Physics, Time, and Qualia

We suggest that four of the deepest problems in science are closely related and may share a common resolution. These are (1) the foundational problems in quantum theory, (2) the problem of quantum gravity, (3) the role of qualia and conscious awareness in nature, (4) the nature of time. We begin by proposing an answer to the question of what a quantum event is: an event is a process in which an aspect of the world which has been indefinite becomes definite. We build from this an architecture of the world in which qualia are real and consequential and time is active, fundamental, and irreversible.

Bringing the world back in: Revolutions and relations before and after the quantum event

Quantum physics is being positioned as a new archive for addressing major theoretical problems in the field of international relations. Two of the major proponents of engaging quantum thinking within international relations, James Der Derian and Alexander Wendt, have argued that quantum thinking offers the possibility of a major paradigm shift in the field. Before we determine quantum’s revolutionary potential, the persistent and most pressing question for me is how to position quantum thinking among other kinds of and claims to knowledge. I want to horizontalize where different kinds of knowledge sit within the renewed attention to quantum theory. Rather than just horizontalize or flatten ontology, I want to see what happens when we place scientific and philosophical inquiry in dialogue, and what that conversation does to the authority and value of quantum thinking for the social sciences. The article reconstructs the dialogue between the first generation of quantum physicists and the philosophers who informed them. Rather than make an explicit argument about the philosophical debt of physics, I argue that a broad and highly interdisciplinary set of questions drove both fields well beyond the specific areas of expertise of any of these thinkers. I believe this adventure of ideas followed by physicists, philosophers, and social theorists alike offers us a way forward as the complexity of our contemporary global challenges confront us now with the necessity to think well beyond our disciplinary expertise.

An ECCD—Electronic Charge Compensation Device—As a Quantum Dissipative System

An electronic charge compensation device (ECCD) is a passive device that carries electrical currents away, on time, to the electrical Earth field. It prevents lightning’s impacts, derivative electric current pulses, and reduces the radiofrequency disturbances in the protected area. The objective of this paper is to give a physical explanation of the operation of an ECCD’s performance and advantages. The operation of an ECCD is the result of two actions: the static electric field and the evanescent and resonant electrical radiofrequency field in the nearby external adjoining to dielectric-metal zone of ECCD. The energy absorption only is logically justified considering a super-absorption process as an end of chain of resonant quantum event. In this study, a multi-resonant process was inferred from an exhaustive radiofrequency simulation analysis made on an ECCD. The primary experiment was a long-time-frame statistical analysis of seven different, real stations. Those empirical results were derived from real METEORAGE environmental services data. Finally, a prospective for new applications is given.

TOPOS-THEORETIC CLASSIFICATION OF QUANTUM EVENTS STRUCTURES IN TERMS OF BOOLEAN REFERENCE FRAMES

We construct a sheaf-theoretic representation of quantum events structures, in terms of Boolean localization systems. These covering systems are constructed as ideals of structure-preserving morphisms of quantum event algebras from varying Boolean domains, identified with physical contexts of measurement. The modeling sheaf-theoretic scheme is based on the existence of a categorical adjunction between presheaves of Boolean event algebras and quantum event algebras. On the basis of this adjoint correspondence, we also prove the existence of an object of truth values in the category of quantum logics, characterized as subobject classifier. This classifying object plays the equivalent role that the two-valued Boolean truth values object plays in classical events structures. We construct the object of quantum truth values explicitly, and furthermore, demonstrate its functioning for the valuation of propositions in a typical quantum measurement situation.