Science, Values, and the Nature of the Human Person. May 2001.
Paper by Henry Stapp of Berkeley Physics Labs
Stapp much quoted by Josephson.
As Nobel Laureate Steve Weinberg said recently: “The more the
universe seems comprehensible, the more it seems pointless.”
Stapp “… intensive study of the properties
of matter has revealed fundamental flaws in our earlier
understanding of the basic nature of the physical universe
and our role in it, and this deeper understanding impacts
strongly on human concerns.”
Part I: The Physics of Consciousness (ala Bohr/von Neumann).
MIND
Mind plays a basic role in orthodox (Bohr/vonNeumann) QT:
The theory is about the mathematical structure of
connections between human actions and experiences.
MATTER
The stuff of the physical universe is partly mind like:
the physical universe is a CLOUD of possible classical
universes, and the shape of this cloud represents information. [WOW !!]
FREEDOM
There are TWO KINDS of “free” choices:
NATURE’S “free” choices are subject to statistical laws.
HUMAN “free” choices are subject to no KNOWN laws.
WILL
Human “free” choices are EFFICACIOUS:
[Ian – efficacious – having the power to produce intended effect !!!!!]
they can strongly influence brain activity.
[Ian – query this clause ??]
NONLOCALITY
Human “free” choices have “instantaneous” effects far away:
we are “nonlocally entangled” with rest of nature.
Part II: Moral Impact.
Science has shown the materialist conception of nature to be false.
By validating free will it has rescued “Personal responsibility”.
It has also resuscitated “Objective truth”.
And it has made our minds into efficacious aspects of the highly nonlocal process
that creates the growing informational structure that is the physical universe.