The 18-fold way

I shall consider each of the 18 claims made by Mohrhoff, and explain, in each case, why I take the path opposite to the one by which he seeks to remove the effects of our thoughts on the activities of our quantum mechanically described brains.Comment: To be published in Foundations of Physics. This is a reply to an article (quant-ph/0105097) by Ulrich Mohrhof

Bell's Theorem Without Hidden Variables

Experiments motivated by Bell's theorem have led some physicists to conclude that quantum theory is nonlocal. However, the theoretical basis for such claims is usually taken to be Bell's Theorem, which shows only that if certain predictions of quantum theory are correct, and a strong hidden-variable assumption is valid, then a certain locality condition must fail. This locality condition expresses the idea that what an experimenter freely chooses to measure in one spacetime region can have no effect of any kind in a second region situated spacelike relative to the first. The experimental results conform closely to the predictions of quantum theory in such cases, but the most reasonable conclusion to draw is not that locality fails, but rather that the hidden-variable assumption is false. For this assumption conflicts with the quantum precept that unperformed experiments have no outcomes. The present paper deduces the failure of this locality condition directly from the precepts of quantum theory themselves, in a way that generates no inconsistency or any conflict with the predictions of relativistic quantum field theory.Comment: This paper is a much simplified, yet still rigorous, version of quant-ph/0010047. The descriptive material is almost all new, and I believe very clear, but the rigorous formal argument, now relegated to Appendices, is the same as before. I consider it to be a new pape

The Hard Problem: A Quantum Approach

Contents: 1. Introduction: Philosophical Setting 2. Quantum Model of the Mind/Brain 3. Person and Self 4. Meeting Baars's Criteria for Consciousness 5. Qualia 6. Free-WillComment: 28 pages, no figures, latexed, uses math_macros.tex that can be found on Archive, this paper was submitted in 5/95 and this is a revised version full postscript available from http://theor1.lbl.gov/www/theorygroup/papers/37163rev.p

Values and the Quantum Conception of Man

Classical mechanics is based upon a mechanical picture of nature that is fundamentally incorrect. It has been replaced at the basic level by a radically different theory: quantum mechanics. This change entails an enormous shift in our basic conception of nature, one that can profoundly alter the scientific image of man himself. Self-image is the foundation of values, and the replacement of the mechanistic self-image derived from classical mechanics by one concordant with quantum mechanics may provide the foundation of a moral order better suited to our times, a self-image that endows human life with meaning, responsibility, and a deeper linkage to nature as a whole.Comment: 10 pages, latexed, math_macros.tex, full postscript available from http://theor1.lbl.gov/www/theorygroup/papers/37315.p