Night Thoughts of a Quantum Physicist

Abstract

The most dramatic developments in theoretical physics in the next millennium are likely to come when we make progress on so far unresolved foundational questions. In this essay I consider two of the deepest problems confronting us, the measurement problem in quantum theory and the problem of relating consciousness to the rest of physics. I survey some recent promising ideas on possible solutions to the measurement problem and explain what a proper physical understanding of consciousness would involve and why it would need new physics.

Article for "Science Into The Next Millennium", a millennial issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London

References in corpus (2)

• Relativistic Collapse Model With Tachyonic Features
• Quantum Histories

Cited by in corpus (5)

• Between classical and quantum
• Quantum Field Mechanics: Complex-Dynamical Completion of Fundamental Physics and Its Experimental Implications
• 100 Years of Quanta: Complex-Dynamical Origin of Planck's Constant and Causally Complete Extension of Quantum Mechanics
• 75 Years of Matter Wave: Louis de Broglie and Renaissance of the Causally Complete Knowledge
• Fundamental Physics, Existential Risks and Human Futures