Materialism assumes that everything is made of matter so it leads to conclusions like:
“Observers have to be made of matter…Our description of nature is thus severely biased: we describe it from the standpoint of matter.” (Schiller, 2009), p834.
If matter is all around us, the observer must also be made of matter, even though as far as we know, simple matter doesn’t experience physical events. Yet we still describe everything in terms of matter, even space and time, which are probably human constructs (Chapter 2), leading to:
“… the dogma that the concept of reality must be confined to objects in space and time…” (Zeh, 2004), p18.
But quantum theory now challenges the dogma of materialism that was built into the foundations of physics. The main experiment that did that was Bell’s experiment which, according to D’Espagnat, tested the following axioms of current physics (D’Espagnat, 1979):
1. Reality. That “there is some physical reality whose existence is independent of human observers.” (D’Espagnat, 1979), p158.
2. Locality. That no influence of any kind can propagate faster than the speed of light.
3. Induction. That logical induction is a valid mode of reasoning.
The result showed that one or more of the above axioms must be wrong. If physical reality and induction are true, then locality must be wrong. If locality and induction are true, then reality isn’t physical. If physical reality and locality are true, then induction must be false. To this day, physics hasn’t been able to explain this result, which is based on quantum theory:
“According to quantum theory, quantum correlations violating Bell’s inequalities merely happen, somehow from outside space-time, in the sense that there is no story in space-time that can describe their occurrence:” (Salart et al., 2008), p1.
Bell’s experiment challenged the axioms of physics and there was no answer, so it’s time to go beyond materialism. If the quantum world described by quantum theory is real, then the first axiom must be changed by removing the word “physical”, so it becomes:
1. Reality: That there is a reality whose existence is independent of human observers.
This allows quantum reality to exist independent of human observers, so there is still a real world but it isn’t the one we see. For example, consider the following statement:
“If one adopts a realistic view of science, then one holds that there is a true and unique structure to the physical universe which scientists discover rather than invent.” (Barrow, 2007), p124.
To adapt this statement to the new axiom, we need only remove the word physical, so it becomes: If one adopts a realistic view of science, then one holds that there is a true and unique structure to the universe which scientists discover rather than invent.
This simple change, based on quantum theory, lets reality exist without contradicting Bell’s result, as it challenges physical reality not quantum reality. The universe still has a true and unique structure that scientists can discover rather than invent, but it is quantum not physical. This only requires that all physical laws follow from quantum laws, as the evidence suggests they do.
The second axiom must also be changed, but now by adding the world physical, so it becomes.
2. Locality: That no physical influence of any kind can propagate faster than the speed of light.
If locality applies only to physical influences, then Bell’s result no longer contradicts it, as quantum collapse is a server-client effect not a physical influence. Einstein’s law, that no influence is faster than light, apples to physical effects but not to quantum ones, so they can occur faster than light.
These changes mean that reality and locality still apply, but the first refers to quantum reality, and the second is limited to physical influences. The third axiom, of logical induction, then remains intact, and with it, the methods of science.
This then is quantum realism, that quantum reality exists just as quantum theory describes, so the quantum paradox disappears because quantum causes are now real. There is then no particle-wave duality, only quantum waves that take every path then pick one on arrival, so delayed choice experiments no longer imply reverse causality. Physical events are primal choices not physical effects, so randomness is real. Going beyond materialism reveals a universe based on choices not mechanics.
Changing the foundations of physics won’t end it but the current stagnation will. It just means new rules that make the equations physicists use every day real, not imaginary. Materialism was the mother of physics but every child leaves home one day, so it’s time to explore the unmeasured reality.