Quantum realism is that quantum events cause physical events as quantum theory describes. If the physical world is virtual, what creates it can’t exist physically, just as what creates a video game can’t exist in the game it creates. The quantum world follows its own rules, not those of what it creates.
In the Matrix movie, another physical world simulates ours, but matter doesn’t have the power to do that, as even to compute one electron wave function that spreads over a galaxy then collapses to a point in it is beyond current computing [1]. However quantum processing has that power.
In quantum realism, there is a real world out there but it isn’t the one you see. What you see is the interface that reflects it when a physical event occurs. If quantum waves spread until they interact in a physical event that allows observation, then it is mutual. It follows that when we observe a photon, it also observes us on its scale, as the observer effect of physics suggests, so a tree can’t fall in a forest unseen because the ground it hits observes it [2]. Chapter 6 defines consciousness as the ability to observe.
One can compare the reality options in computer game terms as follows:
- Physicalism. A game that booted itself up, with no-one in charge.
- Dualism. A game that a programmer booted up, but then lost control.
- Quantum realism. A massively multi-player game, where every photon is a player.
- Solipsism. A single player game, that exists only for one person.
Figure 1.2 compares physical realism, dualism, and quantum realism using Wheeler’s self-observing eye universe. In physical realism, matter observes itself, but how it does so is unclear. In dualism, a higher reality observes matter, but again how is unclear. In quantum realism, quantum reality observes itself using a virtual reality interface that emerges when quantum events cause physical events.
Note that if only matter exists, it must observe, if mind also exists, it can also observe matter, and if only quantum reality exists, every physical event is a mutual observation.
[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.”