Matter Time 1...Things That Happen...

This is the first video in a series that will introduce matter time, which is a very different interpretation of reality from time and space. Instead of time and space existing as a blank slate for continuous and infinitely divisible matter action, discrete matter and action exist first of all. Time and space emerge from discrete matter and action and the universe exists because things happen and not because of time and space.

Matter Time 1

Maudlin's Problem With Quantum Theory

The Problem With Quantum Theory

Institute of art and ideas interviewed Tim Maudlin about his problem with quantum theory.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hC3ckLqsL5M

Very nice interview shows the philosophical approach of Maudlin as opposed to the technical approach of physical science. While Maudlin argues that philosophy is very confused about the nature of physical reality even after 100 years of the very successful technical predictions of quantum science, science simply accepts quantum because it works really well. Science accepts quantum because it works while philosophy asks what quantum means and gets confused by both the question and the answer. Philosophy is, after all, really a discipline that asks questions without objective and testable answers, then answers them all the while arguing endlessly with other philosophers about the answers and about the nature of physical reality.

Maudlin argues that the axioms of infinitely divisible and determinate time and space are fundamentally incompatible with the discrete uncertainty of quantum knowledge. While this is true, Maudlin does not consider it possible to have a universe without first of all time and space, but that is exactly the quantum matter action universe of discrete aether that we have.

Philosophy is very useful for asking important questions but philosophy will never answer questions that have no answers. Why are we here? Why are we here right now? Why is it us and not someone else that is right here right now? What is the meaning of life? What is the meaning of quantum mechanics? Why is the universe the way that it is? 

These are all questions that have no answers, but are nevertheless useful questions to ask and discuss because that is what consciousness does. After all, it is not always clear which questions we might find out how to answer with new knowledge. "What is consciousness?" is just such a question that does not have an answer but might have an answer with better knowledge. Consciousness is therefore always asking questions without answers and then continuing to find meaning either in discovering the answers or in the endless discourse that follows uncertainty. This is basically because we cannot always know the limits of what we can know even though we know there are limits to what we can know. We do need to keep asking and answering unanswerable questions in order to find the horizon of answers where we just lack knowledge.

The inherent uncertainty of quantum phase means that there are outcomes that have precursors that will always be unknowable. Since we ourselves have quantum phase, we can only know matter phase of an action relative to our own matter phase. This fundamental quantum uncertainty limit shows that the world is not deterministic and that every free choice that we make affects the outcomes of the entire universe. Besides quantum uncertainty, there is also uncertainty from the chaos of determinate actions. Given a very large number of determinate actions, chaos means that it is not possible to predict motion better than some uncertainty of matter action.

The Hasse diagram shows precursors and outcomes of the universe at low resolution starting with the CMB creation precursor to hydrogen, stars, and then galaxies. Higher resolution Hasse diagrams will show more and more detail until the resolution limitations of classical chaos called noise. However, the infinite divisibility of space and time in a determinate universe means that there is no limit to the precision of determinate knowledge.

But, unlike classical knowledge, quantum knowledge is not infinitely knowable and there is a discrete uncertainty limit for quantum knowledge. In the discrete actions of discrete matter, there is a quantum uncertainty between action and matter that represents our unknowable quantum phase. Unlike the infinitely knowable classical chaos of infinitely divisible time and space, quantum phase represents a finite precision for knowledge that we can know. This is because we are made up of the same quantum phase and amplitude as are all outcomes and we cannot ever know our own absolute quantum phase. We only ever know the quantum phase of an outcome relative to our own quantum phase and so that represents the limits of what we can know.

Cosmic Now

Cosmic Now
Okay...so we can't really know that there is a now or present time in the universe since all we can ever sense are things that happen in the past. In other words, all we really know are outcomes and we presume those outcomes all have precursors and so we assume that there is a whole universe of precursor memories that we call now.

https://aeon.co/essays/is-that-leaf-falling-here-and-now-cosmic-koans-on-time

Anthony Aguirre starts with the popular fine-tuning statement that grabs one of the 65 or so physical constants and supposes that any small variation in just that one constant would mean that life could not exist. This is not a good place to start any argument about the universe since as long as you change constants together there are a large number of possible universes. Do we really need koans?

In fact, changing constants in concerted ways is how the universe actually works and is the fundamental principle of accelerating light in mattertime. Mattertime starts with just two constants for matter and action and results in a pulsed universe with shrinking matter and growing force, which means accelerating light. Thus, Aguirre's example of proton charge variation makes no sense without electron charge variation. Given electron and proton charge growth along with matter decay is the basis the universe and explains everything with accelerating light. Instead of a big bang, the universe begins as an antiverse ends with the chaos of aethertime.

So the question of a cosmic now with an infinitely divisible time makes no sense in the causal set universe of precursors and outcomes. Very similar questions come up about the meaning of the infinitely divisible nothing of empty space and time. But since, space and time both emerge from the discrete things that happen in discrete aether, there really are only two constants that determine all others with accelerating light. The total universe matter and its decay are the two constants that determine all others and so yes, there are a large number of other possible universes as well.

We simply must accept that this is the universe that we have...

BlackHoleTime

Black Holes and Time

Black holes represent the end of atomic time for matter and atomic time literally stops at a black-hole event horizon. Neither atomic time nor space have any meanings at a black hole event horizon. What does it mean when atomic time stops ticking? It does not mean that the universe is at the end of cosmic time...

Atomic clocks only represent one of the two dimensions of time and the other cosmic time dimension is the very slow change of the universe. The universe changes as a result of its very slow action and those changes give time a second dimension as cosmic time. That is, cosmic time is the slow change of the universe beyond the ticks of atomic clocks and therefore beyond the event horizons of black holes. In fact, black holes represent the very slow matter decay of cosmic time and a kind of eternally collapsing object. Eternally collapsing objects are an alternative explanation for black holes.

The very slow cosmic time of the universe is in basically the quantum dephasing time of universe matter. The universe changes because of its very slow dephasing time and that slow change turns out to be what drives the much faster changes of atomic time as well.

The very slow change of the universe is in its cosmic dephasing time and for a pulsed universe, that cosmic dephasing time means the very slow decay of matter. This very slow decay of matter complements a very slow growth in force and the combination of matter decay and force growth are what make up the reality that we see. In fact, the very slow universe cosmic decay time is what creates gravity force as the amplitude and phase of the universe pulse.

Charge force is very much stronger than gravity force and charge force comes about on atomic time scales. All matter oscillates with both phase and amplitude and the relative phase and amplitude of matter oscillation is charge force. Each charge bond results in a complementary photon emission and phase and it is the biphoton complements between neutral matter bodies that then result in gravity force.

Persuasion Is Consciousness

Persuasion is an integral part of conscious free choice since choosing to bond with others is fundamental to not only our own conscious free choices, but the conscious free choices of others as well. As a result, in fact, persuasion is all about free choice. We only know a person is conscious by how they persuade us that they are conscious and they only know we are conscious by how we persuade them that we are conscious. In persuasion, a person freely chooses to tell a story to persuade one or more other people to make or not make a particular free choice or set of choices. Free choice is therefore different from coerced choice. Free choice is how people change the world and so free choice is also how people persuade the free choices that others make to change the world. Free choice as a result of persuasion is therefore what makes free choice what it is since our conscious free choice to persuade is how we change the world.

While it is possible to persuade some people with a good story, that story will not persuade everyone and some people may choose to not even listen to a persuasion and therefore remain unconvinced. The outcome of an unsuccessful persuasion would then be indeterminate. In fact, some people may find a persuasion not only unconvincing, they may also persuade with a story of their own. In fact, when the outcomes are very even, the stories then tend to polarize into factions for and against instead of a negotiation and compromise. After all, free choice reduces all decisions to a binary free choice of either a determinate action or an indeterminate inaction.

There is an argument that our choices are all determined by the persuasion of others and not by our own conscious free choices. This argument suggests that free choice is really an illusion as a result of the determinate persuasion of others, i.e. their conscious free choices. Conscious free choice would then be an illusion of the many determinate ideologies that persuade us to make the conscious free choices that we make. However, we are not born with conscious free choice and must learn conscious free choice by the persuasion of others and when we freely choose and act like them, we too are conscious. We learn conscious free choice from persuasion and so persuasion is completely compatible with an indeterminate free choice and the nature of the conscious free will.

The real illusion, then, is the illusion of a purely determinate universe where we are just subject to fixed fates and always also subject to determinate persuasions. In contrast, there is an irreducible discrete uncertainty in every indeterminate outcome even though there are precursors for both determinate and indeterminate outcomes. This means that there are indeterminate precursors that are not knowable for an outcome even though precursors do exist for even indeterminate outcomes. With free choice, we negotiate with other people all of the time and yet we do not always call all such negotiations persuasion. Free choice and negotiation are highly entangled with persuasion even though we do not normally associate negotiation with free choice. Likewise, we do not usually associate persuasion with free choice, either, but both negotiation and persuasion are necessarily free and not coerced choices.

Free Will and Agency

Science keeps bringing up the issue of free will in vain attempts to somehow define free choice as a determinate outcome of the brain machine. If there were a measurement for free choice, then it would make sense for science to make claims about free choice. Since there are no measurements of free choice, it makes no sense for any science claims about free choice and any statements about free choice are then subjective opinions, not objective measurements of science. Thus, to believe in free choice simply means that you believe that choices make a difference and also that the precursor feelings of choice are not always knowable.

People who say that they do not believe in free choice still believe that their decisions matter and as a result, they freely choose to believe in their own lack of free choice. However, without a belief that their choices make a difference there would be no meaning and purpose and choice in their lives would be subject to the all-consuming despair of nihilist chaos.

In our relational reality, people with free choice bond with some people and not with other people and those neural bonds and conflicts result from often very powerful emotions and feelings. Since people freely to choose to bond with some people and not with others, this is free choice and the reasons and feelings do not always have knowable precursors. People also freely choose to persuade others that there is no free choice despite there are no measurement for free choice. The determinate argument is that who you freely choose to bond with or who you freely choose to persuade is due to determinate precursors, the present, any possible outcomes, and the noise of classical chaos. Since classical chaos is ostensibly random, that means that no future is certain, but the determinate argument is that even that does not mean we have free choice.

People argue that since determinate atoms are also subject to uncertain outcomes and determinate atoms are not conscious and do not have free choice, determinate people likewise do not have free choice even though they make free choices with unknowable precursor feelings. Free choice, though, involves neural action potentials and atoms do not have neural action potentials. In addition, quantum entanglement and superposition mean that quantum phase noise is somewhat different from the classical noise of chaos. In fact, science neither understands how neural action potentials result in free choice.

It is very likely that the bonding of neural action involves entanglement and superposition in ways that science does not yet understand.  For example, since every macroscopic action has some quantum phase noise, repetitive macroscopic actions like flips of a coin toss or neural impulse of a brain tend to result in mixing classical and quantum phase noise. Quantum phase is, after all, very important for the charge bonds of matter and so it is very likely that quantum phase is also important for neural bonds and even gravity bonds.

Quantum phase is at the root of both consciousness and free will archetypes. Our relational reality involves charge bonds, neural bonds, and gravity bonds as shown below.

Free choice makes consciousness possible because how we choose an outcome depends on both precursors and all possible outcomes. Since science cannot define or even measure free choice, science cannot measure or even define free choice either. The free choice of a single outcome from a superposition of many possible outcomes is exactly what makes us conscious. In fact, free choice really is our basic archetype for without free choice and free will, the universe would be determined only by its initial conditions and not by the neural action potentials of free choice.

Atoms do not have free choice, but that does not mean that a mind, which is made up of a large number of atoms, also does not have free choice. Just like a coin will have very well defined heads and tails, flipping a coin results in a 50% probability and uncertainty of landing heads or tails. Neural action potentials are then like flipping a coin and are necessary for free choice just as they are necessary for free will as well. Although science cannot measure free choice or free will, people are conscious and therefore do have free choice as well. Science stating that there is no free choice suggests that science can measure and know all of the precursors of free choices that we all make to an unlimited precision. However, it is simply not possible to know all of the precursors to free choice with unlimited precision since quantum phase noise limits the precision of any knowledge.

One argument for determinate outcomes is that a computer algorithm can use sensory data to make choices for action according to a person who freely chose to compose that algorithm. The algorithm did not make the choice...the programmer made the choice and the algorithm is simply an extension of the emotions and feeling of the programmer. The argument that robots and artificial intelligence show consciousness is not true since there is no measure of consciousness and no artificial consciousness either.

Free choice is the result of a large number of neural action potentials and each neural action potential is subject to a discrete quantum uncertainty just as all action in the universe is subject to discrete quantum uncertainty. Therefore, while the universe is largely determinate in that every outcome has a knowable precursor to some precision, there are discrete outcomes that have unknowable discrete precursors even though those discrete precursors do exist. For example, entanglement and superposition can couple discrete outcomes in discrete precursors that are not possible to know with unlimited resolution. While the determinate chaos of noise certainly make discrete neural outcomes uncertain, the entanglement and superposition of quantum phase noise also makes neural outcomes uncertain even though outcomes do entangle and correlate with other outcomes.

Unlike the determinate noise of classical chaos with unlimited resolution, the uncertain noise of quantum phase is also subject to entanglement and superposition and therefore has a well-defined limited resolution. Entanglement and superposition make the precursors of quantum phase noise as discrete outcomes that are inherently unknowable and at limited resolution. The limited resolution of discrete quantum phase is what make up free choice and free will as opposed to the unlimited resolution of determinism. Once again, the outcomes of free choice and free will follow from the lack of any measurable and therefore knowable discrete precursors even discrete precursors exist for every discrete outcome. Although we can rationalize many of the choices that we make, there are many choices that we make for which we can never know the reasons. This is because we make many decisions based on our feelings and feelings derive from emotions and unconscious archetypes and therefore feelings do not always have knowable causes even though there are causes for all feelings.

Science argues that quantum phase coherence has no role in choice or free will and therefore no role in neural action potentials either. However quantum phase coherence along with entanglement is part of all matter and can and does affect many things that we feel we understand very well since we do not often consider the role of discrete quantum phase in macroscopic action. After all, most people's lives lie outside of science and include art, music, literature, religion, law, government, commerce, crafts, and so on.

People have the freedom to choose many different outcomes for their lives, but science often feels the need to persuade people with the subjective opinion that people do not really have any free choice. Science claims that free will is an illusion, but this is a subjective opinion often masquerading as an objective measurable fact. For example, a recent blog post states:

1) You never had free will.
2) Your story has not yet been told.
3) Input matters.
4) Understand yourself.

Saying you never had free will makes it seem like you have measured free will and have repeatedly found that it is not present in anyone that you measured. Since there is actually no measure of free will, it is incorrect to then claim that no one has free will. After all, there might be someone somewhere that has free will even though you may not have free will. Since you admit that everyone believes that they have free will, it makes it very difficult to then state that free will does not exist.

Everyone who has lived is part of the collective memory of civilization. History tells more stories about famous people than those who are not famous, but family relationships tell many more stories than any popular history ever could. While input certainly matters, it is by a lifetime of experience and memories that we make decisions, not just by immediate input. Moreover, the superposition of a large number of precursors as well as possible outcomes all affect free will. Understanding yourself is tantamount to understanding consciousness. Since there are no objective measures for consciousness, subjective claims about understanding consciousness and free will have no objective meaning.

Free choice has everything to do with individual freedom and social responsibility, which are way beyond the measurements of science. In fact, politics limits individual freedom and social responsibility with science, but such limits can then use social responsibility to justify killing their own people. Thus, Nazis claimed the science of eugenics and Marxists claimed the science of class oppression and surplus capital as ideologies of social responsibility that justified killing many people. The Nazi eugenics was based on a science that supposed racial struggle would improve civilization while Marx's profit from surplus value was based on an economic science and that a class struggle would improve civilization.

In both cases, murderous regimes used an ideology of social responsibility to justify the killing of many millions of people to benefit a much larger number of people. In fact, the murder of so many people increased suffering and misery much more than pleasure and joy. In contrast, it is the primacy of the individual and the social responsibility of the free market that, despite its flaws, seems to have unleashed a great wealth of human productivity for civilization.

Two Different Narratives for the Same Universe

There are actually two very different narratives for the same cosmic microwave background and red-shifted galaxy light of deep space. The mainstream Big Bang universe of space and time shows a constant mass and speed of light as well as many other constants as well, all with the same constant tick of atomic time. Therefore, the universe expansion time has the same atomic time since creation.

An alternative explanation for the same red-shifted galaxy light is that matter and action are not constant for precursor, hydrogen, stars, and galaxies. The shrinking matter and expanding force universe, aethertime, is a collapsing wavefunction that shows a shrinking mass and growing speed of light along with other growing constants. Instead of a plethora of aethertime constants, there are just two constants; the mass and action of an aether particle. There are two aethertime dimensions, not just atomic time. As the universe decays, atomic time ticks faster than the universe decay time and so there are just two aethertime constants: the aether particle mass and its action as a quantum oscillation.

The Planck constant, h, is the action constant of light since it gives the energy of each photon of light from the light's oscillation frequency. Likewise, h_ae = h/c² is the action constant of aethertime since it gives the equivalent mass of any action oscillation frequency. All quantum aether oscillates and the relative phases of matter's quantum oscillations are what either bonds or scatters matter with aether exchange. This means that each photon of light is actually a bound aether pair and the photon energy is equal to the strength of that bond.

The aether particle mass is the second aethertime constant and is simply the fraction of hydrogen atom action mass, h_ae/t_B, due to gravity versus charge, force_charge/force_gravity. The ratio of the Planck constant, h_ae, to Bohr hydrogen orbit period, t_B, is the mass equivalent bonding energy of a hydrogen atom and so the aether particle mass is then the matter equivalent bonding energy of the universe to itself.

Quantum Action Causal Set

One thing is for sure...it is things that happen that make up the universe and a causal set is full of the precursors and outcomes of things that happen. Quantum causal sets give a discrete and finite perspective for our physical reality. A quantum causal set is very different from thinking that things happen in a void of continuous space and time. Things first of all happen as outcomes because of precursors in a casual set and the notions of continuous space and time then emerge from precursor and outcome actions.

Here is a very low resolution causal set Hasse diagram showing the precursor creation of CMB hydrogen result in the outcomes of stars and then galaxies. Of course, there would be much more detail in a higher resolution Hasse diagram.

We grow into consciousness memories when our childhood precursor memories lead to the outcomes of our adolescence and then those memories become the precursors to adult outcomes and then further memories with more experience. Time in this sense is simply the decay of precursor to outcome memories as the Hasse diagram shows.

Fast time emerges from counting a very large number of outcomes into a second, day, and year from cesium-133 atom precursor resonances of an atomic clock.

Likewise, the emergence of space involves the timing of the speed of light in some fraction of a second.

Direction, though, emerges from the relative quantum phases of matter and action. The 90 degrees of Euclid's right angle emerges from the relative matter action phase for bound actions. Direction then emerges from the relative phase of matter and action for motion.

Even though direction angles seem continuous and infinitely divisible, they are fundamentally discrete with the same granularity as discrete aether. After all, direction really emerges fundamentally from time as the rotation of earth makes the day.

Instead of an expanding space with constant mass and force, our universe emerges from a very slow collapse of matter and growth of force. Instead of time and space with position and momentum and constant matter and action, matter action precursors and outcomes shrink matter and grow force and this is how the universe really works. 

Many Possible Outcomes Collapse into One Polar Choice

We make decisions by first of all collapsing a large number of possible outcomes into a single polar and binary choice that then becomes the outcome of a free choice. After all, this is the same way politics among people allocates otherwise public resources by making more or less transparent decisions. When governments first form, there are many initial choices that can be quite contentious, but eventually a government of one sort or another does form or there is another government and the process begins again. Likewise, people first learn how to choose from many possible outcomes by this same process of collapse of possible outcomes.

After a government forms, it matures and develops to limit individual freedom in lieu of social responsibility and choices become more and more trade offs and compromises with near equal benefits to polar factions. With near-equal trade offs, though, there are invariably very vocal factions on both sides of each polar choice. People argue that it is necessary for there to be transparency in the decision-making process to inform people who must accept the inevitable compromises. Political decisions invariably mean that there are two or more different precursor actions for the same outcome and so the polar factions must compromise or stalemate.

However, transparency in a highly informed culture necessarily results in incremental collapse from the chaos of many possible choices into the order of increasingly polar factions for any choices collapsing into a binary decision point. People naturally make decisions by incremental collapse from the chaos of many possible outcomes into the order of a binary choice of action or inhibition. The initial chaos of many possible choices about an issue eventually condenses into a binary decision to incite or inhibit some action.

The electronics of our information age allow people to participate in many more of the incremental compromises than in the past that are all part of each polar decision. As a result of these incremental choices, people tend to end up in one of two polar extremes associated with each decision.

While issue polarization is then a necessary part of any decision making process, the information age has exponentially increased the number of people entangled in political decisions. We share our consciousness by bonding or conflicting with others in the dynamic of civilization. We will not always agree with other narratives and we may propose a narrative of our own or we may adopt another person's narrative. More likely, we simply acquiesce to another narrative despite our not agreeing with that decision.

However, when one faction includes a virtue signal in their narrative, the outcome many degenerate into fanaticism instead of free discourse. Although a virtue signal can be appropriate, virtue signals are more often used as weapons against any free discourse. Virtue signals without free discourse can then degenerate into fanaticism, conflict, rebellion, and even civil war. In the Civil War, the South's virtue signal was a for profit benevolent servitude and that virtue signal resulted in 620,000 soldier deaths, 10,000 civilian deaths, $22B cost, 15% decline in GDP, and countless years of reconstruction...all to preserve this Southern virtue of a profitable servitude.

Individual Freedom versus Social Responsibility

Some people value the chaos of individual free choice more than the order of social responsibility and others value the order of social responsibility more than the chaos of individual free choice. While social responsibility allows large numbers of otherwise anonymous people to live in the order of a cooperative and yet still competitive civilization, excessive social responsibility has very well known undesirable outcomes as tyranny and political suppression of free choice. Innovation and progress, though, depend more on individual free choice than on social responsibility.

In particular, many leaders have used social responsibility to justify tyranny and policies that harmed or even killed some people as long as many more people benefit overall. Mao’s famine killed over 30 million people in 1958-1961 ostensibly to benefit the much larger population as part of Mao’s great leap forward in the name of Marxism. The Nazi death camps killed 6 million Jews and others in order to purify a much larger Aryan race in the name of a master race. Both used social responsibility to justify their malevolence and are examples of how bad people can be.

Therefore, there is a third very necessary archetype besides individual free choice and social responsibility. This third archetype is the realization of how bad people can be and that all people are capable of malevolence, including you. Civilization tells and retells a large number of stories with many different themes, but a recurring theme is how bad people can be since we are all prone to malevolence.

Two people on individual Cartesian paths exchange shine of compassion with each other and that exchange can bind those two into a relationship with neural bonds. Neural bonds, like gravity bonds, result in more determinate action with outcomes that have clear precursors.

Each person has as part of human nature both the capacity for social bonding to an individual or group as well as the potential for malevolence, which conflicts with people. In other words, people have a certain amount of empathy shine for others and their needs as well as certain number of selfish needs of their own to satisfy, which leads to conflict and negotiation. A person’s free choice might not benefit and might even harm someone else’s needs or wealth and even might injure them or even take their lives. However, there are many stories about how people compete for resources with others and yet still cooperate and compromise with the overall outcome of more wealth for all.

Even though two people might not ever have equal wealth or even equal benefit from every competitive or cooperative transaction, they can still both benefit and live longer and learn more to compete for wealth as well as to cooperate and compromise. A group of people bonds with the relational shine of compassion despite the Cartesian conflicts of free choice competition. Social bonds, like quantum bonds, result in more probabilistic action with outcomes that often have no clear precursors, only more likely precursors.

It is part of human nature to compete with others for resources, but that competition must first of all involve cooperation and compromise and must therefore be fair. The outcomes of competition are necessarily unequal because some people are just naturally more talented than others in any given competency. People are naturally diverse in their abilities as well as their desires and so, for example, there are only a very few people who are really very good at creating music and art and this means that, given individual free choice, a limited number of people can end up owning a large share of a population’s music and art. As a result, people can often feel envious and jealous even if the competition was fair. Furthermore, if people acquire wealth by force or coercion and not by fair competition, those who suffer will inevitably feel deep resentment. Such deep resentment results in criminal and even rebellious outcomes and the response is incarceration of resentful people.

In fact, given the potential malevolence of human nature, it is literally impossible for any civilization to completely avoid some criminal incarceration. Incarceration is a necessary limit to individual free choice just as politics is a necessary limit for social responsibility. Populations with large disparities of wealth along with diverse race, ethnicity, language, and religion also have large incarceration rates as well as lots of politics to promote and limit social responsibility. All that people can ever hope to do is maintain a fair competition for resources given individual free choice and limited social responsibility to permit competitive and free prosperity while also limiting the unfair outcomes of criminals and rebels.

Religions satisfy a basic human need for meaning and purpose and people therefore submit to the order of a particular social responsibility of religion. Religions give meaning and purpose by retelling the many ancient stories of a fall or malevolence and then rebirth. Religions teach a cosmic order of social bonding emerges from a seemingly meaningless quantum chaos of individual free choice. The bonding of people into religions always involves their giving up some individual free choice for the benefit of learning the archetypes, stories, and rituals of that religion's social responsibility. In fact, all people must learn the archetypes of compassion and shame to live in a cooperative and yet still competitive civilization and religion provides those archetypes for social responsibility along with stories about human malevolence.

Today there has been a remarkable reduction in global poverty along with increases in life expectancy and education. These successes seem to have been largely driven by the rise of individual freedom along with the proliferation of social responsibility in competitive and fair markets. Although competitive markets varies widely among different politics, the one consistent factor is the incentive and pricing of a competitive market. Even countries with particularly high wealth disparities like Namibia show that competitive markets still reduce poverty while increasing both life expectancy and education.

Ever since China and India have evolved from a tyrannical social responsibility to ones that allows more individual free choice with incentives for competitive free markets, those economies have grown and will continue to grow and prosper. The growth of competitive markets repeats in Africa where even the most impoverished countries continue to show people with longer lives, more education, and less poverty.

Theory of Everything

If a person and the earth were both growing in size and gravity was shrinking at the same rate, the person could not tell since what they say and felt would not change. Growing matter and shrinking gravity would then explain gravity as long as gravity decreased at the same rate. The force of shrinking gravity in direct proportion to matter growing would mean that universe is made up of both growing matter and shrinking force.

There is a cosmology that unifies charge and gravity based on the exact opposite, which would be a universe of shrinking matter and commensurate growing force. In fact, a famous quantum physicist Paul Dirac first proposed the Dirac large numbers hypothesis in 1937, which set the ratio of the size of the universe to the size of the atom to the ratio of charge to gravity force.

In the large number hypothesis, many constants change slowly in time and that distant galaxy light red shifts do not mean universe expansion but simply that precursor forces and matter were both different from ours. Since spectral line splittings of distant galaxy light do not change from ours, mainstream science long since rejected the large numbers hypothesis as did Dirac himself. That is, while the red shift of distant galaxy light indicated universe expansion, the spectral splittings seemed to show that forces did not change with any precursor galaxies, only red shift.

However...if outcome matter shrinks and forces grow, this would explain why precursor galaxies are red-shifted and explain why distant galaxy spectral line splittings do not change. In fact, it means that our reality is actually changing very, very slowly and it takes literally hundreds of years to measure the change...or much greater precision than current measurements provide. However, very soon high precision measurements will be able to measure these changes. Such measurements will show neither string theory nor quantum loop gravity nor supersymmetry nor multiverses are valid. In fact, string theory can never be disproven because it can explain anything...therefore string theory has no predictive value.

The notions of outcome matter shrinking and force growing are consistent with quantum cause and effect of the precursors and outcomes of both gravity and charge and so does represent a unified theory of everything. However, the universe is then first of all a quantum causal set where there are many possible outcomes to any given precursor. A quantum causal set universe is not then determinate, unlike Einstein’s relativistic gravity in macroscopic time and space.

While we normally think of time and space as a preexisting backdrop for matter and action, in a quantum causal set, matter action outcomes are the result of precursors without time and space. In fact, time and space both then emerge from the family relationships of precursors and outcomes along with the extra entanglement of quantum phase. Both matter and action have relative quantum phases that are also important for determining outcomes from precursors.

Time then emerges from electron spin period and space emerges from electron charge radius and electrons, protons, and neutrons and the entire universe is made up of discrete quantum aether particles. There are then only two constants from which all other constants emerge; the mass of a discrete aether particle and the action of that same discrete quantum aether as the matter-time Planck constant.

The Planck constant is the proportionality between light’s frequency and its energy and is the basis of our physical reality. Max Planck derived light’s quantum to explain why microscopic charged matter of electrons and protons did not behave like macroscopic charged matter. The matter-time Planck constant is likewise the proportionality between aether frequency and its mass as energy. In matter time, just as in Einstein’s relativity, energy is proportional to mass times the speed of light squared, E = mc².

With matter action, time and space emerge from aether action: time from aether spin period and space from aether radius. This makes discrete aether action consistent with both gravity relativity as well as quantum charge, but now as a discrete aether quantum causal set. All other particles emerge as aether condensate outcomes and constants as aether precursors and in particular, the cosmic microwave background surrounds us with the light of creation precursors. Creation was the condensation of a certain very small fraction of precursor aether into the 2.7 K microwave, electron, proton, and neutron outcomes of all of our atoms today. Each atom today exists as a result of the emission and action of light at the CMB creation.

Gravity emerges from the collapse of aether at the scale of the universe and charge emerges from the collapse of aether at the scale of the atom. An electron has a spin magnetism that couples with its orbit magnetism in each atom to give a spectral splitting. Even though electron mass shrinks, its spin increases just as the electron orbit spin also increases.

Surreality of Time and Space

There has not yet been a single math foundation of our reality, rather there have been two rather incompatible maths and yet both depend on the realities of continuous space and time. The math of relativistic gravity shows the direction and velocity of discrete macroscopic objects as they move through continuous space and time in one determinate direction. The math of quantum charge, in contrast, shows the direction and velocity of discrete microscopic objects jump in many directions and even forward and back in time, ostensively through that same continuous space and time. Whereas a gravity outcome is determinate and certain, a quantum outcome is probabilistic and uncertain. While gravity outcomes are determinate and not subject to free choice, quantum outcomes are subject to free choice.

A gravity clock always ticks forward, but a quantum clock can tick in either or both forward and reverse. Each quantum moment is then a superposition of the past along with many possible future moments. The discrete moments in quantum time superposition eventually phase decay into the reality that agrees with gravity time, but before that, quantum time represents a fundamental confusion between gravity past and gravity future.

For a determinate gravity path in space, there is a determinate path from precursor to outcome that has some chaotic noise along the way. Every infinitely divisible step on the path is determinate and so there is no free choice since there is no quantum phase decay despite an infinity of steps. Precursors completely determine each outcome and there is no entanglement of the quantum phases of any other outcomes. This means there is a shortest path called a geodesic whose outcome does not change unless there are outside forces that act. A Hamilton-Jacobi equation then predicts any action by using the difference in kinetic and potential energies, called the Lagrangian.

A probabilistic quantum path does not follow a single determinate geodesic path, but rather each step of a quantum walk is a result not only of precursors, but also a superposition of the quantum phase of many possible discrete outcomes. The steps in a quantum path are limited by the fundamental granularity of the universe. Each step therefore involves a free choice that entangles those many outcomes and so the path is always probabilistic and never determinate. A quantum outcome is not only determined by its precursors, but also by the phase entanglement of other outcomes.

There is actually no way to predict gravity and charge with a single equation in continuous time and space. While the Hamilton-Jacobi equation determines each gravity path according to the difference in kinetic and potential energy, the quantum Hamiltonian Schrödinger equation determines each quantum path according to a total energy (i.e. relativistic mass) and includes quantum phase. Unlike the energy difference that determines gravity paths, the total quantum energy includes quantum phase entanglement. This means that the quantum phase of the mass of an action is orthogonal to the quantum phase of the action itself.

The entanglement of quantum phase between two two gravity bodies means that the precursors of continuous time and space determine gravity outcomes. The math foundation of our reality is actually based on the discrete matter action of outcomes from precursors. Instead of the two notions of gravity and charge based on continuous space and time, the notions of time and space actually emerge from our primitive reality of quantum matter and action. For discrete quantum charge, it is easy to show how discrete outcomes are the progeny of discrete matter and action precursors. The archetypes of continuous time and space then emerge from discrete matter action outcomes of quantum single photon charge. Time emerges from electron spin period while space emerges from electron charge radius and the Hamiltonian Schrödinger equation and the total energy is the math, but quantum phase links matter and action.

For discrete quantum gravity, the archetypes of continuous time and space emerge from the quantum charge as electron spin period and radius. While single photon exchange bonds charges, photon pairs as biphoton exchanges determine the outcomes of quantum gravity. This means that instead of just the Hamiltonian and the total energy of single photon exchange, it is the action Hamiltonian-Jacobi equation of the kinetic and potential energies difference of biphoton exchange that is the math of quantum gravity.

The kinetic and potential energy difference of that biphoton exchange then determines a unique direction in time and space for each outcome. For example, if KE=PE, the difference or action is zero and the direction is then unchanged for biphoton exchange just as for classical relativity, but a quantum action can spontaneously emit a photon and then change direction since it is a single photon exchange.

There is More Than Time and Space and Black Holes

Time and space are very strong and powerful unconscious archetypes that help us fill in the blanks for the reality that we perceive. And yet, we have no memory of how we learned these archetypes. We can get a sense of how we learned time and space when we watch a child develop their first order consciousness of space and time by the age of about two years. And yet what does an age of two years mean without time and space?

It is not possible to remember anything without the archetypes of time and space since memory connects outcomes and their precursors with time and space. Long-term memories still need even more relational archetypes like compassion and selfishness before that child can retain long-term memories by about age six or so. The relational nature of memory is then an important part of the underlying nature of our physical reality without time and space.

That is, instead of reality being grounded in an objective reality of continuous and infinitely divisible time and space and our relations with others, reality is really first based on the subjective reality or matter actions of discrete outcomes and their precursors. This discrete relational reality supposes that instead of time and space existing as a objective reality for matter action, continuous time and space emerge  from the subjective matter actions of discrete neural outcomes of discrete precursors as essential archetypes that entangle action memories with sensation.

Objective reality is really then a discrete causal set of a large number of outcomes along with their precursors. Instead of being continuous and infinitely divisible time and space, discrete outcomes that all relate to discrete precursors is first of all what makes up of our objective reality. This means that our objective reality actually is a very large number of discrete outcomes that just appear continuous just as discrete neural action potentials make up our subjective reality.This is the causal set of discrete quantum aether.

The outcome of a black hole emerges the endpoint of matter action in the vacuum continuum of empty space.

Confirmation Bias of Time and Space

Time and space are very important notions that we all use to associate matter action precursors with outcomes. We learn to use time and space for predicting outcomes as children, but time and space are not really fundamental even though they are very useful. We predict outcomes in an external world with the unconscious archetypes of time and space and that objective world of precursors and outcomes then agrees with others.

However, it is the matter action causal set of precursors and their outcomes that is what is fundamental, not really time and space. As a result, it is really possible to make sense out of the external world without time and space and instead with matter action precursors and outcomes. The subconscious mind plays a much greater role in the choices that we make as compared with the conscious mind and the duality of the conscious and subconscious underlies all theories of the mind. In particular, it is by the emotion and feeling of our subconscious mind that we make choices and not by the rational reasoning of our conscious mind. We first make our choices by a feeling of our unconscious mind and then we rationalize those choices with our conscious mind. This gives us the illusion that our free choices are predetermined and not subject to the uncertainty of quantum phase noise. The duality of subconscious feeling and conscious reasoning is what we know as consciousness, which represents the five transcendentals of beauty, truth, feeling, being, and identity.

We do not actually directly sense either time or space even though space and time embed deeply into both our subconscious and conscious minds. What we actually sense are things that happen, called outcomes, and then we deduce with reason the precursors for those outcomes that we call causes. However, there is not only a large amount of information from sensation, that information is often incomplete or inconsistent. Therefore, confirmation bias is the natural result of the rational mind trying to make sense out of the very large amount of sensory information that would overwhelm our mind. Therefore we use our mind's unconscious archetypes to fill in the blanks of perception and provide missing or incomplete or conflicting information for the reasoning of our rational mind. These archetypes are the means by which we make sense out of the external objective world by focusing the conscious mind on important versus ancillary sensory information.

From any given outcome, our mind tends to focus on the sensory data that confirms the biases of our subconscious archetypes and so we tend to ignore sensory data that does not confirm those biases. The natural bias of our subconscious decision process it very well known and is the basis of religion and philosophy. In fact, science itself has a long history of well-known bias dating back many centuries. Ptolemy supposed that the earth was the center of the universe and that was a very strong belief until Copernicus and then Galileo. Early physicians believed bad air and evil spirits caused illness before the science of germs and viruses and yet there remain affects of illness that do not result from germs or viruses and still remain somewhat mysterious.

We sense a large number of outcomes from the world outside of our mind, but really we only focus on the very few precursors of outcomes that have some kind of immediate relevance. Our minds assign the vast majority of outcomes that we experience to precursors based on memory and unconscious archetypes and not on immediate experience. This is part of confirmation bias.

MindBodyResolved

John Horgan’s Mind-Body Problems

John Horgan’s Mind-Body Problems is an anthology of nine interviews of people with very different views about the common themes of free choice, consciousness, morality, and self. Is there free choice, Horgan asks...over and over and over again or is free choice an illusion? Horgan asks a neuroscientist, a cognitive solid-state physicist, a bisexual child psychologist, a telepathic quantum conscious biologist, a schizophrenia-afflicted lawyer, a brain-tumor survivor philosopher, a philosopher novelist, an evolutionary biologist, a transgender woman economist, and, of course, a science writer like Horgan also has a lot of his own questions about consciousness.

Here we see once again ten very smart people who all freely choose to fundamentally disagree about the nature of free choice. However, one thing upon which each of these people did all agree was that they each freely chose to discuss with Horgan each of their own free choices for life’s meaning and purpose. Therefore, each person did believe in free choice and in the meaning and purpose of each of their lives.

However, Horgan did not first ask about the narratives and definitions that developed each person’s free choices and without some understanding of each person’s axioms, the reasons for their free choices are often not completely clear. For example, if someone believes in a determinate universe, then there is no free choice and all choice is set by ultimately knowable precursors even if we do not yet know those precursors. Since the quantum universe actually has no completely determinate outcomes, just outcomes that are more likely, there are quantum precursors that are not knowable even though those quantum precursors do exist.

The many various grand narratives of civilization make up the stories that determine the unconscious archetypes of belief that then are the bases for each person’s free choices. These recursions of precursor and outcome beliefs are the foundation of free choice, but people learn different narratives and form different archetypes and they therefore can feel differently about some outcomes as opposed to how others feel. Given some knowledge of the narratives and development of a person’s archetypes of belief it is possible to begin to understand the feelings that then determine their choices.

There are grand narratives that promote individual freedom and then there are grand narratives that promote adherence to group authority. There are narratives about flawed heroes overcoming adversity as well as grand narratives about death and rebirth, leaving order to experience chaos, envy, and revenge. Everlasting life and eternal justice are very common narratives that also repeatedly show up in religion and other supernaturalisms.

Horgan does not ask about the grand narratives that affect any of these nine life choices and so it is not clear how Horgan feels about the grand narratives. Of course, Horgan does believe that there is free will but often seems discouraged about the determinism of science’s approach to free will and has been a free will proponent for a number of years. Horgan is a science writer who writes and teaches writing about science and yet feels like the determinism of science has somehow failed him. Furthermore, Horgan feels that not only has particle science seemingly come to an end, there has been no progress on the unification of charge and gravity forces and what’s worse, there are still endless arguments about the nature of consciousness and free choice.

Horgan asks each of these people to explain consciousness and each of his nine interviews address many of the key issues of consciousness, but do not mention the underlying narratives that anchor each of their own consciousness, in particular, their free choices. The mind-body problem, for example, is a famous example that dates back to Descartes and Aristotle, among many others, but the ancients also do not seem to address the underlying narratives that anchor free choice. In the end, Horgan believes that free choice represents a perpetual discourse and so is not ultimately really resolvable.

Horgan does not address existence directly. Why do we exist? Why do we exist right here right now and not some other time? Why is it us and not someone else who exists right here right now? These are my and not Horgan’s questions, but those questions lay the groundwork for the unconscious archetypes of free choice.

Of course, without free choice, there would be no one to ask about existence since there would be no one to question existence at all. Other conscious animals and indeed most people simply accept their fates as predetermined without any questions about free choice, right?

Horgan writes a great deal about free choice and all of his interviews invariably address free choice as well. “Is free choice an illusion?”, Horgan repeatedly asks, “or do we have the ability to freely choose among many possible outcomes?” If we can freely choose an outcome, then it follows that that outcome was not predictable, which means that we did not know some of that outcomes precursors. Since in our quantum causal universe, every outcome is a result of a set of causal precursors, for some outcomes there are precursors that are simply not knowable even though they do exist.

The tools of science provide many useful measurements of matter and action. These measurements test our ability to predict outcomes given precursor events. Science therefore predicts the orbit of the earth around the sun as well as the orbit of an electron around a proton. However, science does not predict the outcomes of any free choices that people make as a result of their feelings very well at all. However, science can measure the personality factors, which are how we feel, of each person with some uncertainty and it is by our feelings that we make choices. Personality factors show how we feel about; discovering new things or satisfaction with the known, applying ourselves or being somewhat feckless with tasks, other people’s successes or failures, argument or agreement, and extroverts or introverts.

The orbit of the earth around the sun is a result of knowable precursors of gravity and momentum and so there are determinate paths for the earth and sun. Nevertheless, the matter and action of earth’s orbit are still both limited by quantum uncertainty even with a determinate path. The orbit of an electron around a proton is a series of outcomes that have probabilistic and not certain precursors and so the mass and action along with the path of the electron are also limited by quantum uncertainty.

Science can measure emotions like compassion and anxiety with facial expression, behavior, neurochemicals, and EEG and science therefore measures agreeable and conscientious personalities that help predict how a person feels. These predictions are not very precise and science often finds that people can make choices that still do not seem to make any sense at all.

Despite the uncertainty of behavior and therefore of choice, classical determinists argue that all choices still come from knowable precursors even if a person does not immediately know those precursors. This is simply a restatement of classical determinist cause and effect. Quantum free will argues instead that although most precursors of outcomes are knowable, there are some causal precursors that are not knowable even though they do exist. This is simply a restatement of the quantum superposition uncertainty principle, which means that we do choose some outcomes for reasons that we cannot ever fully know or understand and we call these outcomes free choices.

A classical and causal reality presumes that we can know all precursors for outcomes even though we might not immediately know those precursors. However since we actually live with quantum uncertainty and superposition, this means that there are precursors for some outcomes that we cannot know even though those precursors,such as free will and choice, do exist.

For example, we cannot ever know the exact precursor of either free choice or the path of a single photon even though we can know how we feel about a choice and we can measure the photon energy and action within some limiting uncertainty of phase. Free choice is a recursion or phase of our seeing how other people act and then acting like we see other people act. Language is a similar recursion or phase and, as a result, we learn free choice just like we learn language.

Recursions of precursors and outcomes make up our neural free choice that affect outcomes, which is what we call the self. A set of precursors stimulate a set of corresponding emotions that result in a singular feeling and it is by that singular feeling that we make a choice. We cannot know all of the precursors for an outcome and that includes the precursor that we call free choice. Determinists argue that even though it is not really practically realizable to know all of the precursors of a choice, all of those precursors are nevertheless classically knowable and therefore determinist. However, the fact that we are also beings with both quantum phase and amplitude just like all matter limits our knowledge of quantum precursors by the uncertainty principle. This means that we do have free will after all since free choice is not predictable without all completely knowable precursors.

Currently there is no well-accepted model of the mind and yet for describing free choice, it is important to have some kind of rough model of free choice. That model should be consistent with the known measurements of action potentials of neural synapses, the connectome as how neurons connect, the model should include emotions along with associated neurochemicals, along with the primitive brain, the cerebral brain, feeling, and the EEG resonances of neural action.

A mind model must also show how childhood development imprints the unconscious archetypes of morality, meaning, and purpose and the roles of sleep and dreams for making long term memories and refreshing the mind each day with sleep. Finally, the mind model should also be consistent with the bonding of people into the group hierarchies of cooperative civilization and the mind model should differentiate the relative roles between individual freedom versus the social responsibility to the authorities of group hierarchies.

A complete model of free choice must include the childhood development of unconscious archetypes, some kind of a set of emotions from those archetypes like pleasure and anxiety that generate a singular feeling from sensory precursors, and therefore the precursor of free choice of an outcome of meaning a purpose for existence by means of that feeling.

Action potentials at neural synapses are what stimulate or inhibit choice and so some kind of a model of the mind helps better define free choice. The periodic exchange of a neural action potential bonds two synapses into a bilateral aware matter atom and these bilateral synapses makeup the fundamental EEG delta mode resonance of the mind. Delta resonances reflect the neural atoms of aware matter that bond into the aware matter packets of each moment of thought. Moments of thought show higher frequency resonances with characteristic mode widths and therefore decoherence or dephasing times of thought. Every day, sensations accumulate into moments of experience as delta modes bond into layers of aware matter. These layers are the spectral outcomes of our bilateral neural aware matter packets.

The mind only has capacity for about 40,000 neural packets or moments of thought for each day’s worth experience. During sleep our brains then processes the important neural packets of each day’s experience into long term memory and then reset and the neural aware matter and cleanse the cerebral neurons for the next day’s neural packets. Although this is only a rather approximate model for free choice, it is useful to have some notion of how the mind works that is consistent with measurements.

Horgan’s book is the gift that keeps on giving. These nine interviews reveal not only specific beliefs in free will, free choice, and self but also tell many stories about interviewee personal lives. We learn a set of unconscious archetypes as we grow up and continually update and refine them as we live our lives. These unconscious archetypes are the very important axioms in which we believe as a basis for free will.

Mainstream science has not been able to define free choice very well in the lonely empty void of continuous space and time in which science believes. Science’s spacetime is a vessel for the conjugates of matter and action, and those beliefs in space and time are not completely consistent with the universe as a quantum causal set of precursors and outcomes. A further determinate and classical belief is that we can in principle know all precursors for all outcomes even though we might not immediately know those precursors. This determinate universe is one that follows from relativistic gravity, for example, but our quantum causal set universe is instead inherently uncertain and therefore not completely determinate after all.

In a quantum causal set, there are precursors to outcomes that we simply cannot ever know even though they did exist. The quantum universe is still one that adheres to the determinate space and time of relativistic gravity, but now a determinate and continuous space and time both emerge from discrete quantum matter, action, and phase. The uncertainty of quantum phase has no meaning in the determinist gravity relativity and yet quantum phase is an integral part of the conjugates of matter and action.

Our macroscopic reality is therefore one where quantum phase does not affect matter and action. Light is the simplest manifestation of quantum phase and the interference and coherence of light leads to many quantum properties, in particular uncertainty. Light exchange, as it turns out, is the basic glue that bonds charge as well as gravity and so light exchange is the unifying theme of the quantum causal set universe.

The exchange of neural action potentials bonds people to each other as well as into group hierarchies. An exchange of feelings and free choice are neural resonances that bond people just like light exchange bonds matter. An EEG spectrum, certain neurochemicals, and changes in behavior are all objective measures of an objective bonding of feeling along with the subjective feelings of each person.

Now each person chooses outcomes and the question is between determinate choice or free choice. Each of the interviewees talked about many different choices in their lives and so one question is whether each choice was determinate or free? Each interview involved discourse and bonds between two conscious selves and so were these discourses and bonds the result of determinate or free choices?

The EEG spectra of two people in discourse will measure their states of free choice. An EEG spectrum shows the various neural resonant outcomes that occur before and after free choice, but science cannot yet interpret those resonances as precursors of thought or feeling. There were undoubtedly changes in neurochemicals and other brain activity during these discourses and those changes likely also reflect the feelings between the two. Science also cannot yet completely interpret neurochemicals as feeling, but science has correlated many neurochemicals and other brain changes with various emotions. Finally, there were very likely tells in the behaviors of the two people as they discourse and bond with each other.

These would all be objective measurements of free choice and self for each person, and yet each person would likely still argue about the meaning of free choice and self. To what extent were each person’s choices determinate or free? What measure of free choice differentiates between the fate of determinate choice and the uncertainty of quantum choice?

Most choices in life are really determined by knowable singular precursors and not by the uncertainty among many equivalent outcomes. For example, circumstance and not choice determines when you need to eat since hunger is a knowable precursor of the unconscious primitive mind, but what you eat is a free choice among many equivalent options with unknowable precursors of the conscious cerebral mind. Each of these stories described various precursors that led to life many changing outcomes and each life change was then a precursor to a free choice among many possible outcomes. Some of these people stated their choices were not free choices but were rather determined by knowable precursors of development. However, it was not always clear that there always were knowable precursors and unknowable precursors are what define free choice and free will.

It is clear that there are many unknown precursors to the outcomes chosen by these people and many of them acted as if they made a free choice even when they actually believed all their choices were determinate. In our quantum universe, the superposition of equivalent outcomes means that all of the precursors of any choice are not always knowable even though a precursor does exist as a cause for every outcome.

The points of these nine narratives about subjective feelings and beliefs reveal much more about the tenth narrative, the author, than any of the others. Horgan shares free choice with each of nine people and in so doing, reveals much more about the nature of his own free choice. In a classical causal universe, every outcome has a knowable set of precursors, which is simply a restatement of classical cause and effect. Science can and does measure free choice with any number of objective tools. The action potentials of neural synapses, the connectome, emotions, neurochemicals, the primitive brain, the cerebral brain, feeling, and the EEG resonances of neural action all objectively measure the outcome of free choice.

Since every outcome of free choice has a set of precursors, it is natural to presume that it is possible to know all of the precursors of free choice, morality, and self. Since science believes that it can objectively measure and know every outcome in a causal universe, determinists argue that science can likewise objectively know every precursor as well. However, in a quantum causal universe, even though every outcome has precursors, there are quantum precursors that we simply cannot ever know.

These nine narratives all describe choices of one outcome from among a set of many possible outcomes and then attempt to describe the precursors for those choices. Yet many times, the precursors were simply statements like, “I don’t know why I chose what I chose.” When asked if a choice was an example of free choice and free will, there were determinate people who believe that that they can in principle know all precursors even when they might not immediately know a particular precursor and there were free will people. A determinist believes that since each outcome has causal precursors, it is then possible to know all precursors. Determinists argue that free choice is just an illusion born out of the chaos of classical noise, not quantum phase noise.

However, free will and free choice are precursors of a quantum causal set universe and there are quantum precursors that we cannot ever know even though they do exist. Of course, a belief in actually unknowable precursors is equivalent to a belief in the outcomes of free will, morality, and self. The people that believe in free will simply accept the fact that there are unknowable precursors and the outcomes of morality and self are likewise beliefs in unknowable precursors. However, free will is then consistent with not only the chaos of classical noise, but also the order of quantum phase noise.

Determinists believe that the mind is a classical machine and like any classical machine, mind outcomes are then all due to completely knowable precursors, albeit with some chaos. This is a determinate belief in free will as an illusion just like the game of life is a determinate illusion of chaos. However, the mind is actually a quantum machine and like any quantum machine, it is simply not possible to know all of the precursors of the outcomes of a quantum machine due to quantum phase. This is a quantum belief in free will.

Each of the nine narratives shows the objective existence of free choice since readers can all agree that all ten people were conscious. Likewise, each of the nine narratives showed many outcomes of choice, morality, and self without actually showing very many of their precursors. The determinist assumes that people can in principle know all of the precursors to choice, morality, and self, only limited by complexity and chaos. Quantum uncertainty means that people actually cannot know all of the precursors to the outcomes of quantum choice, morality, and self. In other words, although we can know many of the precursors that make us who we are, there are some precursors in which we all must simply believe for free choice in a quantum causal universe.

My second read of Mind-Body Problems was even more rewarding than was my first read. This was because there is a great deal of information embedded in the many layers of Horgan’s stream-of-consciousness style of writing...about free choice. A recurring theme in each of the nine plus one narratives reveals the precursors of morality, free will, and self for the free choices of each of ten people; nine interviewees and the author.

The ten narratives represent a spectrum of free choice showing the range of five personality complements or factors: conformer versus nonconformer, conscientious versus thoughtless or feckless, agreeable versus obnoxious, extravert versus introvert, and empathic versus callous. Likewise each spectrum of free choice also shows the five emotion complements: compassionate versus selfish, joyful versus miserable, serene versus angry, pleasure versus anxiety, and pride versus shame. These people are all well-published, intelligent, and creative and so do not represent either conformists or thoughtless and careless people very well, but they do represent all the other personality factors and emotions fairly well.


We actually live in a quantum causal set universe where it is simply not possible to know all of the precursors to the outcomes of choice, morality, and self. Even though we know these precursors do exist in a quantum causal set, we simply cannot know all of the precursors for the choices that we make, even though we can often know many of the precursors of our choices. Since we cannot know all of the precursors for emotions, for example, those outcomes are free choice and free will.

Determinists believe that we can know all of the precursors of choice, morality, and self but quantum uncertainty means that it is simply not possible to know all of the precursors of choice. Even given the chaos and complexity of classical noise, we simply do not live in a determinate classical causal universe. However, most of the macroscopic universe does seem determinate and simply subject to the complexity and complexity of chaos. Thus, even very smart people often do not accept the fact of free will and often argue vociferously about the illusion of free will.

These narratives all describe emotion precursors to a singular feeling and how those singular feelings are the precursors to free choice, morality, and self. But it is not possible to know all of the precursors to any emotion even though we can know those precursors do exist. For example, we feel the need to accept a limited group authority (i.e. a government or a job) despite losing some individual freedom and often enhance our lives as a result of accepting that group authority and hierarchy. This outcome is a balance driven by a feeling from a set of emotions and, once again, it is not possible to know all of the precursors to emotion precursors.

We simply feel that it is right to give up some individual freedom to a group authority, but then argue endlessly about how much freedom we feel is right to give up. Each narrative shows that the precursors of emotions are the unconscious archetypes that we cannot ever really know. The narratives further show that a set of emotions are the precursors to a singular feeling of free choice and it is by such singular feelings that we make free choices, have morals, and know our self.

Only one of the ten does not accept group authority but all seem to live otherwise pleasant lives. Some have experienced significant physical and or mental problems and learned how to be successful despite their problems.

It is also not possible to know all of the precursors to the outcomes of either wealth or poverty even though it is possible to know many of those precursors. Free market capitalism is one of the precursors to increasing productivity and wealth and increasing wealth is one of precursors for reducing poverty as well. Free market capitalism increases productivity with the incentives of individual freedom and accumulating personal wealth, among other outcomes. Capitalism in the U.S. distributes 49% wealth to just 15% of population and only 6% wealth to 15% of population. The remaining 45% of wealth is then more than sufficient for the middle 65% of the population to live well in the U.S. and so most people accept the tradeoffs of capitalism.

People nevertheless feel it is still important for the government to redistribute some fraction of wealth to the 15% or so of the population that live below the poverty line with only 6% of U.S. wealth and also to provide equal opportunity as well. However, the outcome of wealth redistribution does occur at the expense of some loss of individual freedom precursors. A collective feeling or morality is a precursor to wealth redistribution and emotions like compassion and pride are precursors to the collective feeling that chooses wealth redistribution, but it is still not possible to know all of the precursors for those emotions.

Free speech is a precursor whose outcome is not always possible to predict since free speech depends on how other people feel about what is said. Feeling is subject to quantum uncertainty because of the nature of neural aware matter spectra. An EEG spectrum is a superposition of many possible neural precursors and outcomes and it is only possible to know each precursor within some limited quantum uncertainty of matter, action, and phase. The uncertainty of an EEG spectrum is defined by the line widths of its resonances, which are the dephasing or decoherence times of moments of thought.

It is not always possible to know all of the reasons or precursors for why a person chooses to tell the stories that they choose to tell. Correspondingly, it is not always possible to measure all the sources of the decoherence times of thought. The stories that do resonate result in EEG resonances and the stories are an important part of free speech, though, since stories that resonate bond people together into group hierarchies with acceptance of group authority. Likewise, EEG resonances are the result of the binding of aware matter into moments of thought. The more people are free to choose their own groups, the more individual freedom they have and the more adaptable the resultant civilization is to outside changes. Acceptance of group authority decreases individual freedom, which resists change and makes civilization less adaptable to outside changes.

Each moment of our life is a superposition of precursors and outcomes that determine feeling and how we choose a single outcome. The emotion precursors that determine feeling outcomes therefore depend on both precursors and outcomes and include the outcomes that we choose as well as outcomes that we do not choose.

A third read of Horgan’s book along with its comments provides even further insight into the nature of free choice. Horgan says in the wrap-up that the book still feels incomplete since none of his stories result in objective and testable definitions of free choice, free will, morality, or self. But all of the nine stories do result in human bonds and those bonds reveal many subjective feelings about free choice, free will, morality, and self.

As a result, all of the nine stories reveal the human bonds that are elaborate exchanges of free choice, free will, morality, and self. The discussion comments are then further stories that also bond Horgan and others including me.

Therefore, the one objective and measurable definition of free choice is then as the neural resonances that bond people together and that addresses and resolves Horgan’s mind-body problems. Free choice is what bonds people together just like gravity bonds people to the earth and charge bonds electrons and protons together as atoms and molecules and people and free choice. The nine stories represent a spectrum of the neural resonances that bond people together and that bonding outcome is a free choice.

It is possible to understand free choice as a neural exchange that bonds people and self and to understand that these nine stories and all such stories form human bonds. The theory of gravity relativity predicts outcomes from many macroscopic precursors, the theory of quantum action predicts outcomes from many microscopic precursors, but these two theories are fundamentally incompatible in mainstream science due to quantum phase. A successful theory of free choice will then predict the outcomes of human bonding from the precursors of people and self.

Chopra comments that these nine stories are not useful precursors for predicting free choice since Horgan values all of the stories equally. However, any theory of free choice should just be able to predict the outcomes from neural precursors. Since free choice bonds humans with neural resonant precursors, the precursors of free choice are very good predictors of the outcomes of bonding and self. These nine stories are quantitative and objective measures of various free choices of bonds that form since most people can agree with and repeat the results with their own interviews of the same nine people.

Relativistic gravity bonds are the outcomes of the macroscopic precursors of quantum matter action and phase and charge bonds are the outcomes of the microscopic precursors of quantum matter action and phase. So the bond of free choice is simply the exchange of neural aware matter resonance as yet another manifestation of the quantum matter-action bond.

Free choice exchange bonds people together with phase entanglement and coherence just like gravity bonds neutral objects with biphoton exchange and charge binds atoms and molecules with single photon exchange. Each quantum bond has complementary light emission with phase entanglement and coherence and those emitted photons make up what we call gravity as well as free choice. The entangled phase correlates of light emission make up the photon bubbles that surround each of us and those photon bubbles define the nature of gravity as well as that of free choice.


There are many quantum matter actions that are all together what bond people to each other with exchanges of free choice. The discourse of language and stories are some of the many quantum matter actions of free choice that entangle and correlate our respective photon bubbles and so quantum matter actions are then an objective definition of free choice. The nouns, verbs, and modifiers of language reflect the matter, action, and phase of quantum matter action.

The couplings of neural action potentials result in certain neural phase resonances that we call moments of thought and feeling. Those neural resonances are what bond people into self, pairs, and groups and we call those bonds free choices. Conflict is a result of a lack of neural resonance between people and it is by the unconscious archetypes of feeling that people feel either bond or conflict. When free choice bonds with itself that therefore defines self in the same way that electron self energy ends up defining itself as well. However, an electron without a proton is like a person without other people and ultimately, it is bonds that define all matter as aether, atoms, molecules, people, earth, sun, stars, galaxies, superclusters, universe, and free choice. Unconscious archetypes give us feeling and feeling gives us morality as well as many other mimes and so archetypes are necessary precursors for the neural aware matter resonances of free choice outcomes. How we feel is an outcome of the unconscious archetype precursors of free choice and how we feel is how we make a free choice. Since it is not possible to know all of the precursors for feeling, free will is the outcome of choices that are not possible to predict with absolute certainty.

In other words, even though each free will outcome has precursors, it is not always possible to know all of the precursors of a free will outcome in a quantum causal set universe. Chopra commented that the nine stories represented a spectrum of free choice, morality, free will, and self without any judgement. Chopra would have included judgements about each story’s value as truth in order to better guide readers into a higher value free choice.

Chopra claims to resolve free choice simply by answering the key question, “How did something come out of nothing?” Chopra’s answer is that the universe was created by the precreated state, which is making something out of nothing. But of course making something out of nothing will answer any question and is also a classic contradiction and paradox since now nothing is something after all. Therefore making something out of nothing is circular and not very useful for answering any question, including free choice.

The fact is that there are certain questions that simply have no answers other than belief. What is the precursor to the universe? What is the outcome of the universe? Why is the universe the way that it is? These questions all have any number of answers and therefore no useful answers for predicting outcomes from precursors within the universe. Why are we here? Why are we right here right now? Why is it us and not someone else who is right here right now?

People can and do ask many such unanswerable questions and then very smart people argue endlessly about the many different answers since any answer will do. What is matter? What is action? What is quantum phase? These three axioms do allow prediction of outcomes from precursors, but we simply must believe in each of matter, action, and phase as precursors of the way the universe is before we can predict outcomes.

The fundamental definition of the precursors of free choice is in the outcome of neural exchange that bonds people together. The one very predictable outcome of the precursor of free choice is the outcomes of bonding or conflict among people. Stories are consequently an important representation of free choice and it is the something of stories that bonds people together, not the making of nothing into the something of precreation.

Chopra says free choice is the bedrock of reality as experienced by human beings. This is simply saying that free choice is free choice, which is an identity and is certainly true, but hardly useful for predicting outcomes from precursors. Chopra further says that we can understand free choice with free choice, which is actually not completely true. Although there are precursors for all outcomes including the outcome of free choice, it is not possible to know all of the precursors for any outcome much less the outcome of free choice. So, even though it is possible to know many of the precursors, it is actually not possible to ever completely know all of the precursors and therefore completely understand the outcome of free choice with the precursor of free choice.

Since free choice involves a unique bond between two people, it is not possible for others to agree on the nature of any of the unique bonds of free choice. This is because there are precursors of each free choice bond that are not possible to know. However, objective measurements of personality, emotions, neural resonances, and behavior, are all precursors that show the strength of that bond of shared free choice.

A model of free choice includes objective measurements of precursors that then predict the possible bonding or conflict outcomes of free choice exchange. People have feelings for each other and those feelings are how they choose to bond or conflict. While it is not always possible to predict bonding or conflict among people with certainty, there are objective measurements that show how people are most likely to behave with each other.

Although two people can agree or disagree about the nature of free choice in a discussion, by the action of sharing free choice they are actually demonstrating the nature free choice that bonds people together in discourse. It is the discourse of sharing free choice that bonds people together and that discourse can be either in agreement or disagreement of issues. When the issue is free choice, it is ironic that whether or not there is agreement on the issues of free choice, the discourse itself actually demonstrates free choice, not any of the issues about free choice under discussion.

For example, two people can disagree about free choice and determinism, but that disagreement will not change the way the universe actually is. In other words, science knows that quantum uncertainty and not determinism is the way the universe works. As a result, science also therefore knows that there are no absolutely certain outcomes with completely knowable precursors. Since free choice cannot ever be completely certain and knowable, free choice is the way that the universe really is. Free choice is not therefore an illusion of otherwise determinate outcomes from completely knowable precursors. Rather free choice from feeling is the very essence of who we are.

Since the complexity and chaos of classical noise necessarily limits the certainty of knowledge even without quantum phase noise, even very smart people choose to ignore the uncertainty of quantum phase noise. Many very smart people then choose to believe in a determinate universe with the illusion of free will despite the actual reality of quantum phase noise in the universe.