Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris Noble  You have said that "psi" is non-physical and now you compare it with radiation? Alpha, beta and gamma rays can all be detected. They can be blocked by different materials.
Comparing "psi" with string theory isn't going to bolster your case. String theory does not currently make any testable predictions but it is not predictionless by definition. If "psi" is defined something that cannot be explained by physcial processes then it's one and only prediction is that it can't be explained by physical processes. It is just an empty vacuous label for our ignorance.
|
I think it is interesting to compare past scientific revolutions with a conceivable future Ψ revolution. There are some interesting points to remember:
1) Each revolution - say the transition from Newtonian gravity - general relativity - keeps the actual results of the former theory (at least within their accuracy), but the underlying formalism changes radically. Newtonian theory was (and still is FAPP) so accurate that it must have been hard to conceive that a complete change of theory was necessary.
2) In a way, many theories don't explain as much as their predecessor purported to do, they just say this is the way things are, and here is the equation to calculate it. Think again of Newtonian gravity - it did not actually explain how two bodies at a distance attract each other, it just asserted that there is this thing called a gravitational field whose only manifestation is to attract masses to each other! Likewise, in a formal sense, QM even gives up the ability to predict the outcome of an individual experiment - all you can compute is statistics.
A physical theory that included Ψ (which perhaps simply means including consciousness) will probably look superficially very different to what exists at the moment, but it will predict essentially the same outcome for traditional experiments, but suggest new possibilities,
just as every previous change of scientific paradigm has. I also suspect that the Ψ-theory will also shed a little more predictive power - perhaps to conscious entities that cannot
in principle be totally predicted.
Regarding your last point, every new advance in science is based on results which do not fit existing theory - the precession of the orbit of Mercury, or the black body radiation curve come to mind.
Usually these anomalous results seem totally swamped by all the data that seems to fit the old theory. If Ψ turns out to be as revolutionary I think scientific history will simply be repeating itself.
I don't think I would be misrepresenting your viewpoint by saying that you see Ψ experiments as a wacky pseudo-science that just distracts from real science. I certainly used to think exactly like that, and maybe you are right, but I think there is another possibility, which is that consciousness (which is not well explained by current theory) is a far more fundamental part of reality, and Ψ phenomena are hinting at this fact.
David