On being "walking wave functions" in terms of quantum consciousness?

Cognitive Implications in 3D of Triadic Symbols Valued in 2D (Part #6)

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As noted above, the possible implications may be taken further in the light of the challenges to conventional understandings of identity emerging from considerations of quantum reality as articulated by Alexander Wendt (Quantum Mind and Social Science: unifying physical and social ontology, 2015; video; interview). He argues that quantum consciousness theory is speculative, but compared to the alternative its simplicity is hard to beat (p. 292). He concludes with a bold claim: "whatever their current force as explanatory virtues, the coherence, breadth, and simplicity of the quantum hypothesis make it too elegant not to be true". (p. 293).

As one of the currently most eminent of scholars in international relations theory and itsimplications for security, he argues provocatively that conventional understanding of the existence of nation states is questionable, notably from the hypothetical perspective of extraterrestrials::

In contrast, social structures are mind-dependent, and so no as yet un-invented technology will enable ETs to see them. Indeed, even if ETs could scan our brains they would not see them, since social structures are not "in" our brains either, but in our minds. This is not to say that, through careful study of our behavior and perhaps extrapolation from their own experience, ETs could not infer the presence of states. But that would mean coming to see them as we do, by learning to read our minds. Short of that, the ETs would have to report back home that while Earth was teeming with life, perhaps even intelligent life, nowhere were there any states. (pp. 24-25)

Curiously the challenging nature of "existence" is even more strikingly made with respect to the "international community" to which so many appeals are made and which is considered a key to global governance (International Community as God or Sorcerer's Apprentice? Strategic chaos in the absence of an interlocking temporal pattern of longer-term cyclic processes, 2015).

Quantum consciousness: Fortunately or unfortunately, speculation with regard to "quantum consciousness" has become fashionable in many domains -- seemingly to little effect with respect to understanding of global crises. Wendt offers a quantum model of man in sections on quantum cognition and rational choice, agency and quantum will, and non-local experience in time. The points made are remarkably argued.

Of relevance to the discussion above with respect to "extrusion" of 3D forms from a 2D pattern is how a pattern fundamental to the sense of human identity might be understood otherwise. A triadic pattern such as the triskelion could be recognized as a 2D template or "cut out" -- consonant in the case of the Christian trinity with "the image of God", however it may function as a "cognitive aerial" (as argued above).

As with the nation state, to what extent does individual human identity exist over time as "extruded" through that pattern? How does it exist in 3D -- or as a form of higher dimensionality -- other than as creatively imagined, perhaps mistakenly? The question relates to Buddhist insights into the "emptiness of form".

Wendt argues that that:

The idea that people are just very complicated machines has a long pedigree, and became dominant in cognitive science and beyond with the advent of the computational theory of mind in the mid-twentieth century. In this picture we are walking computers, constantly crunching data from the environment to realize pre-programmed objectives. (p. 153)

He imagines a contrasting perspective, variously stressing that humans are effectively walking wave functions:

In this book I explore the possibility that this foundational assumption of social science is a mistake, by re-reading social science "through the quantum". More specifically, I argue that human beings and therefore social life exhibit quantum coherence -- in effect, that we are walking wave functions. (p. 16)

Wendt develops this argument from various perspectives in response to existing schools of thought:

Quantum consciousness theory suggests that human beings are literally walking wave functions. Most quantum decision theorists would not go that far, and indeed -- perhaps wary of controversy -- they generally barely mention quantum consciousness, and then only to emphasize that they are making no claims about what is going on deep inside the brain (much less about consciousness), but are only interested in behavior. (p. 164)

With respect to how humans exist over time, beyond any patterned slice in the moment, Wendt argues:

If we are walking wave functions, then even though our experiences at each moment are actualities, at the quantum level of the unconscious, "there are many histories that are there as potentialities". (p. 211)

The study by Wendt provides a valuable summary of the views of a variety of schools of thought, suggesting that:

While there are a priori reasons to doubt it, there is growing experimental evidence that human behavior in fact follows quantum principles. If that evidence continues to mount, it would confirm a key prediction of quantum consciousness theory, according to which our subjectivity is a macroscopic quantum mechanical phenomenon -- that we are walking wave functions. That would constitute a basis for solving the mind-body problem, and in so doing unifying physical and social ontology within a naturalistic, though no longer materialist, worldview. (p. 292)

Wendt concludes:

In arguing that human beings really are walking wave functions, therefore, my goal has been only to try to foresee what such a confrontation might look like. (p. 290)

You might not share my aesthetic sense and thus be reluctant to believe we really are walking wave functions. That's of course fine. But by arguing it could be true I hope I have given you reason to suspend your belief that we really are just classical machines, and thus to suspend your disbelief in quantum consciousness long enough to try assuming it in your work. If you do, perhaps you will find your own home in the universe too. (p. 302)

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