Max Planck, Nobel Prize in Physics and inventor of Quantum Mechanics said: As a man who has devoted his whole life to the most clear-headed science, to the study of matter, I can tell you as a result of my research about atoms this much: There is no matter as such. All matter originates and exists only by virtue of a force... We must assume behind this force the existence of a conscious and intelligent mind. This mind is the matrix of all matter. I regard consciousness as fundamental. I regard matter as derivative from consciousness. We cannot get behind consciousness. Everything that we talk about, everything that we regard as existing, postulates consciousness. Dark Energy What is reality? Does it exist only when we look at it? Is it a mathematical object, as it is often said? Due to the evident success of the mathematical description of the world, we believe that the universe is mathematizable. For example, Einstein, through his equations, had succeeded in discovering that two particles entangled in an atom, remain entangled even after that atom has decayed and the particles became separated by large distances. Einstein did not believe this to be possible and this is origin of the famous EPR paradox, which cast doubt on the foundations of quantum physics. However, today, we know from the experiments of Alain Aspect and John Bell that Einstein was wrong and his equations were right. This illustrates well the power of the mathematical description of the world. In spite of this, we think that there should be limits to the mathematization of reality. Most importantly, at a certain point, in order to understand the very nature of reality, the universe and spacetime that makes up these last, it is our intuition that should guide us. It is our conviction that the existence of a psychisme in the universe, which we observe in everyday experience in humans and animals, is an integral part of the nature of spacetime, and it is not something living in it: it is an intrinsic characteristic of what spacetime in essence is. Understanding the nature of this psychisme which manifests itself in the universe, should be the subject of dedicated contemporary research. It must be based on the intuition that researchers have. They will base their work on different working hypothesis, of which each would assume the responsibility, until when new experiments, and new research tools, demonstrate whether their thesis are confirmed or not. If, as we think, this psychisme is an integral part of nature and in particular of spacetime, it should exist also at the level of elementary particles (proto-consciousness?), as it does at the level of the animal kingdom and humanity. It should then be an extremely important property of spacetime, insufficiently studied at present. 1
In this paper we present some ideas on these questions, in the form of a working hypothesis. Perhaps one day they will be forgotten. Or, on the contrary, they could be confirmed by new experiments that future generations will concoct, thanks to the new tools mentioned in the previous paragraph. Dark energy can be likened to the cosmological constant. It possesses certain properties that are similar to the cosmological constant, such as causing the accelerated expansion of the universe. But, Dark Energy is also linked to quantum properties of spacetime, and can be seen as a manifestation of quantum fluctuations of the vacuum, that take place as long as the quantum state of space-time has not decohered. It is possible to identify space-time itself to the substrate of quantum fluctuations, to Dark Energy, that constantly creates particles and antiparticles that annihilate themselves, and that we know represent 70% of the total energy balance of the universe. Quantum states can be described in the framework of equation by Schrodinger, whose genius was to pass from the particle to the wave formalism: HΨ = EΨ However, in order to apply Schrodinger's equation on spacetime we need to give meaning to the energy (E). E is unknown but it can be assimilated to Dark Energy since Schrodinger's equation can be applied to energy only when it is representing a state in quantum coherence. The quantum state of spacetime, in its coherent state that represents Dark Energy, should also be described by a similar equation in its wavelike state. What becomes then of spacetime, when it is near galaxies formed by decohered particles? Could it keep its initial state, or would it fall into an intermediate state, between that of coherent Dark Energy and that of the particles that make up the stars? Could Dark Energy be affected by its proximity to galaxies, in such a way that an intermediate state is created, lying between itself and ordinary matter? Could Dark Matter be a candidate for such an intermediate form? The key question that must be answered in contemporary quantum physics, is not what is Dark Energy, but what is Dark Matter and its possible relations with Dark Energy. The answer to this question would have certainly interested Schrodinger if he were alive. It is in this kind of research, to the author's opinion, that someday the answers to big existential questions could be found, like knowing whether there really was a Big Bang, or, if the universe existed forever with phases of contraction and expansion. Another big mystery in contemporary physics is the evolution of entropy in the universe: It has already been remarked elsewhere in this blog that entropy, which always increases, can be seen as the exact counterpart of the increase in organization in domains such as the evolution of fauna, flora and intelligence in the universe. 2
Equilibrium could be constantly preserved, so that the increasing entropy is inversely proportional to the information included in matter and life. Moreover, Roger Penrose has put forward the idea that close to the Big Bang spacetime was in a «particular» state and that this «particularity» is the counterpart of the initial low entropy, which can thus be identified as the origin of the increase in organization that followed (see in «Theses» - Before the big bang). There appears then to exist a kind of impulse that brings spacetime to self-organize in an increasingly complex manner, in order to transform entropy into information that, in the end, constitutes matter and life. This observation can be compared to the two other thesis of Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff: - The study initiated by Roger Penrose in Shadows of the Mind and continued by himself and Stuart Hameroff in Consciousness in the Universe on the existence of a proto-consciousness at the most elementary physical level. -Their ideas on the nature of consciousness in the universe, and its link with quantum coherence. We quote on this subject from Consciousness in the Universe : Consciousness results from discrete physical events; these have always existed in the universe in the form of proto-consciousness events, that act in the context of precise physical laws, only partly understood for the moment. Biology developed a mechanism capable of orchestrating these events and coupling them to neuronal activity, creating a cognitive sense, conscious moments, and from this also a causal control of behavior. Specifically, these events are assumed to correspond to moments of reduction of the quantum state. We may imagine then, as indicated by Roger Penrose in Shadows of the Mind, that in the microtubules of the cytosqueleton of our neurons, there exists a state of discrete quantum coherence that is constantly regenerated, and that constitutes the elementary berth of our consciousness. That is, the brain contains a structure capable of controlling and using the mechanism of wave-function reduction (collapse). To those that would claim consciousness to be a state only depending on complex structures such as the human brain, Penrose responds by citing the case of unicellular organisms (protozoa) that possess no brain, but nevertheless move in order to nourish themselves or in order to evade danger. It is quite remarkable and deserves to be mentioned the fact that these organisms can be anesthetized much in the same fashion as humans, using similar chemical substances. This is because they also have microtubules in their cytosqueleton, also serving as the berth of their consciousness. What would then become of these phenomena, producing proto-consciousness in elementary particles, when these last are found in immense numbers and in a state of quantum coherence? - Is it reasonable to say that this proto-consciousness disappears? - Or is it more correct to simply consider that this proto-consciousness persists and that the large number of particles of which it is made of, allow it to acquire new faculties? 3
- Should the real meaning of Heisenberg's uncertainty principle be reconsidered in light of what has been previously mentioned? What would then become of these phenomena if we accept that Dark Energy, accounting for the majority of the mass of the universe, is itself in a permanent state of quantum coherence? We could then, finally, attempt to link all the above lines of thought by suggesting that the evolution of spacetime towards an increasingly complex organization, that allows for the state of matter and subsequently life to take place, could be linked to a kind of unknown elementary psychisme intrinsic in dark energy. The above lead us to consider the following hypothesis: - A proto-consciousness exists at the level of elementary particles - All states of consciousness depend on quantum coherence - A kind of consciousness of unknown nature exists in Dark Energy, in which the state of quantum coherence is permanent. Dark energy, that has not yet interacted with matter, and that has thus remained in a state of quantum coherence, would possess this kind of intrinsic consciousness in a manner sufficient to explain the conservation of entanglement between distant particles. One should recall at this point the amazement of Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen when faced with a phenomenon as strange as the entanglement between distant particles. If consciousness possesses the quantum aspects proposed by Penrose, the only case in which a type of phenomenon similar to these correlations can be recognized to take place, would be in the functioning of the human brain, since it is the states of quantum coherence that take place in the cytosqueleton of non-connected neurons, that allow the unity of the self, despite the fact that at the scale of cerebral cells, the network distances separating these neurons are enormous. We could thus suggest that the conservation of correlations between distant entangled particles could be linked to the existence of coherent states and thus, ultimately, to the existence of a psychisme, intrinsic to Dark Energy. Only this intrinsic elementary psychisme of the state of quantum coherence, could explain the instantaneous transmission of information in between considerable distances, that appears to be implied by the EPR correlations. This state of consciousness, could itself be also the origin of the intentional impulses already mentioned above, that evidently, in the opinion of the author, are the source of all that exists. What would be the nature of these impulses of spacetime? We are here touching upon one of the most serious and important problems that future generations will pose themselves: - Are these impulses properties of spacetime, such as the cosmological constant, Newton's constant or the speed of light? 4
- Or do they reflect a psychisme of a nature that remains for the time being unknown and is intrinsic to Dark Energy? When considering the second alternative, we may ask why and how these constants and this program have been calibrated with such precision. Faced with this question, we prefer the first alternative. Still, to reflect on the nature of this psychisme and its precise mechanism by which it functions, pushes us to the extreme limits of quantum physics and maybe indulging in metaphysics. In the ideation of this site, we had chosen an objective: to go as far as possible in the research possibilities of quantum physics, but to remain within the limits that separate this from metaphysics. For this reason, we refrain from deducing further conclusions than the ones presented in this text. It could be that new technologies, to which future generations will have access to, would permit a better study, than is available to us, of this state of consciousness of a yet unknown nature, that is attributed here to Dark Energy. The conviction remains in our mind that this domain of research would be one day be the preferred one, for our children. 5