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What Exists? The nature of existence

What Exists? The nature of existence. Dictionary definition (Merriam-Webster). To exist: To have real being whether material or spiritual. Being: The quality or state of having existence. Obviously, to understand existence we must look elsewhere!.

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What Exists? The nature of existence

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  1. What Exists?The nature of existence

  2. Dictionary definition(Merriam-Webster) • To exist: To have real being whether material or spiritual. • Being: The quality or state of having existence. • Obviously, to understand existence we must look elsewhere!

  3. The assumption of objective reality in physics • Objective reality and its laws exist and are independent of the mind. • The aim of physics is to discover the laws of objective reality. • The degree of correspondence of theory with the laws of objective reality can be determined by objective observations and measurements.

  4. Physics depends on observation, communication, verification and agreement • Without communication, verification and agreement, there is no physics. • Thus, agreement within a physics community is necessary for physics to “exist”.

  5. From classical to quantum • Until 1899, physicists widely agreed that physical objects were separate from each other. • In 1899, crucial experiments disproved the validity of classical physics. • In 1900 physicists began to develop quantum mechanics, with major developments in the 1920s. • Quantum mechanics brought into question the concept of physical objects that were separate from each other.

  6. If not separate objects, what does quantum mechanics describe? • Physicists agree that quantum mechanics correctly predicts the probability that an observation will yield a specific result if many measurements are made on many identical systems (e.g., the probability that a position measurement will yield a specific position). This is called the statistical interpretation. • The statistical interpretation predicts what one might observe in many measurements… • …but it does not describe what actually exists.

  7. The problem of interpretation • Currently, there is no agreement on an ontological interpretation of quantum theory, i.e., an interpretation in terms of objective truth describing what is objectively real. • Examples of different proposed ontological interpretations: Copenhagen; hidden variables; many worlds; many-minds; relational; modal; transactional.

  8. What will happen if physicists cannot agree on an ontological interpretation? • They will have to consider the possibility that there is no objective reality. • If so, they will naturally be led to a subjective interpretation.

  9. There is also the problem of space and time • Quantum theory assumes the existence of absolute space and time. • However, in general relativity (gravity theory), space and time are not absolute but depend on each other. • Currently, nobody knows how to reconcile these two theories. • In order to reconcile them, the concepts of objective space and time might have to be abandoned.

  10. If the concepts of objective space and time are abandoned…. • …the concept of an objective reality will also have to be abandoned… • …and physicists will be led to the view that phenomena occur only in the mind. • Just as physicists now are driven to know and understand the universal laws of objective reality… • …they will then be driven to know and understand the universal laws of mind.

  11. But, if there never has been an objective reality… • …then, physics always has been the study of the mind! • A few working physicists already recognize this (e.g., Richard Conn Henry of Johns Hopkins University)… • …but the present generation of physicists will have to die out before this new paradigm is widely accepted.

  12. Universal mindvs. individual mind • Universal mind is analogous to objective reality. • Individual mind is analogous to the individual physicist. • Just as the laws of objective reality are those that physicists agree exists, the laws of universal mind are those that individual minds agree exists. • There is nothing new here--except that separate objects have disappeared!

  13. Consequently…. • What we normally consider to be objects, including space-time, are nothing but appearances in mind. • Since the body is nothing but an appearance in mind, mind is not confined to a body. • Since, space-time is an appearance in mind, mind is not located or confined in space-time. Thus, minds are not separate. • Even though minds are not separate, they are different because they consist of different appearances.

  14. Communication and agreement • Since minds are not separate in space-time, appearances in different minds may be correlated with each other. • When appearances in specific minds are correlated, it is called communication between minds. • When appearances in all minds are correlated, it is called universal mind. • Correlations and communication are not objective because there is no space-time.

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