nor do they break up into objective and subjective parts. This Buddhist
concept of reality is often met with disapproval and considered incomprehensible. But
there are modern modes of thought with points of contact. For instance: there is a discussion in
quantum physics about fundamental reality. The concepts of reality in Buddhism surprisingly
parallel quantum physics. More: http://ctkohl.googlepages.com P10
223 Retroactive Event Determination In Consistent Histories And Relational Quantum
Mechanics, Leading To Macroscopic Quantum Effects and Synchronicity Sky Nelson
(Santa Rosa, CA)
We suggest a pair of practical postulates which unify two current models of quantum
theory (Relational Quantum Mechanics and Consistent Histories) into a broader picture of
reality. By dropping the assumption that unobserved macroscopic events are “in a definite
state” independent of an observer, we arrive at a surprising but consistent theory of quantum
macroscopic reality (with fewer fundamental assumptions about everyday reality) that does
not contradict experiment or everyday experience. As a result, we suggest a concept termed
“retroactive event determination”, and extend it from a quantum principle (in CH) to a macroscopic
principle. The implications of this on the phenomena of synchronicity and the question
of fate versus free will are discussed. Finally, we look at how these concepts are already used
in the design of multiplayer online video games in order to create an efficient and consistent
model of “reality”. P10
224 Quantum Computing: The First 540 Million Years David Pearce
(Neuroethics Study Group, Brighton, East Sussex United Kingdom)
Is the mind/brain best modelled as a classical computer or a quantum computer? No classical
computer can solve the binding problem - the creation of a unified percept from widely
distributed neural processing of individual object characteristics. Hence even the most sophisticated
silicon robots are lame in a real-world setting. By contrast, evidence that the mind/
brain is a quantum computer lies right before one’s eyes in the form of the unity of perception
- an unfakeable signature of quantum coherence. The evolutionary success of organic
robots depends on the ability of our central nervous system to generate dynamic simulations
of fitness-relevant patterns in the environment. Unlike classical computers, organic quantum
computers can “bind” multiple features (edges, colours, motion, etc) into unitary objects and
unitary world-simulations with a “refresh rate” of many billions per second (cf. the persistence
of vision as experienced watching a movie run at 30 frames per second). These almost
real-time simulations take the guise of what we call the macroscopic world: a spectacular
egocentric simulation run by every vertebrate CNS that taps into the world’s fundamental
quantum substrate. Our highly adaptive capacity to generate data-driven unitary world-simulations
is strongly conserved across the vertebrate line and beyond - a capacity attested by the
massively parallel neural architecture of the CNS. Unitary world-simulation enables organic
robots effortlessly to solve the computational challenges of navigating a hostile environment