Does our consciousness define reality?
Modern science evolved over centuries but the true nature of the universe is yet to be unveiled. There are several instances over last century where scientists encountered certain unexplained and bizarre phenomenon in quantum physics which questioned the true reality of the universe. One such questions which puzzled scientific communities was — ‘Does our consciousness define reality?’
Let us assume that if all consciousness in the universe were extinguished -
- As there would be no conscious mind to sense the universe, how the existence of this universe can be justified?
- Is everything that we see, feel and perceive is just an illusion created by our consciousness?
Though these questions may seem philosophical, here is one such quantum physics experiment — Wheeler’s Delayed Choice Experiment, which brought out such bizarre questions.
What is Wheeler’s Delayed Choice Experiment?
Wheeler’s delayed choice experiment is a very complex series of experiments which detects bizarre phenomenon of quantum entities which questions the existence of reality.
Quantum entities(like photons, electrons etc..,) behave both as a wave and a particle.
In this experiment, two scenarios, say A and B, will be created.
Under scenario ‘A’, photon is supposed to behave as a particle whereas under scenario ‘B’, it is supposed to behave as a wave.
Initial experimental conditions reflect scenario ‘A’ . Hence, when experiment begins, photon starts travelling as a particle.
However, when particle is about to reach the end point, the scenario “A” will be turned into scenario ‘‘B”. Due to this change, the entire travel of photon shows wave nature as final result.
Now the question here is how ‘particle like travel path’ of a photon changed it’s travel to ‘wave like travel path’?
Possible interpretation of results :
- The photon might have travelled back in time and again moved like a wave. Here future events determine what happens in the past.
- To rule out the above possibility, it is argued that the photon never existed in reality and it became real at the very instance when we initiate the act of measurement.
However, the most accepted interpretation of this result is that photon never existed in reality and it is our consciousness (measurement in experimental context) which made it real.
These two interpretation are as bizarre as it looks to us, but this is how quantum physics explains the results of this experiment.
We need to understand that entire universe including all living organisms build up of quantum entities like electrons, atoms, molecules etc.., and all these quantum entities exhibit the same behavior !!
Some scientists argue that there IS a ‘real’ universe but it consists of ‘quantized fields’, but most of the scientists criticize the ‘quantized field’ idea as a sort of loss of nerve — an inability of certain physicists to cope with the fact that consciousness (“observations”) is all that exists, therefore these physicists must invent some sort of indefinable ‘material stuff’ (“quantized fields”) to reassure themselves that there really is a real reality ‘out there’ somewhere.
And of course IF the universe DOES consist of ‘quantized fields’, then it would indeed continue to exist if all consciousness in the universe were extinguished — but it wouldn’t ‘look’ like anything at all because there would be no conscious minds to turn the ‘quantized fields’ into something resembling the reality which we experience — or even that which microbes experience.
Quantum theory is strange, but very real. The beauty of quantum physics lies in its unpredictable, probabilistic nature with consistent results.
Some scientists even argue that the reason for unexpected behavior of quantum particles is beyond our modern science.
So, consciousness is still a mystery. Either it may take us centuries to fully understand the true nature of reality or humans are not evolved to understand the complexity of universe and reality of it.
A paradox is only a conflict between reality and your feeling of what reality ‘ought to be.’ — Richard Feynman
