Article#1: Role of Information Processing/Consciousness and observer's definition of measurement in Physics

Recently, I watched this youtube video from a well-known channel called PBS Space Time. Dr. Matt invited some prominent researchers from Theoretical and Experimental Physics. I am always been fascinated by Prof Max Tegmark's way of understanding two different realms of physics (Quantum field theory/ Quantum mechanics) and Special theory of relativity. This could be a sort of bias because I follow him and read his book Life 3.0.

On one hand, the motion and behavior of particles at quantum scales are described by Quantum Field theory (QFT) while one the other hand, the motion of massive objects is described by Theory of Relativity (TOR). Both theories are a piece of art and do very well prediction of their scales respectively.

In the last few decades, physics is moved more towards the combined theory of everything which is looked from different perspectives like string theory, loop quantum gravity, etc. The real essence of the current research is to join two basic theories present at different scales (QFT and TOR) to make a theory that may describe everything in this universe. Such theories of everything can either be formulated from quantum levels (string theory) and scaled up to massive scales or begins from massive scales and scaled down to quantum scales without breaking any of the assumptions present in the two theories (QFT and TOR). However, none of the theories of everything is fully explainable/correct and the prediction from them gives some absurd results like probability >1 and infinite energies. The experiments at CERN haven't proved anything towards the theory of everything. However, they have experimentally detected the presence of Higgs Boson and Higgs field which give everything matter around us mass.

Experimentalists like Dr. James Beachman who works at CERN discussed his perspective on the junction of both scales (Quantum scale and Massive scales). He has appreciated the idea why the constants like the speed of light, plank's constant are the way they are, why not some other values? When all these fundamental constants are combined, it produces some other constants plank energy, plank length (1.6 x 10^-35 meters is the minimum possible distance in this observable universe), and plank time (10^-43 seconds which is the minimum possible time in this observable universe). He considers that is the junction where both of the theories should at least converge. But, in order to reach those energy levels in CERN and do some experiments to prove it, it may not be a possible human lifetime. He also said that some recent studies have theorized the gravity and dark matter as the emergent phenomenon from the Quantum Qbit informational structure of space-time.

Here comes my favorite part said by Dr. Max Tegmark. Both of the elegant theories have a very faint description of what an observer is? According to theory of relativity, it is an infinitesimal point that has no effect on anything in this universe (which is impossible). According to Quantum field theory, the observer affects whichever is being observed. Both definitions of an observer are contradictory to each other. Without the definition of observer's frame of reference, how can we build a theory that applies to everything in this universe? Without considering an unbiased definition of an observer, we have a bias in our theory, it cannot be general and may not express everything in this universe.

According to Dr. Tegmark, it is necessary to study Neural Information Processing and Consciousness in order to explain an observer. It is a kind of frame of reference from which we are studying physics around us. Similar Ideas are put forward by Dr. Roger Penrose. According to him, Consciousness is responsible for Schrodinger's wave function to collapse when an observer open the box and sees the cat dead or alive. Before the observer's observation, the universe is in a state of superposition. He put forward a theory called OCR (Orchestrated Objective Reduction, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orchestrated_objective_reduction) towards these lines where he says our consciousness plays an important role in observing the universe. He says Consciousness is not a byproduct of neural information processing through neurons and synapses, it is totally different phenomenon that may arise through another set of cells/tissues present in the brain called Tubules. Watch the details of this talk here (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orMtwOz6Db0).

These new ideas in physics and neuroscience are very fascinating and exciting.