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2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44
Proponents of this trend believe that quantum mechanics will help explain human behavior. But it's not that simple.
What is Quantum Psychology
The theory of quantum psychology was born in the 90s of the XX century. Its supporters believe that human behavior is inexplicable from the point of view of classical science: it cannot be predicted and interpreted on the basis of chemical and physical reactions alone. Therefore, the followers of the direction propose to apply the principles of quantum mechanics to the human mind.
The discipline owes its appearance to discoveries that significantly changed the views of modern science. Advances in quantum mechanics suggest that the world is much more complex than it seemed before, and the laws of the universe may be completely unknowable.
Schrödinger's cat, which is simultaneously alive and dead, entangled particles that can interact with each other from different ends of the universe, and other related principles, quantum psychology extends to human consciousness, thinking and decision-making. She became a kind of attempt to reconcile the humanities and natural sciences.
Supporters of this discipline highlight a special - quantum - nature of consciousness. The basic principles were formulated by the American anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff and the English physicist-mathematician Roger Penrose in the 1990s. Together they drew up a model according to which brain activity is a quantum process that generates consciousness, which, in turn, has a wave character.
Penrose and Hameroff pay great attention to special microtubules located in the neurons of the brain, and believe that it is in them that quantum processes occur that explain the unpredictability of human thoughts.
In 2020, Roger Penrose received the Nobel Prize in Physics for his discovery that the formation of black holes proves general relativity.
Hameroff and Penrose concluded that consciousness is connected to the entire universe. According to their ideas, if the waves of the mind and the waves of a physical object coincide, a person begins to think about this object. At the same time, changing thoughts can also change the properties of the object. Thus, consciousness allegedly directly affects the world around us.
The views of quantum psychologists are in stark contrast to the previously accepted notions that consciousness and thinking are physiological-chemical processes.
Penrose also tried to prove, using the idea of quantum consciousness, that it is impossible to create artificial intelligence similar to human.
Why quantum psychology is controversial
Despite its long history, disputes over the academic nature of the discipline are still ongoing. Quantum psychologists themselves create around themselves the image of advanced scientists who are trying to slow down the conservative professorial community. Perhaps many of them believe it.
But not everything is so simple.
Quantum psychology is surrounded by mystical ideas
The provisions of quantum mechanics, incomprehensible to the vast majority of people, are often used to substantiate mysticism and esotericism - something that is supposedly impossible to explain from the point of view of reason. And it turns out that quantum psychology borders on extrasensory perception.
Similar concepts have arisen before. In the middle of the last century, there was a theory of Kazhinsky B. B. Biological radio communication. - Kiev, 1963 "biological radio communication", according to which consciousness works with the help of radio waves. Those who believed in the existence of telepathy argued L. L. Vasiliev. Suggestion at a distance. M. 1962, that more subtle radiations are involved in the mind. Today, along with quantum consciousness, they are discussing no less pseudoscientific torsion.
Under the guise of disciplines masquerading as scientific knowledge (for example, "cognitive psychophysics Dubrov A. P. Cognitive psychophysics. - Rostov n / D, 2006"), belief in paranormal phenomena such as transpersonal experiences or treatment at a distance is promoted.
Other pseudoscientists - like the alternative medicine advocate Deepak Chopra - are popularizing the idea of "quantum healing." Chopra tries to explain Ayurveda - a system of Indian folk healing methods - in terms of quantum mechanics.
The combination of quantum mechanics and psychology is similar to similar processes occurring with synergetics. Some researchers are also trying to apply its principles in the humanities, giving rise to a new pseudosynergetics pseudoscience. So it was Boldachev A. V. Novatsii. Judgments in line with the evolutionary paradigm. SPb. 2007 and with classical mechanics, the theories of Darwin and Einstein, as well as cybernetics.
Penrose and Hameroff's hypotheses criticized
Despite their great weight in the scientific community, Roger Penrose, as well as his colleague Stuart Hameroff, did not escape criticism of their hypotheses in the field of psychology. Row;;; chemists, physicists, mathematicians, neurospecialists and biologists believe that there is no proof of the quantum nature of consciousness. The arguments of Penrose and Hameroff about the connection between the mind and objects of the physical world have been refuted by numerous studies;;; …
The main problem of the concept is that it does not take into account the speeds at which quantum processes occur - about 10−13–10−20seconds. The neurons in the brain simply cannot pick up on them. For example, the excitation of nerve cells is much slower and takes about 10−1–10−3seconds.
Another big discrepancy in quantum psychology appears Brooks M. Is quantum physics behind your brain's ability to think? New Scientist when looking at quantum processes themselves. The fact is that all their specific features (confusion, interconnectedness, uncertainty, and others) are preserved only under ideal conditions: at low temperatures and in the absence of movement. Any impact, such as heat or vibration, returns the quantum process to the laws of classical mechanics. This, by the way, is one of the major obstacles to the creation of quantum computers. Therefore, it is very unlikely that a consciousness with such properties can exist in a warm human brain, which, moreover, is constantly moving.
Still, new research is coming out in the field of quantum consciousness
There are a number of scientific studies that, although they do not reveal the mystical connections of the mind with the Universe, come to the conclusion that quantum theory is able to explain to some extent the work of our consciousness.
You have to start from afar. So, perhaps Ball P. Is photosynthesis quantum ‑ ish? Physics World, quantum processes take place during photosynthesis in plants. Another example is the ability of birds to navigate long flights along the Earth's magnetic field. How they do it is not fully known, but there is an assumption that this is due to quantum effects. Some recent research; led to the conclusion that humans can also be sensitive to magnetic fields.
And that's not all. So, scientists from China noticed that substances with different quantum characteristics, for example, different spin numbers. This is the intrinsic angular momentum of an elementary particle, which has a quantum nature. - Approx. the author., differently affect human consciousness. Similar experiments in the 1980s with the psychotropic drug lithium showed that its different formulations affect the parenting behavior of rats. That is, the quantum characteristics of the substances we use can affect the functioning of the brain.
Based on this, the American physicist Matthew Fisher suggested that molecules with a spin may be present in the brain, allowing them to interact with neurons at a quantum level. Fischer himself, however, noted that his theory is largely speculative, and therefore requires further experiments.
Another line of research suggests using the mathematical apparatus of quantum mechanics to understand how we make decisions.
For example, Chinese scientists in a paper published in the journal Nature Human Behavior concluded that logical errors in people's thinking are well described by the formulas of quantum probability theory. And the staff of the St. Petersburg University ITMO and specialists from the UK and Japan in a joint study generally declare that using the mathematical apparatus of the theory of quantum uncertainty, it is possible to describe the unpredictability of human behavior.
That is, if you believe these conclusions, complex physical theorems can describe the randomness of our actions. At the same time, it is not at all necessary that our brain works according to the principles of quantum mechanics.
While these works still have to pass the verification of the scientific community. But none of them speaks of the fact that the mind is connected with the Universe or that consciousness is capable of changing reality. Therefore, do not let charlatans using incomprehensible terminology deceive you.
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