Quantum realism is that quantum events cause physical events as quantum theory describes, so quantum waves exist but not physically, just as what creates a video game doesn’t exist in the game it creates. The quantum world follows its own rules, not those of physical reality.
In the Matrix movie, another physical world simulates ours, but matter doesn’t have the power to do that. Even to compute one electron wave function that spreads over a galaxy then collapses to a point in it is beyond current computing [1]. Only quantum processing has that power.
According to quantum realism, there is a real world out there but it isn’t the one you see. What you see is an interface to reality, or a reflection of it, as Socrates suggested. But to describe it as a thought, as Plato did, is misleading. Quantum theory tells us that quantum waves spread until they interact in a physical event that involves mutual observation. It follows that when we observe a photon, it also “observes” us, as suggested by the observer effect in physics. Thus, a tree can’t fall in a forest unseen because the ground it hits “sees” it [2]. This idea is explored in more detail in Chapter 6.
One can compare the reality options in computer game terms as follows:
- Physical realism. A game that booted itself up, with no-one in charge.
- Dualism. A game that was booted up, but now the programmer has lost control.
- Quantum realism. A massively multi-player game, where even a photon is a “player”.
- Solipsism. A single player game, that exists only for one person.
Figure 1.2 compares the first three options using Wheeler’s self-observing eye universe. In physical realism, matter observes itself, though how it does that is unclear. In dualism, a higher reality observes matter, but again how it does so is unclear. In quantum realism, quantum reality observes itself using a virtual reality interface, just as quantum theory describes.
The options are that only matter exists so it must observe, that matter and mind exist at the same time so the latter observes the former, or that only quantum reality exists so everything observes.
[Note 1] A Milky Way volume of 1.6 x1060 cubic meters divided by a Planck volume of 4.2 x10−105 cubic meters is about 551 bits, which for a 10-43 seconds Planck time is over 5×1045 Hertz of processing power for one quantum event. Even our best supercomputers are only just breaking the PetaHertz barrier (1015Hertz), so to calculate even one quantum event is beyond all our best computers.
[Note 2] Knox’s limerick on solipsism was: There was a young man who said, “God, must think it exceedingly odd, if he finds that this tree continues to be, when there’s no one about in the Quad.” The anonymous reply was: “Dear Sir: Your astonishment’s odd: I am always about in the Quad. And that’s why the tree, will continue to be, since observed by yours faithfully, God.”