Physicalism focuses on matter, so it concludes that:
“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.
It is natural to assume the observer is made of matter if it is all around us, so the observer must be the same as the observed, but nothing in physics allows matter to experience physical events as we do. The conclusion that everything is physical, based on no evidence at all, then leads to:
“… the dogma that the concept of reality must be confined to objects in space and time…” (Zeh, 2004), p18.
This dogma, of physicalism, is built into the foundations of physics, but experiments deny it. Entanglement studies based on the Bell test challenge one or more of the following axioms of current physics (D’Espagnat, 1979):
1. Realism. 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.
These axioms are all accepted by physics, but the Bell experiment shows that at least one of them is wrong. If realism and induction are true, then locality must be wrong. If locality and induction are true, then reality isn’t physical. If realism and locality are true, then induction must be false. To this day, physics can’t explain the Bell experiment results that quantum theory predicts:
“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.
Physicalism has no story that explains the effects of quantum entanglement evident in nature, so the foundations it offers physics must be faulty. There has been no denial of this, so given a foundation fault, it should be fixed. The fix that quantum realism suggests is to remove the word “physical” from the first axiom, so it becomes:
Realism: That there is a reality whose existence is independent of human observers.
Quantum realism now supports realism, that there is a reality around us independent of our observation, but adds that it is quantum. However it doesn’t support physical realism, that physical events are independent of us because by the measurement problem, they need an observational trigger. There is then still a real world around us, but it isn’t what we see.
This alteration lets reality exist in a way that fits the facts of science. For example, in 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.
By the new axiom, the word physical isn’t needed, so it becomes: “If one adopts a realistic view of science …there is a true and unique structure to the universe which scientists discover rather than invent.” Our universe then still has a unique structure that scientists discover rather than invent, but it is quantum not physical. The reality now is that quantum events cause physical events, so all physical laws derive from quantum laws, as the evidence suggests.
Quantum realism also modifies the second axiom by adding the word physical, so it becomes.
Locality: That no physical influence of any kind can propagate faster than the speed of light.
If locality applies only to physical influences, then entanglement doesn’t contradict it if it isn’t a physical influence. In this model, entanglement is based on a quantum wave restart that by the evidence occurs instantly, so Einstein’s law that no physical influence is faster than light still applies.
These alterations to the realism and locality foundations of physics let it not only withstand the facts of experiment but also leave the logical induction axiom intact, so the methods of science remain. A physics founded on quantum theory doesn’t have to deny nature or invoke miracles to explain it.
Quantum realism, that quantum waves exist exactly as quantum theory describes, avoids the paradox that the unreal creates the real. It needs no particle-wave miracle because only quantum waves exist. Delayed-choice experiments now don’t imply reverse-time causality because light waves choose their physical path after they arrive. That light always finds the fastest path to any destination is no longer inexplicable because it takes every path. And the randomness of radioactivity doesn’t need a multiverse to explain it because choices can occur outside our domain.
Fixing the foundations of physics has many benefits, and it makes the equations of physics real not imaginary, but it isn’t an easy option. Physicalism was the mother of physics, so like a child leaving home for the first time, it is a new venture: to explore the unknown beyond that is the unmeasured universe.