A Physicist's View of Matter and Mind

518 Pages·2013·4.014 MB·English

by  Chandre Dharma-wardana

A Physicist’s View
of
Matter and Mind
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
A Physicist’s View
of
Matter and Mind
Chandre Dharma-wardana
National Research Council of Canada
University of Montreal, Canada
World Scientific
NEW JERSEY • LONDON • SINGAPORE • BEIJING • SHANGHAI • HONG KONG • TAIPEI • CHENNAI
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dharma-wardana, Chandre.
A physicist’s view of matter and mind / Chandre Dharma-wardana, National Research
Council of Canada, University of Montreal, Canada.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-9814425414 (hardcover : alk. paper)
1. Physics--Philosophy. 2. Physics--Popular works. 3. Consciousness. 4. Dharma-wardana,
Chandre--Philosophy. I. Title.
QC6.D474 2013
530.01--dc23
2013005327
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Copyright © 2013 by World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd.
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Printed in Singapore.
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February28,2013 10:13 WorldScientificBook-9inx6in bk
Trustinconsilienceisthefoundationofthenaturalsciences.Forthematerial
worldatleast,themomentumisoverwhelminglytowardconceptualunity.
Disciplinaryboundarieswithinthenaturalsciencesaredisappearing,tobe
replacedbyshiftinghybriddomainsinwhichconsilienceisimplicit....
Nothingfundamentalseparatesthecourseofhumanhistoryfromthecourseof
physicalhistory,whetherinthestarsorinorganicdiversity.
EdwardO.Wilson,Consilience,1998
v
TThhiiss ppaaggee iinntteennttiioonnaallllyy lleefftt bbllaannkk
February28,2013 10:13 WorldScientificBook-9inx6in bk
Preface
This is a physics book that attempts to place physics in the context of a wider
frameworkarchingoverbiology,philosophy,andacrossC.P.Snow’stwocultures.
That is, it discusses things that other books, with a narrower vision, neglect to
treat.Weexploretheunityandconsilienceofourknowledgeabout‘matter’,and
whatweintuitivelyunderstandas‘mind’,withintheperspectiveofthe‘working
physicist’whoassumestheexistenceofanindependentexternalreality.
We attemptto demystifyquantumphysicsaswellasthestudyofconscious-
ness.Ofcourse,asmallbutinfluentialnumberofphysicistslikeEugeneWigner
—andWigner’sfriend[228]—mightinsistthatultimatelyweneedanobserving
mindtoensure‘reality’.Somepopular-sciencewritersprefertopresentquantum
physicsassomethingutterly‘weird’,leadingtowhatvanKampenhascalledthe
‘scandalof physics’.We avoid such pitfalls by followingnotonly Bohm’srein-
terpretationofquantummechanics,butalsotheepistemologicalconsequencesof
density functionaltheory.This offersthe possibility of describingmany-particle
quantum systems purely as functionals of the one-particle density, without the
needforawavefunction.Weregaintheworldofeverydayrealityathumanlength
scales and time scales, withoutthe usualconceptualdifficulties of standardpre-
sentations.Livingorganismsand‘consciousness’arepresentedasemergentprop-
erties of physiology. It is fair to say that we fully understand the reductionist
path of how to start with a very complex system (e.g., a living cell) and reduce
it downto its physics.Thepath forthe build-upfromthe basic physicsto reach
thecomplexsystemisclearinprinciple;butthetechnicalstepsforgoingbeyond
quantum chemistry and biochemistry are still being spelled out in laboratories
grapplingwith nano-science,neuroscience,computationalchemistryandrelated
disciplines.However,integratingeverythingintoaconsilienceincludingthesocial
sciencesmaybecomethecommontaskofphysics,philosophyandculture.
vii
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viii APhysicist’sViewofMatterandMind
Westartfromfundamentalsandattempttocharthowtogotomorecomplex
things.However,fundamentalthingsturnouttobesurprisinglycomplicated,and
we don’t even know what is fundamental! Big things and small things seem to
connectupinthemostamazingway.Cosmologistswhostudythegrandscaleof
theuniverseandparticlephysicistswhostudythesmallestobjectsendupasking
eachotherforhelp,whilephysicistsorphilosopherslooklikefools,andfoolslook
likephilosophersorphysicists.Itisnotsurprisingthathumanityhasdebatedes-
sentiallythesamebasicquestionsaboutthecosmos,consciousnessandlife,inthe
languageandidiomofeache´poque.Inthisbookweaddressthesetopics,anddis-
cussthematseverallevelsofcomplexityandwithintheirhistorical,philosophical
andscientificperspectives.
Hencemanytopics andmanynameswould be paradedratherquicklyin the
veryfirstchapter.Thereweonlyhavespaceandtimetoracethroughthetopics,
merelytoindicatetheirconsilience.Wetakeupmostofthosetopicsingreaterde-
tailinthecourseofthebook.Chapterscanbeskippedandreturnedto,ifneeded,
usingcrossreferences.Hence,whenthereadercomesacrossaconceptornotion
that he is not familiar with, he may see its re-emergencefurther upstream, with
furtherexplanations.Whenadeeperexplanationiscalledfor,insteadoffootnotes
or end-notes, we use small text to read on or skip out. The mathematical con-
tent(givenin smallprint)willalso increaseas we entermoreandmoreinto the
chaptersdealingwithquantummechanics,anddecreaseaswegointobiological
topics.However,biologyentailsmoredemandingdiscussionsofchemistry.Some
readersmayskipmanyofthesetortuouspathsandtaketheirownshortcuts,using
thetableofcontentsortheindextofollowupanytopic.
Finally,itisnotjustmyself,butalsothereadersofthisbook,whowouldhave
causetobethankfultoseveralofmycolleagueswhoreadthroughthemanuscript
infull,andotherswhoreaditinparts,orinchapters,andindicatedtheneedfor
correctionsofvariousseverityonthe‘Richterscale’, a.k.a. ‘thewriter’sscale’.
My colleagues have also suggested clarifications and modifications in regard to
various aspects of the presentation of, e.g., Bohmian mechanics, or ‘conscious-
ness’etc. However,inthe endthe bookreflectsmyownviews,andIalonebear
theresponsibilityinregardtoallerrorsaswellasexcursionsintowhatmayseem
speculativethinking!
ChandreDharma-wardana
Ottawa,Canada
15November2012
February28,2013 10:13 WorldScientificBook-9inx6in bk
Contents
Preface vii
PartI. The NatureofPhysicalLaw 1
1. ABird’sEyeViewofour Quest 3
1.1 Duality,plurality,andreality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 Contextuality,non-localityandde-coherence . . . . . . 4
1.2 The‘standardmodel’ofmatteraccordingtophysics . . . . . . 6
1.2.1 Atoms,nuclei,quarksandquantumfields. . . . . . . . 8
1.3 Scalesofenergyandlength . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
1.3.1 Hierarchicalstructureinlogic,languageandlife . . . . 16
1.4 Thedirectapproachanditsmoderncritics . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
1.4.1 The‘reductionist’approachanditsalternatives . . . . . 22
1.5 Evolution,and‘human’questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.5.1 Evolutionasaphysicalprocess . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
1.5.2 Existentialandsocialquestions . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
1.5.3 Exorcisingthesoulandinductingnewnotions . . . . . 30
2. AnEpistemicHuntforScientificTruth 33
2.1 The‘fundamental’questions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.1.1 Themoralitydebate—scienceasavocation . . . . . . 36
2.1.2 Belief,probabilityanddoubt . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
2.2 Scientificknowledgeandmodelconstruction . . . . . . . . . . 39
2.2.1 Induction. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.2.2 Usingdatatomodel,verifyorrefuteatheory. . . . . . 44
2.2.3 Verification,assimilationandfalsification . . . . . . . 44
ix