Quantum Thoughts

"The historical approch, with its aim of detecting how things began and arriving from these origins at a knowledge of their nature, is certainly perfectly legitimate; but it also has its limitations. If everything were in continual flux, and nothing maintained itself fixed for all time, there would no longer be any possibility of getting to know about the world, and everything would be plunged into confusion."

~The Foundations of Arithmetic: Gottlob Frege.

As true as this statement may be, the opposite also holds validity for being true. If everything had the limitation of an absolute truth placed upon it then indeed we would know it all and would not be required to problem solve, think any deeper or quintessentially get to know ourselves. The reason we can come to conclusions is because things are placed somewhere between the knowable and the unknowable and between the limited and the limitless. It is the curious mind that beats them down, reducing them before arriving at calculations that have consistent behaviour and predictability in their outcomes. When things are inconsistent with unpredictable outcomes they are deemed illogical, and can not hold rational or absolute truth, it is inside the things that don't make sense to our reasoning that intrigues us further into them, bringing about new concepts to explore in unseen ways.

The first precursor to finding the answer is to make sure you have found the correct question, which may seem obvious on the surface but when looking deeper you will realise how important the question is and what is in the question, you could then say nothing should be excluded from the question if you are to reach the realism of the answer. Perhaps we should broaden our questions in all things, and be willing to stretch our minds along the seams of our current limits until the stitching comes undone, bringing about new patterns of investigative thought. We seem to live on a scale of comparison between everything that exists and ourselves, therefore we live in comparison to all things and are measured against them in accordance with our perceptive reasoning of them. We are a curious species that uses itself to understand itself hence we use the friction between the question and answers, pushing and pulling ourselves along with the questions in various directions many times hoping for a one answer solution to the quantum question. I think if we are to keep evolving as a species then it is paramount that we put curiosity, critical thinking and creativity at the forefront of importance, and that we explore the self in new ways and continue to break open the human mind.

When we enter the world of quantum physics we are usually left scratching our heads, how can it exist only on the basis that we perceive it to? What does this mean for reality as we know it? Quantum physics is rather new in the larger scope of history, so there are certainly more questions than answers and like that of the never ending journey into the shadows of the psyche, the more questions you ask the less answers you will find, like spiralling into the vortex of a black hole, flying deeper into absurdity and further away from that which used to be known as solid reality of the materialistic world. Which we could then detour into what makes up our reality, all matter is condensed vibration and spinning atoms which contain mostly empty space, what we see is only because that is how we perceive it to be and reacts to our observation of it and so on, but for now, and back to truth, how can absolute truth exist when breaking everything down to the core we find no solid matter? Think of it like this, language was not in existence when the big bang occurred, so language was made by thoughts, which could take us down another rabbit hole of thoughts vs language etc. so we could say, are thoughts made by language, which could be equal to “did the egg come first or the chicken?” So let's conclude that man made language and throughout history people have had to come to agreements on what is true, such as black is black, the linear time is such and such o’clock, the sky is up etc. in doing so we have all come to agreements on that which appears to be absolute truths, which is necessary to live in a structured sustainable civilisation. The conclusion is that we need agreements of absolute truths for the foundation of society and how we organise ourselves and certain things we are surrounded by otherwise they would not be in context or comparison to any meaningful structure, hence as the opening statement cited,

" If everything were in continual flux, and nothing maintained itself fixed for all time, there would no longer be any possibility of getting to know about the world, and everything would be plunged into confusion." And to add onto this statement from Gottlob Frege and give my thoughts more context,

" We suppose, it would seem, that concepts grow in the individual mind like leaves on a tree, and we think to discover their nature by studying their growth; we seek to define them psychologically, in terms of the human mind. But this account makes everything subjective, and if we follow it through to the end, does away with truth. What is known as the history of concepts is really a history either of our knowledge of concepts or of the meanings of words."

First and formost we need certain agreeable absolute truths to function as a species and for any sustainable society to continue in the manner that it has, whether they are at a quantum mechanics level or not is a different question. In the event that we discover with absolute certainty that no absolute truths can or do exist (at which point it would contradict itself, because knowing that no absolutes exist is an absoulte in itself) then we will be peeling away civilisations as we know them and stepping into uncharted territory. We will be entering realms consisting only of subjectivity which will exist simultaneously without any solid conclusions about anything. We could essentially be living metaphysical lives without much involvement with the material based world. Think artificial intelligence, the artificial intelligence i.e. quantum computing etc. is sourcing and gathering the information from somewhere in the universe in a way that our mind is not yet capable, is it just a matter of time before our own mind can stretch beyond its current limited capacities to behave and function in similar ways? You have to ask some serious questions in regards to AI, are we just being prepped for what is about to come? How will truth be regarded if we all find ourselves in a world consisting of subjectivity, artificial intelligence and a virtual reality generated society? The laws seem to be lacking in the area of social media and the internet in general, with not many definitive guidelines.

Whilst the questions of objectivity, subjectivity, morality and reality remains and is heavily debated, one thing is for sure, and that is that we need objective truths in the same way we need wise philosophy to underpin our cultures and civilisations. It is a way to establish common ground amongst the uncommon and to create solid foundations in which to build upon. If it is unity you want then you need the very core of that structure to be in agreeance, anything after that can be as disagreeable, unrelatable, dismissible and as uncommon as you wish, because once the foundation is set it should be strong enough to carry the weight of how ever many individuals make up that society, so long as they hold the same or somewhat similar core principles of that foundation.

I have made similar points in a previous article, which was in reference to the paradox and how it correlates to all of existence, firstly by its very core being double edged, and secondly it is presumably impossible to comprehend things in the order that we do without it. That in order to think deeper we need the unknown so we have something to test against, and compels us deeper in all things and the ultimate is deeper insight into your own self. Which brings me to a quote I have previously written

“ Life is found inside the mysteries and unfolds as we imagine it to. We are the seeker of ourselves, and the seeking continuously rotates through the infinite loop back to oneself”

Searcing for the truths in this world and even beyond this world is an age old study and has been the focal point for philosophers for centuries. We don’t seem to be any closer in reconciling the debates or theories with agreeable and absolute certainties, and strangely enough most angles have valid points when standing alone but differ greatly in comparison, which yet again has the Paradox springing back into existence. So as I previously said whether absolute truths are factual at a quantum level or not is a different question, because we can only fully integrate that concept if we are willing to reorganise the entire foundations of our societies, which is another topic in itself. Which brings up another vital point, it is clear that to some degree western civilisations and philosophy is becoming challenged with ideologies that don’t correlate with its core principle’s, whether this is a serious matter or just a group of fleeting movements is yet again another topic for discussion, and this is being done to the extent that many seemingly do not even realise what is at stake or what they are even in disagreeance about. To make sense of the present we have to first make sense of the past, to make sense of the past is to enter a labyrinth of dichotomy combined with a mutable and unpretentious mind.

~ Leya Hunter.