Physics From Consciousness Don Hoffman Thanks to Bruce

Physics From Consciousness Don Hoffman Thanks to Bruce Bennett, Jon Merzel, Chetan Prakash, Phat Vu

Plan • Consciousness fundamental • Conscious observer, agent • Fundamental postulates • Dynamics of agents: 1 D, 2 D, 3 D • Agents -> Physics: Symmetries • Relativistic spin half particles • Discrete space-time

Science Top Open Questions • What is the universe made of? • What is the biological basis of consciousness?

Mc. Ginn Mind We know that brains are the de facto causal basis of consciousness, but we have, it seems, no understanding whatever of how this can be so.

Postulate 1 Ontological Postulate All that exists is consciousness and its contents.

Mind-Body Problem • Physicalist: Describe precisely how consciousness arises from, or is identical to, certain types of physical systems. • Conscious Realist: Describe precisely how conscious agents construct physical objects and their properties.

Shape From Motion • Input: 2 D motions of dots • Output: 3 D cylinder in rigid motion • Ullman: 3 views of 4 points

Ullman’s SFM Theorem Given 3 orthographic views of 4 non-coplanar points • The views almost surely have no rigid 3 D interpretations. • If the views have any rigid interpretations, then they almost surely have precisely 2.

Ullman’s SFM Observer

Conscious Observer X, Y measurable spaces E, S events p measurable map q markovian kernel

Observer Thesis Every synchronic perceptual capacity, regardless of modality, can be described as an instance of a conscious observer.

Fundamental Conscious Act: Create new conscious experiences. NEW GIVEN

Fundamental Conscious Act

Postulate 2 Experience Postulate Conscious observers create new experiences.

Conscious Observers & Macroscopic Physical Objects • Objects • Color • Motion • Shape

Multimodal User Interface MUI The conscious perceptual experiences of an agent are a multimodal user interface between that agent and an objective world.

Pinker How the Mind Works We are organisms, not angels, and our minds are organs, not pipelines to the truth. Our minds evolved by natural selection to solve problems that were life-and-death matters to our ancestors, not to commune with correctness.

Postulate 3 Action Postulate Conscious agents act by moving on a state space of conscious observers.

Postulate 4 Physics Postulate Physics represents stabilities of the dynamics of conscious agents.

Dynamics In One Dimension • Approach: • Depart: Stable: Invariant measure Unstable: No invariant measure

Dynamics In One Dimension

Transition Probability

Look Probability • Nearer Agent --> Higher probability • Agent Distances --> No-Look probability

Dynamics In Two Dimensions

Agent Dynamics In 2 D

Dynamics In Two Dimensions

Agent Dynamics in 3 D

Particle Accelerator Experiment

Eight Agents in 3 D

Agent Dynamics in 4 D

Postulate 5 Unity Postulate Conscious agents in stable dynamics create a new unified consciousness.

Agent Dynamics in 3 D

Spin Transformation: SL(2, C)

Spin Action on Agents

Stereographic Projection To Argand Plane

Celestial Sphere

Lorentz Invariance Jonathan Doolin

Spin To Minkowski

Spin Theorem 1 Every spin transformation corresponds to a unique restricted Lorentz transformation; conversely every restricted Lorentz transformation corresponds to two spin transformations, one being the negative of the other.

Spin Theorem 2 Every unitary spin transformation corresponds to a unique proper rotation of S+; conversely every proper rotation of S+ corresponds to two unitary spin transformations, one being the negative of the other.

Unitary Spin in Euler Angles

Lorentz Boost w = relativistic doppler factor r = log w is the rapidity v = tanh r is the velocity factor

Internal Spin No Effect on Minkowski

Lee Smolin Three Roads To Quantum Gravity The apparent smoothness of space and time are illusions; behind them is a world composed of discrete events, which can be counted. (p. 62)

Brian Greene The Fabric of the Cosmos . . . space, like electrons, comes in discrete, indivisible chunks. (p. 491). . . the very fabric of space and time is composed of more fundamental spaceless and timeless entities. (p. 493)

Physics From Consciousness Don Hoffman Thanks to Bruce Bennett, Jon Merzel, Chetan Prakash, Phat Vu