FQxI's Essay Competition Asks How Quantum is Life? Plus Plant Intelligence, Phys

Lorraine Ford

Congratulations to the winners.

But I kind of feel that:

What most people seem to think is a totally weird and unfathomable thing, i.e. “quantum mechanics” or “quantum processes”, has been wrongly encapsulated as a kind of tool that can be wielded or utilised or exploited.
“Life”, which is actually a non-existent entity, is wrongly assumed to have a type of pre-existing consciousness and agency in the sense that it knows about this “tool” and can utilise the “tool” for its own purposes.

So, actually, the essays in this essay competition shed no light on quantum mechanics, and they shed no light on living organisms.

Lorraine Ford

Lorraine Ford
“Life” is just a mental concept. What actually physically exists are individual living organisms and individual items of matter.

…………….

The idea seems to be that primitive matter or living organisms used/ are using quantum mechanics as a tool.

But people have been trying to use quantum mechanics as a tool for years, with great difficulty, and at great expense, in so-called “quantum computers”. And so far, despite all the hype and spin, nothing much that is commercially feasible has come of it.

Clearly, quantum mechanics is NOT like a tool that can be wielded by primitive matter or living organisms.

Instead, quantum mechanics is just a description, in words or mathematical symbols, of the conscious and partly-free behaviour of matter.

But the idea that matter could have knowledge of itself and its own situation, and that matter is at least partly-free to move itself, conflicts with science’ and philosophy’s deeply held quasi-religious convictions about the nature of matter and the world.

The sooner that science and philosophy face up to the consciousness and the (at least partial) freedom of matter, the better.

Lorraine Ford

People had thought that matter was inert, i.e. unable to move itself, but with lawful mathematical properties. People had thought that matter would be controllable by people all the way down to its smallest parts.

After all, people had had great success controlling what seemed to be inert but lawful matter, e.g. constructing bridges out of iron and steel, or making concrete out of limestone, sand and water.

It turns out that these people were wrong: the smallest bits of matter ARE able to move themselves independently of any mathematical laws of nature.

This throws a spanner in the works of some people’s philosophical views about the supposed nature of the world.

Because the smallest bits of matter not only possess a “quantum” ability to move themselves, but the smallest bits of matter possess a “quantum” knowledge of their surrounding situation.

These “quantum” abilities of matter are exactly the initial conditions that would be necessary in order for higher-level matter/ life to arise, given suitable surrounding environmental conditions.

However, it seems that most authors in this essay competition were stuck in an old philosophical view about the nature of the world: progressive philosophy is now moving into various versions of panpsychism.

Lorraine Ford

Lorraine Ford
(continued)

But the exact point where science (including biology), mathematics, and philosophy went wrong was when they subscribed to the idea that you can have a viable moving mathematical system, or a real-world mathematical system (i.e. a real-world system that is measured and symbolically represented as a mathematical system), WITHOUT consciousness and libertarian free will/ agency.

I.e. there is no such thing as a mathematics or a mathematical system without a knowledge/ consciousness aspect and a free will/ agency aspect.

When looked at scientifically, objectively, it is clear that both knowledge/ consciousness and free will/ agency are an inherent part of mathematics.

Failure to acknowledge that knowledge/ consciousness and free will/ agency are an intrinsic/ inherent part of mathematics has led to an error of thinking about the nature of the real-world mathematical system.

Lorraine Ford

Lorraine Ford
(continued)

When are mathematicians and philosophers, and others, going to get off their absurd Platonic high horse?

Their Platonic high horse from which they (seemingly unintentionally) promulgate the quasi-religious belief that mathematics, mathematical relationships and mathematical systems just exist and do their thing.

It is completely laughable that people assume that their special mathematical equations and their special numbers will automatically translate into a viable moving mathematical system that will just exist and do its thing.

Lorraine Ford

Mathematics requires consciousness and agency.

One could say that it is typical for people who do mathematics to not notice themselves as part of the mathematical system.

But one could also say that it is typical for people who don’t do mathematics to not have a clue about how mathematics operates.

But this has resulted in a situation where the people who do mathematics consider that categories, relationships and numbers can constitute the entirety of a mathematical system.

And the people who don’t do mathematics trust that the people who do mathematics know what they are doing.

.......................................

The real-world, moving mathematical system requires consciousness and agency.

And without this pre-existing primitive consciousness and agency on the part of matter, life could not have arisen.

marcovici alexandru

just like the forest and the city

do you want a society where those two groups separate and distance more and more

for example in this interview John Conway mentions about the four color theorem

maybe there could be made a zero knowledge handwriting toy dedicated in to stepwise (re)explaining it
in 1980 no 3d printers relief sculpting etc and not that many mathematicians and science writers

knowledge is favored to grows if this included in the vocabulary that a society operates with

now i look for the interview,
why did John Conway agreed to appear in this interview where he is well light and friendly

i got at some point recommended in the last 10 years a book about successfully and famous mathematicians
i wonder if there is a book about mathematicians that have not made any discoveries, failed or something like that

part of the success is the ability to communicate properly that when dealing with larger uglier structures necessitate a certain educational learning process , understanding im sure john conway has had interesting stories to tell where he was in a less bright light . 💡 in german is the song das ist richtig schlecht gelaufen, weiss du schon was ich meine

in my ideal extraterestrial species that i try to imagine the ability to reedit like with an movie editor/ reenact a certain scene like an actor with multiple takes , to make it perfect to negotiate to make sure the subject is exhausted and the a temporary true meaning has been found.

language/interaction/behavior is a lot more than verbs adjectives proposition and sentences.

smart is art
https://www.etymonline.com/word/smart

beyond the four colorable maps is there something else or more to be discovered or the things get uglier and more complicated beyond comprehension and there must be a line ~~abc~~, a knowledge event horizons a point of no return hmm
lets see if i can invent a seven colorable maps conjecture
lets use what we have four colors and than a layer of three on top, after that there must be something that binds
four and three |-|-|-| , voala !- 7 colors maps conjecture

marcovici alexandru

7equal 4+3, also equal 2+5

yesterday i saw fallen a green pine tree because raining after snowing , rain snow rain snow, the soil soaked in water and the roots not prepaired for such stress , a tree like that has at least a tone weight so the roots might have little by little broken

so lets imagine a conceptual tree on a different planet that has instead of rings of cilinder has a growth in cones spikes
and the roots unlike on earth where their role is to keep the tree over the surface like asoil floating device the roots can be broken by the tree when the tree is growing and is getting more weight and is getting inserted in to ground deeper loosing some of its height above the ground

some other ideas of extraterestrial tree could be that instead of leaves being washed away by the wind , leaves connect creating some biostructures with the roots

Lorraine Ford

When physicists examine particles, atoms and molecules they assume that they are examining completely inanimate objects.

However, particles, atoms and molecules are not completely inanimate objects, and this is the only reason that life can arise, in suitable environmental conditions.

At the foundations of reality, matter is point-of-view aware of itself and its immediate surroundings, and this awareness is symbolically representable as a collation of categories with associated numbers that “are true”, from the point of view of the matter. I.e., this awareness can only be represented with algorithmic/ logical connective symbols that represent what “is true”.

At the foundations of reality, matter can move itself, as opposed to always helplessly being moved by “law of nature” relationships. I.e., this movement can only be represented with algorithmic/ logical connective symbols that represent a “number jump”, for the numbers that apply to the categories, as opposed to number outcomes, for the categories, that are the result of “law of nature” mathematical relationships.

Lorraine Ford

Science and philosophy want to hide behind the veil of “randomness”, the idea that numbers just jump and are assigned to categories like the relative position category, and that nothing is causing this number jump and number assignment.

But, according to science and philosophy, every other aspect of the world is fully deterministically caused by the “law of nature” relationships between the categories.

Science and philosophy can’t face up to the reality that primitive matter (i.e. small parts of the universe) can jump and assign its own numbers, and that this is the only reason that life can arise, when the surrounding conditions are suitable.

The reality that primitive matter (i.e. small parts of the universe) can jump and assign its own numbers leads to a very different way of looking at the world, a way of looking at the world that is philosophically repugnant to science and philosophy, and that is why science and philosophy refuse to countenance this way of looking at the world.

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