RSS feeds
РусскийEnglish
Issue 12, 2024
Volume year page
Issues Authors PACS Subscription For authors

Issues

 / 

2005

 / 

April

←  →

Reviews of topical problems


Concept of consciousness in the context of quantum mechanics


Lebedev Physical Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences, Leninsky prosp. 53, Moscow, 119991, Russian Federation

Conceptual problems of the quantum theory of measurement are considered, which are embodied in well-known paradoxes and in Bell’s inequalities. Arguments are advanced in favor of the viewpoint that these problems may hardly be solved without direct inclusion of the observer’s consciousness in the theoretical description of a quantum measurement. Discussed in this connection is the so-called many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics proposed by Everett, as is the extension of Everett’s concept, which consists in the assumption that separating the quantum state components corresponding to alternative measurements is not only associated with the observer’s consciousness but is completely identified with it. This approach is shown to open up qualitatively new avenues for the unification of physics and psychology and, more broadly, of the sciences and the humanities. This may lead to an extension of the theory of consciousness and shed light on significant and previously misunderstood phenomena in the sphere of consciousness.

Fulltext pdf (275 KB)
Fulltext is also available at DOI: 10.1070/PU2005v048n04ABEH002075
PACS: 01.70.+w, 03.65.−w, 03.65.Ta, 03.67.−a (all)
DOI: 10.1070/PU2005v048n04ABEH002075
URL: https://ufn.ru/en/articles/2005/4/c/
000231253100003
2005PhyU...48..389M
Citation: Menskii M B "Concept of consciousness in the context of quantum mechanics" Phys. Usp. 48 389–409 (2005)
BibTexBibNote ® (generic)BibNote ® (RIS)MedlineRefWorks

Оригинал: Менский М Б «Концепция сознания в контексте квантовой механики» УФН 175 413–435 (2005); DOI: 10.3367/UFNr.0175.200504c.0413

References (59) ↓ Cited by (33) Similar articles (20)

  1. d’Espagnat B In Search Of Reality (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1983)
  2. Menskii M B Usp. Fiz. Nauk 170 631 (2000); Menskii M B Phys. Usp. 43 585 (2000)
  3. Everett H (III) Rev. Mod. Phys. 29 454 (1957), reprinted in [59]
  4. DeWitt B S, Graham N (Eds) The Many-Worlds Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1973)
  5. Menskii M B Voprosy Filosofii (6) 64 (2004)
  6. Mensky M B Quantum Measurements And Decoherence. Models And Phenomenology (Dordrecht: Kluwer Acad. Publ., 2000); Menskii M B Kvantovye Izmereniya i Dekogerentsiya. Modeli i Fenomenologiya (M.: Fizmatlit, 2001)
  7. Wigner E P "Remarks on the mind-body question" In The Scientist Speculates (Ed. I J Good) (London: Heinemann, 1961) p. 284, reprinted in [59]
  8. fon Neiman I Matematicheskie Osnovy Kvantovoi Mekhaniki (M.: Nauka, 1964)
  9. Zeh H-D Found. Phys. 1 69 (1970)
  10. Zurek W H Phys. Rev. D 24 1516 (1981)
  11. Zurek W H Phys. Rev. D 26 1862 (1982)
  12. Joos E, Zeh H-D Z. Phys. B 59 223 (1985)
  13. Giulini D et al. Decoherence And The Appearance Of A Classical World In Quantum Theory (Berlin: Springer, 1996)
  14. Bell J S Speakable And Unspeakable In Quantum Mechanics (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. Press, 1987)
  15. Bell J S Physics 1 195 (1964), reprinted in [59]
  16. Aspect A, Grangier P, Roger G Phys. Rev. Lett. 47 460 (1981)
  17. Aspect A, Dalibard J, Roger G Phys. Rev. Lett. 49 1804 (1982)
  18. Einstein A, Podolsky B, Rosen N Phys. Rev. 47 777 (1935)
  19. Chernavskii D S Sinergetika i Informatsiya: Dinamicheskaya Teoriya Informatsii (M.: Nauka, 2001)
  20. Belinskii A V Usp. Fiz. Nauk 173 905 (2003); Belinskii A V Phys. Usp. 46 877 (2003)
  21. Popov M A Usp. Fiz. Nauk 173 1382 (2003); Popov M A Phys. Usp. 46 1307 (2003)
  22. Panov A D Usp. Fiz. Nauk 171 447 (2001); Panov A D Phys. Usp. 44 427 (2001)
  23. Vaidman L "The many-worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics" In Stanford Encyclopedia Of Philosophy (Electronic Resource, Ed. E N Zalta) (Stanford, Calif.: Metaphysics Research Lab, Centre for the Study of Language and Information, Stanford Univ., 2002); Vaidman L http://plato.stanford.edu/archives/sum2002/entries/qm-manyworlds/
  24. Tegmark M Fortschr. Phys. 46 855 (1998)
  25. Mensky M B, von Borzeszkowski H Phys. Lett. A 208 269 (1995); Mensky M B, von Borzeszkowski H quant-ph/0007091
  26. Squires E The Mystery Of The Quantum World 2nd ed. (Bristol: IOP Publ., 1994)
  27. Lockwood M Brit. J. Philos. Sci. 47 159 (1996)
  28. Whitaker A "Many minds and single mind interpretations of quantum theory" in Decoherence: Theoretical, Experimental, and Conceptual Problems: Proc. of a Workshop, Bielefeld, Germany, 10 - 14 November 1998 (Eds P Blanchard et al.) (Berlin: Springer, 2000) p. 299
  29. Stapp H P Found. Phys. 31 1465 (2001)
  30. Albert D, Loewer B Synthese 77 195 (1988)
  31. Menskii M B Usp. Fiz. Nauk 173 1199 (2003); Menskii M B Phys. Usp. 46 1163 (2003)
  32. Gell-Mann M, Hartle J B Phys. Rev. D 47 3345 (1993)
  33. Paz J P, Zurek W H Phys. Rev. D 48 2728 (1993)
  34. Zurek W H Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London A 356 1793 (1998)
  35. Albert D Z Quantum Mechanics And Experience (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Univ. Press, 1992)
  36. Chalmers D J The Conscious Mind In Search Of A Fundamental Theory (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1996)
  37. Doich D Struktura Real’nosti (Izhevsk: RKhD, 2001)
  38. Donald M J Philos. Trans. R. Soc. London A 427 43 (1990)
  39. Lehner C Synthese 110 191 (1997)
  40. Lockwood M Mind, Brain, And The Quantum: The Compound T (Oxford: B. Blackwell, 1989)
  41. Penrose R Shadows Of The Mind: A Search For The Missing Science Of Consciousness (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1994)
  42. Saunders S Phys. Lett. A 184 1 (1993)
  43. Valiev K A Usp. Fiz. Nauk 175 3 (2005); Valiev K A Phys. Usp. 48 1 (2005)
  44. Eccles J C How The Self Controls Its Brain (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1994)
  45. Beck F, Eccles J "Quantum processes in the brain: A scientific basis of consciousness" In Neural Basis Of Consciousness (Adv. In Consciousness Res., Vol. 49, Ed. N Osaka) (Philadelphia, PA: John Benjamins Publ., 2003) p. 141
  46. Josephson B D, Pallikari-Viras F Found. Phys. 21 197 (1991)
  47. Villars C N Psychoenergetics 5 1 (1983)
  48. Lovelock J E Nature 344 100 (1990)
  49. Penrouz R Novyi Um Korolya: O Komp’yuterakh, Myshlenii i Zakonakh Fiziki (M.: URSS, 2003)
  50. Florenskii P Izbrannye Trudy Po Iskusstvu (M.: Izobrazitel’noe iskusstvo, 1996)
  51. Mansfield V "Possible worlds, quantum mechanics, and Middle Way Buddhism" in Symposium on the Foundations of Modern Physics, Joensuu, Finland, 13 - 17 August 1990 (Eds P Lahti, P Mittelstaedt) (Singapore: World Scientific, 1991) p. 242
  52. Feinberg E L Dve Kul’tury. Intuitsiya i Logika v Iskusstve i Nauke 3-e izd. (Fryazino: Vek-2, 2004)
  53. Markov M A O Trekh Interpretatsiyakh Kvantovoi Mekhaniki (M.: Nauka, 1991)
  54. Ginzburg V L O Nauke, o Sebe i O Drugikh 3-e izd. (M.: Fizmatlit, 2003)
  55. Bohr N "Discussion with Einstein on epistemological problems in atomic physics" In Albert Einstein : Philosopher - Scientist (The Library Of Living Philosophers, Vol. 7, Ed. P A Schilpp) (Evanston, Ill.: Library of Living Philosophers, 1949) p. 200, reprinted in [59]; Bor N "Diskussii s Einshteinom o problemakh teorii poznaniya v atomnoi fizike" v Sb. Atomnaya Fizika i Chelovecheskoe Poznanie (M.: IL, 1961) p. 51
  56. Schrödinger E What Is Life? The Physical Aspect Of The Living Cell (Cambridge: The Univ. Press, 1944); Shredinger E Chto Takoe Zhizn’? Fizicheskii Aspekt Zhivoi Kletki (Izhevsk: RKhD, 1999)
  57. Hartle J Am. J. Phys. 36 704 (1968)
  58. Rubin M A Found. Phys. 33 379 (2003); Rubin M A quant-ph/0209055
  59. Wheeler J A, Zurek W H (Eds) Quantum Theory And Measurement (Princeton, NJ: Princeton Univ. Press, 1983)
© 1918–2024 Uspekhi Fizicheskikh Nauk
Email: ufn@ufn.ru Editorial office contacts About the journal Terms and conditions