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Brayan Lopez
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“In 1967, the second resolution to the cat problem was formulated by Nobel laureate Eugene Wigner, whose work was pivotal in laying the foundation of quantum mechanics and also building the atomic bomb. He said that only a conscious person can make an observation that collapses the wave function. But who is to say that this person exists? You cannot separate the observer from the observed, so maybe this person is also dead and alive. In other words, there has to be a new wave function that includes both the cat and the observer. To make sure that the observer is alive, you need a second observer to watch the first observer. This second observer is called “Wigner’s friend,” and is necessary to watch the first observer so that all waves collapse. But how do we know that the second observer is alive? The second observer has to be included in a still-larger wave function to make sure he is alive, but this can be continued indefinitely. Since you need an infinite number of “friends” to collapse the previous wave function to make sure they are alive, you need some form of “cosmic consciousness,” or God. Wigner concluded: “It was not possible to formulate the laws (of quantum theory) in a fully consistent way without reference to consciousness.” Toward the end of his life, he even became interested in the Vedanta philosophy of Hinduism. In this approach, God or some eternal consciousness watches over all of us, collapsing our wave functions so that we can say we are alive. This interpretation yields the same physical results as the Copenhagen interpretation, so this theory cannot be disproven. But the implication is that consciousness is the fundamental entity in the universe, more fundamental than atoms. The material world may come and go, but consciousness remains as the defining element, which means that consciousness, in some sense, creates reality. The very existence of the atoms we see around us is based on our ability to see and touch them.”
― The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest To Understand, Enhance and Empower the Mind
― The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest To Understand, Enhance and Empower the Mind
“Sometimes you have to trust people enough to let them succeed and love them enough to let them fail.”
― Earth Awakens
― Earth Awakens
“intelligence seems to be correlated with the complexity with which we can simulate future events,”
― The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind
― The Future of the Mind: The Scientific Quest to Understand, Enhance, and Empower the Mind
“We don’t love each other; we love the idea we have of each other. Very few humans understand this or can bear to contemplate it. They have blind faith in their own powers of creation. All love, ultimately, is self-love.”
― The Silkworm
― The Silkworm
“The whole world's writing novels, but nobody's reading them.”
― The Silkworm
― The Silkworm
Brayan’s 2025 Year in Books
Take a look at Brayan’s Year in Books, including some fun facts about their reading.
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