Adam Frank
@AdamFrank4
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Astrophysicist. Author of the Everyman's Universe newsletter and The Little Book of Aliens. Stuff shows up at The Atlantic, NYT, etc
University of Rochester
Joined August 2011
And its done! The Little Book of Aliens. Everything you need to know about everything there is to know about life in the Universe (out there and, you know, maybe but probably not, here). This week's @bigthink post #Arewealone
https://t.co/TetR0Q7vi7
bigthink.com
We may be the last generation not knowing if we are alone in the Universe. "The Little Book of Aliens" will help you understand this journey.
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This looks really interesting. Will definitely watch the whole thing.
@quantabhidharma @AdamFrank4 @mokriegleder Check out the slide on global scalp potential for a 90 degree shift between absorption- to irruption-dominant brain activity.
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Now I get excited 'cause this is stuff I am/ really want to work on. Step 1) Quantum Bayesianism with its emphasis on Born Rule and Quantum Information Step 2) A theory of agency! This can come from a complex systems/information theoretic perspective. Enactive approach too.
@AdamFrank4 Yes, that's all correct, but it doesn't get us any closer to a formalism.
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4) "a relation quite different from that implicit in naive realism, which had seemed, until then, one of the indispensable foundation stones of every science.” From London & Bauer 1939.
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3) "into discovering that the formalism of quantum mechanics already implies a well-defined theory of the relationship between the object and the observer, ..."
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2) "Without intending to set up a theory of knowledge, although they were guided by a rather questionable philosophy, physicists were so to speak trapped in spite of themselves... "
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1) "In this way, the discussion of the formalism taught us that the apparent philosophical point of departure of the theory, the idea of an observable world, totally independent of the observer, was a vacuous idea."
@WKCosmo @AdamFrank4 I think the fundamental problem for "quantum consciousness" discourse is the lack of solid formalism. Nobody's disputing that minds exist, the question is how they interact with matter, and in the absence of any good explanation the scientifically responsible move is to punt.
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I think trying to include 'the brain" in Von Neuman's chain of causation misses what QM is trying to tell us about experience. That's not the approach taken in that famous 1939 paper by London & Bauer I keep going on about. A phenomenological perspective is what's needed.
@WKCosmo @AdamFrank4 I think the fundamental problem for "quantum consciousness" discourse is the lack of solid formalism. Nobody's disputing that minds exist, the question is how they interact with matter, and in the absence of any good explanation the scientifically responsible move is to punt.
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But the idea of having simple, straight-forward and unmediated access to that Universe is the most fraught and philosophically treacherous idea we've ever dreamed up. Piles of dead thinkers running aground on that coastline :-)
@AdamFrank4 I don't see how this accomplishes anything aside from illustrating the fundamental incoherence of anthropic reasoning as a scientific tool. The existence of the universe independent of us is the least philosophically complicated idea imaginable.
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Also, twitter is not an optimized place for this kind of subtle discussion of subtleties.
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Point is more subtle than that, hence unpacking philosophical traditions taking experience seriously. Again, of course there is a world without us, but the only world anyone gets access to THROUGH experience. It's the pre-condition for having ideas like "objective reality".
@AdamFrank4 If an asteroid hit tomorrow and wiped out all life on Earth, the universe — this one — would continue to exist just fine, just like it existed for billions of years before we arrived.
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I'd say that's a mistatement of the position. A better way to put is... "Of course there is a world without us. It's just not this one". This goes back to Kant and then emphasizes what the Phenomenologists learned about the structure other than experience.
The position that an objective physical world doesn't exist independent of phenomenal consciousness is morally equivalent to stating that you're at the center of the universe.
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Yes it does. It even has a name. The Born Rule.
No it doesn’t.
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That is exactly NOT the problem. You need to read London & Bauer's 1939 monograph on why experience in the phenomenological sense is the key to understanding what measurement means in the quantum formalism. You're stuck on Von Neuman. https://t.co/0HbkgQpVtl
"Quantum mechanics has an experience problem" conflates two separate mysteries. The measurement problem is about wave function collapse and what counts as an "observer" - this is physics. The hard problem of consciousness is about why there's something it's like to be anything
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This was chance to do a deep dive into some of the philosophical issues associated with life and consciousness from a "beyond The Blind Spot" perspective. Thanks to @evan_mcgl
"Quantum mechanics doesn’t have a measurement problem. It has an experience problem." "Subjective experience isn’t a glitch in the system. It’s the whole damn interface." "Life is the most important problem in physics because it is more mind blowing than black holes and string
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The first era of space exploration is over. The era of commercial exploitation has begun. It's the most significant change for the human push beyond the planet since the first rocket launches of the 1950s. Here's a few things you need to know. https://t.co/3mKGpPze8x
everymansuniverse.com
The age of exploration is over (for Earth Orbit at least).
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Hey, you wanna become an astronaut? Well you probably can't but you could win a trip to train like one. My friends over @ScienceAlert are running a Space Coast trip sweepstakes. https://t.co/cMZjCm146m
sciencealert.com
FREE Entry! Your chance to Win a VIP 5-day trip to Florida's Space Coast. Kennedy Space Center, Astronaut Training, Disney EPCOT & more.
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Well, I think one branch of physics that got lots of media attention has sort of reached diminishing returns (Quantum Gravity, Strings..). But hell yeah, the rest of physics is doing great. Quantum Information, Large Scale Structure formation, Active Matter... damn!
Physics scicomm has gone sideways. The field didn’t stagnate after Einstein and it isn’t stagnate today. There are so many ingenious experiments happening in cosmology, astrophysics, and the foundations of quantum mechanics that it’s impossible to keep up with them all.
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So, funny story. I just asked Gemini if it was a sense making agent in the enactive sense and it said no. I mean, I know that doesn't really answer your question but it did crack me up.
@AdamFrank4 Yes, but the interesting question is not how many will object to the claim, but whether they are right or wrong to do so.
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Astrophysicist/planetary scientist Steve Desch does NOT mess around. Great discussion on 3I/Atlas and Avi Loeb's "lazy" speculations.
Astrophysicist Steve Desch explains why Avi Loeb’s observations regarding the interstellar comet #3IATLAS are post hoc rationalisations and not scientific hypothesis testing. It’s lazy anomaly hunting. 🎯 Full discussion: https://t.co/PjJ801fSBw
#AviLoeb #Alien #UAPs
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