EFTA01052991.pdf

From: Deepak Chopra < IMa> To: Jeff Epstein <jeevacation®gmail.com> Subject: The Universe is a human construct based on modes of knowing and experience Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2017 14:37:58 +0000 My letter to Mlodinow co author of Hawking and Shermer outdated skeptic The Universe is a human construct based on modes of knowing and experience in human consciousness Dearest Leonard I'm on a flight to Israel with 30 supporters of the Chopra Foundation . We are spending a week together exploring both ideas and places . Tomorrow we have a meeting with a professor of biology at the University of Jerusalem who is doing biological experiments on entanglement . I've been reading " Quantum Mechanics - The Theoretical Minimum " by Leonard Susskind . There is a lot of mathematics that I don't understand but I'm still plodding thru it . I've been reflecting a lot during the last few weeks on the fact that although we differ on what may or may not be fundamental reality, we do share something in common! You have the ability to make lay people understand science in a friendly way while I do my best to explain consciousness to lay people in a friendly way . Both science and philosophy are systems of thought with their own logic , ontologies epistemology, and methodologies. As I delve through the difficult texts ( I also read Sean Carroll's The Big Picture ) I'm hoping to bring greater clarity to myself. I want therefore to ask you if you agree or disagree with the following statements derived from my readings and reflections recently . Where you disagree , could you help modify so we can reach a place where we can come to specific conclusions . If we do reach that place I would like to do an article with you at Nautilus or Skeptic or in in one of my regular columns at San Francisco Chronicle or all of them , only if you too agree ifs a good idea ) For now I just need clarity on some ideas ! From Leonard Susskind 1 "The best we can do in QM is to understand electrons and their motion as mathematical abstractions." 2 From this I glean the following : Quantum objects as mathematical abstractions are modes of knowing in awareness : Classical objects are modes of knowing from sensory experience in awareness . If I'm wrong on the above please explain why and make any corrections . I've tried to understand the quantum realm and have come to the following conclusions The quantum domain can best be described as a realm where 1 Both possibilities and actualities exist ( wave function and quantum fluctuation ) 2 Uncertainty / Unpredictability are foundational , but statistical probabilities for outcomes upon measurements , can be calculated and predicted with uncanny precision . 3 Hilbert State is " an infinitely dimensional mathematical space which houses the wave function " - Tegmark "Hilbert space is the vector space of all quantum wave functions. It's not "located" anywhere; space emerges from it" - Sean Carroll. " Hilbert State space in quantum mechanics refers to the space of states . A Hilbert space may either have a finite or infinite number of dimensions." Susskind 4 In the Quantum State prior to measurement " entanglement" rules - space time information energy spin charge matter ( all the building blocks of the universe co exist as possibilities ) 5 Particles could be described either as specific objects with units of matter/energy or as sets of relationships of waves of probabilities . 6 Empirical " facts " are modes of knowing in awareness (where else ) " You can see where Im going - Anything that has been given a name or a description by humans from particles to galaxies is a mode of knowing and experience in human consciousness . If there is a reality independent of human knowing and experience then EFTA01052991 by definition it's unknowable . ( Tell me where I'm wrong .) 7 Everyday reality - the entire universe is a human construct derived from modes of knowing and experience in human consciousness . ( You briefly referred to this as model shaped reality in your book Grand Design with Hawking ) So tell me where I'm wrong please! The scientific description of the universe is a metaphor for inconceivable reality - mathematical abstractions . I wish I'd thought of it earlier but it would have been fun to have you on this trip ! I hope next time if you're willing . Btw the Chopra Mind / Brain Institute at MGH / Harvard is coming through . I may slowly wind down / minimize activities at the Center and relocate entirely to the east coast - my roots ! :) With love deepak Deepak Chopra MD Chopra Foundation yo Chopra Center for Wellbeing Deepak Chopra MD 2013 Costa Del Mar Road EFTA01052992 Carlsbad, CA 92009 Chopra Foundation Jiyo Chopra Center for Wellbeing EFTA01052993