Philosophical musings on Quanta & Qualia;  Materialism & Spiritualism; Science & Religion; Pragmatism & Idealism, etc.

Virtual Reality
How Close Can Physics Bring Us to a Truly Fundamental Understanding of the World?

George Musser
Scientific American magazine, Sept 2019

   Post 98. September 9, 2019

  Virtual Reality

   Metaphysical Ideality

 The answer to that what-is-real-? lament may be all-or-none of the above. In view of the relativity of the quantum worldview, Musser admits with barely concealed chagrin, “the distinction between fact and fiction is just a matter of location.” In place of the ancient concept of elementary atoms, “Physicists routinely speak of particles and fields, localized motes of matter and continuous, fluidlike entities such as the electric or magnetic field.” But, “the combination of quantum mechanics with relativity theory rules out particles.” And, “fields, too, are not what they appear to be.” So, what can we count on to be solid and stable in the Quantum era? Speaking of post-quantum attempts to discover a Theory of Everything, he says, “lacking experimental guidance, physicists have had to develop these theories mathematically.” But does abstract math accurately describe concrete reality? Philosopher Raymond Tallis is impressed by the “unreasonable effective-ness of Mathematics”, but concerned about its remoteness from common sense.2

In contrast to his confident opening statement about physics describing “hard” reality, Musser again acknowledges that, “the deeper physicists dive into reality, the more reality seems to evaporate.3” Moreover, “physical explanation replaces nouns with verbs.” Which, ironically makes sense in view of the Enformationism thesis4, wherein the universal verb is EnFormAction.5 He goes on to ask, “what differentiates physical from mathematical objects or a simulation from the original system? Both involve the same sets of relations.” The key concept of my thesis is that material reality ultimately boils down to logical relationships that are the essence of Inform-ation and Mathematics. Those essences, of course, are not physical things, but metaphysical (mental) concepts. Moreover, the next article in the magazine is subtitled : “Philosophers cannot agree on whether mathematical objects exist or are pure fictions.”

All of this mind stuff and fluffy philosophy at the base of hard reality has forced physicists to reconsider the role of human consciousness in establishing the constitution of the world we assume is “out there” sending signals to our senses. “Some researchers say understanding the mind could demand some new principle of science or new way of thinking.” I agree, and propose the Enformationism thesis, which says that mental Information is the new fundamental principle of science, and the key to a new/old way of thinking about reality. In fact, some serious physical theorists postulate that the world we take as reality, is actually a mathematical construct similar to a computer program6. They admit that, like the movie Matrix, it’s difficult to tell physical reality from a computer-generated virtual reality. The idea that the world we take for granted might be nothing more than computations of some universal computer, is unsettling. But Musser attempts to allay those concerns by pointing out that it’s the only reality we know for sure. “Even if we worry that we aren’t experiencing the fundamental reality, we are still experiencing our reality.” And our mental representation of the world may be a Virtual Reality in some sense. But it’s a familiar place where the taste of steak is authentic enough for all practical purposes. 

End of Post 98

2. Math vs Reality :
https://philosophynow.org/issues/102/Mathematics_and_Reality

3. Virtual Reality of Information
http://enformationism.info/enformationism.info/page16.html

4. Enformationism :
http://enformationism.info/enformationism.info/page11.html

5. What is Information Made of ?
http://enformationism.info/enformationism.info/page19.html

6. Universe is a Program :
https://evolutionnews.org/2017/09/great-minds-think-universe-is-a-computer-program/

Illusion or Reality?