The Argument Clinic

I think I’m going to fail :frowning:

(Added: Also, I’ll be holidaying in a caravan for the next week, without access to the internet or quantum physics textbooks. If I’m going to take the exam, I’ll need an extension)

None of those articles are researchers conducting research, because none of them are primary research articles. Even if they were primary research, you can still base bad research on a bad model. So… another demonstration you don’t understand how logic works.

If someone told me they were an expert in bioinformatics because they had a degree in mathematical physics, I’d laugh in their face. That’s so self-evidently farcical, I find it difficult to believe you’re seriously asking the question.

It’s a distinction with a massive difference! Being the product of self-collapse is nothing like being self-collapse! Total failure of reading comprehension on your part!

No, it is not.

You don’t get to define things into existence. If I defined common descent as ‘self-collapsing wave-function’, could I declare common descent was true? I think not.

[continued ramblings about Orch-OR]
Since Orch-OR would not support your conclusions even if true, there is no reason to continue discussing it.

How many critical reviews of Orch-Or have you read. List them.

This is not just wrong, it is an outright lie. It does not make the same claim. You are lying about what it says. Stop that.

Please refer to the quoted advice on how to actually structure a logical defense of a premise.

The only way out of this, on your end, is for you to learn how logic works, and make a logically valid defense of your meandering nonsense. This is very unlikely.

That is the concluded outcome of the observed process of descent with modification(species observationally change in response to accumulating generations), not an assumed entity.

Observed: species change. We have literally seen them “transmute”.

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This is not what I mean by the basics of quantum physics. I was talking about the basic concepts or terms , such as key concepts in quantum physics that you need to learn which include:

  1. Superposition
  2. Uncertainty principle
  3. Quantum entanglement
  4. Quantum tunneling

I was not talking about the mathematical aspect of it, which is irrelevant to my case because wave-function collapse is a process that goes beyond math.

Not true…

"Undoubtedly, the Orch-OR theory co-established by theoretical physicist Penrose and neuroscientist Hameroff is currently the most convincing theory. Even more exciting, with the emergence of new drugs, new research methods, and new quantum technologies, this theory is constantly being enriched and perfected. Especially in the research of anesthesiology (96-100), memory (71), cognition (42,101-103), neural synchrony (104) and vision (49), mounting results and evidence indicated the Orch-OR theory could be self-explanatory and could be invoked to many different conscious backgrounds. More recently, Li et al. found that xenon’s (one kind of anesthetic) nuclear spin could impair its own anesthetic power, which involves a neural quantum process (105).

Thus, the quantum theory of consciousness is increasingly gaining more supporters. With the dedication of these supporters, the quantum theory of consciousness will be gradually completed and will be able to explain the hard problem systematically and comprehensively…

…An inevitable situation was that arguments about Baars’s direct exclusion of “freshman” quantum theory burst into more debates in which critics stated that Baars should be more generous regarding quantum consciousness theory due to its practical basis, which could enrich our understanding of consciousness (92-95).
The finer scale of consciousness: quantum theory - PMC>

Well first off, do you have a degree in quantum physics, quantum biology or mathematical physics, etc. ? If the answer is no, then by your own standards, you can’t assess whether their model is valid or not.

Secondly, when I said they were experts, I meant that in relation to what they are arguing in their theory because their theory goes beyond the fields of quantum physics, biology, and neuroscience. They are advocating for an entirely new paradigm. The fields that they are experts in are perfectly aligned with what they are arguing and ,thus, more than competent to advance in science

Third, you still not explain why having a degree in those fields would not make that person competent to craft a quantum theory about biology, specifically involving consciousness.

Not quite, they are arguing for a new kind of physics altogether that violate quantum mechanics. More importantly, they are also arguing for a non-contingent consciousness that directly created finite conscious agents rather than indirectly from an evolutionary process:

“Mainstream science and philosophy assume that consciousness emerged at some point in the course of evolution, possibly fairly recently, with the advent of the brain and nervous systems. But Eastern spiritual traditions, panpsychism, and the Objective Reduction theory of Roger Penrose suggest that consciousness preceded life.” [Emphasis added]

Consciousness is the collapse of the wavefunction | Stuart Hameroff » IAI TV 1

I think the confusion here is that this proto-consciousness that Penrose describes as preceding life is NOT the same thing as our actual consciousness:

“Our criterion for proto -consciousness is OR . It would be unreasonable to refer to OR as the criterion for actual consciousness, because, according to the DP scheme, OR processes would be taking place all the time, and would be providing the effective randomness that is characteristic of quantum measurement. Quantum superpositions will continually be reaching the DP threshold for OR in non-biological settings as well as in biological ones, and usually take place in the purely random environment of a quantum system under measurement.”

Journal of Cosmology (thejournalofcosmology.com)

My Gosh, you continue to be mistaken here. This is from a very prominent physicsit named Sean Carroll:

We human beings, even those who have been studying quantum mechanics for a long time, still think in terms of a classical concepts. Positions, momenta, particles, fields, space itself. Quantum mechanics tells a different story. The quantum state of the universe is not a collection of things distributed through space, but something called a wave function. The wave function gives us a way of calculating the outcomes of measurements: whenever we measure an observable quantity like the position or momentum or spin of a particle, the wave function has a value for every possible outcome, and the probability of obtaining that outcome is given by the wave function squared. Indeed, that’s typically how we construct wave functions in practice.

Mathematically, wave functions are elements of a mathematical structure called Hilbert spaceThe word “space” in “Hilbert space” doesn’t mean the good old three-dimensional space we walk through every day, or even the four-dimensional spacetime of relativity. It’s just math-speak for “a collection of things,” in this case “possible quantum states of the universe.”
**> **
> Hilbert space is quite an abstract thing, which can seem at times pretty removed from the tangible phenomena of our everyday lives.
Space Emerging from Quantum Mechanics – Sean Carroll (preposterousuniverse.com)

How so? explain. Premise 1: The universal self-collapsing Platonic values and the fine-tuning constants governing the universe and life are constant throughout space and time are identical phenomena:

Penrose (1989, 1994) combining features of the Copenhagen interpretation and multiple worlds, and introducing consciousness into science as an intrinsic feature of the universe. To do so, Penrose characterized superpositions as in the first step in multiple worlds, separations in spacetime geometry, and the structure of the universe…

…Most significantly, unlike the Copenhagen interpretation in which consciousness causes collapse, Penrose OR proposes that collapse causes consciousness (or that collapse is consciousness)…

…Each OR self-collapse chooses classical states, and is accompanied by a quantized protoconscious experienced quale. (A distinction between protoconscious OR moments and fully conscious Orch OR moments will be discussed later.) Thus, consciousness is seen as a process on the edge between quantum and classical worlds.

…However in Penrose OR the choices (and quality of subjective experience) are influenced by resonate with what Penrose called noncomputable Platonic values embedded in the fine scale structure of spacetime geometry.

These Platonic values, patterns, or vibrations in the makeup of the universe, may encode qualia, and pertain to mathematics, geometry, ethics, and aesthetics, and the 20 or so dimensionless constants governing the universe.

These include the fine structure constant, the mass ratios for all fundamental particles, the gravitational constant and many more, all precise to many decimal points.

See for yourself:

… numerous rebuttals have emerged since the inception of the Orch-OR theory. These criticisms covered biological, gravitational and quantum fields to which Hameroff and Penrose responded one by one with detailed biological evidence, quantum mechanical equations and theoretical frameworks in “Consciousness in the universe: A review of the ‘Orch OR’ theory” (69). However, this review generated an even larger wave of criticism. Comments sprang up like mushrooms (84,89,90). One of the most noted retorts was proposed by Baars (89) in his article “Consciousness, biology and quantum hypotheses”, which caused this debate to reach the climax. Baars invoked some actual questions that many other critics mentioned… Hameroff replied with reasonable explanations that validated Orch-OR as an appropriate and qualified theory to surmise consciousness, despite the increasingly detailed development that should be interpreted (91).
The finer scale of consciousness: quantum theory Tianwen Li,1,# Hailiang Tang,1,# Jianhong Zhu,corresponding author1 and John H. Zhangcorresponding author2

Isn’t this the pot that’s calling the kettle black. You were more than happy to attack a silly straw-man of Owen’s or Orch-OR description of evolution put out by Darwinists or secular scientists.
This showed you didn’t understand the basic concepts of quantum physics.

No, this is a claim with no independent evidence for it:

The evolution of life, from simple organic compounds in a primordial soup to the amazing diversity of contemporary organisms, has taken roughly 3.5 billion years. How can we explain the evolution of increasingly complex organisms over this period? A traditional approach has been to consider the succession of taxonomic groups, such as the age of fishes giving rise to the age of amphibians, which gave way to the age of reptiles, and so on.
https://www.pnas.org/doi/pdf/10.1073/pnas.1421402112

Not quite, I am saying that Owen’s theory of evolution is a better explanation for the evidence.

I did. However, it did not support the reptile-mammal transition claim because they never concluded that the single origin hypothesis was the best explanation. The independent innovation hypothesis was also a possible explanation for the evolution of the middle ear.

I agree, it is not enough to establish separate kinds or even separate families. But, I do think they are justified in showing that there are significant differences between taxonomic groups.

That is hollow. The math is not some optional “aspect” of QM. Physicist present their theories in the language of mathematics. You are here making grand pretensions of some unified theory and yet you are unable to cope with any degree of rigor. Newton is renowned because he worked out an analytical treatment of gravity, not because he was the first to observe that apples fall to the ground.

I would have to do some serious catch up to deal with this test as well, but it is you and not me making cringy claims on the basis of a NOVA episode understanding of QM. You have no more qualitative insight into the four key conceptual elements you list than most anyone here already possesses, so you have nothing to offer.

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I’m responding to everything, but out of order for a reason:

This does not answer my question. How many critical reviews of Orch-OR have you actually read? I will not continue until you answer this question. Failure to answer this question first with a list of critical reviews you have actually, personally read will be interpreted as an admission you’ve read none, at which point your opinions will be dismissed as worthless.

You have one shot at this. No take backs or second attempts.

No, it is absolutely true that none of the articles you provided were primary research.

[quote]
I already told you that article is from a predatory journal. Continuing to reference it is dishonest. Stop being dishonest.

I don’t need a degree in any of those things to know that they don’t make you an expert in bioinformatics.

I know, and you are wrong. Because being an expert in mathematical physics does not make you an expert in quantum biology.

They may be experts in their new fiction, but I don’t care about that. You admitted they aren’t experts in the relevant fields, which is the pertinent question.

No, a molecular biologist and a quantum physicist would be perfectly aligned to what they are arguing. An anesthesiologist and a mathematical physicist are not qualified in the slightest.

Because expertise in mathematical physics and anesthesiology confer no expertise in quantum biology. This is obvious to anyone with the capacity to understand the words in the sentence.

First, nothing in the following paragraphs and quotations addresses in the least the logic of the bit of my comment you were claiming to be responding to. Being X being the product of Y is different from X being the same as Y. Second, the last quotation conclusively supports my argument that they claim the two are different. Thank you for demonstrating that I know more about Orch-OR than you do.

Ctrl-F ‘Digital’ - No results found.

Guess you’re still wrong. The wave function is not digital information.

Because Orch-OR does not say, suggest, or imply anything about either a digital code or that the self-collapsing OR is identical to cosmological constants. That’s just not an honest description of the hypothesis.

So you’ve changed it again!?

[long series of quotations]
Ctrl-F ‘fine-tuning’ - No results found.

Guess you’re still wrong. None of those say that self-collapsing entities are synonymous with fine-tuning constants.

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I will take this as an admission that you have no formal background in physics whatsoever.

If you had any such background you would know that all physics is heavily mathematical.

You cannot understand physics without understanding the math.

The math explains how the physical phenomena that physics is attempting to describe works.

Modern calculus was co-invented by Isaac Newton in order to do physics.

If you do not have a basic understanding of the math of a sub-field of physics, then you don’t have a basic understanding of that subfield.

Therefore you do not have a basic understanding of quantum physics.

This goes back to my earlier comments on rhetorical versus analytic understanding.

If you have a “rhetorical” understanding, you only understand how writers describe the subject.

To understand how a subject actually works, you need an “analytic” understanding – and in Physics (and in fact any scientific field) this absolutely requires an understanding of the math involved.

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Where did I do that? Your lame reply is an implicit admission that you don’t understand the basic concept of evolution.

Where?

That doesn’t support your position at all. “Age of XXXs” refers to dominant taxa, not linearity.

Dude, you don’t understand evolution. Full stop. Everything you throw at this only confirms it.

You don’t look at evidence. Rhetoric is not evidence. Moreover, you can’t have an informed opinion without understanding basic concepts, which you obviously lack.

This is word salad. Conclusions cannot support a hypothesis. Only evidence does, and you avoid evidence. John is citing the evidence, not the conclusions. Again, what anyone says about the evidence is not the evidence.

They wouldn’t be different groups if there weren’t differences. Your point is utterly meaningless.

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This seems like a tacit admission that caseids, i.e. the “paper” you referenced, would be irrelevant to the evolution of the mammalian jaw and to the existence of transitional forms. Now, the reason the paper I noted did not conclude that a single origin was the best explanation was that we already know that synapsids are a real group. The independent innovation hypothesis is not a possible explanation, and nobody has to consider it.

If a very detailed transitional series isn’t good evidence of common descent, then what could possibly be?

If differences between taxonomic groups do not show that they’re separate kinds, they’re irrelevant to the question.

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I disagree! I think Meerkat is admitting that he has no informal background, either. :sunglasses:

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Let’s be fair! Meer also doesn’t have even an informal background in logic!

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But he does know how to spell several words associated with quantum mechanics. That should count for something.

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Quite possibly, but an “informal background” is more ill-defined, so I thought I was on safer ground in restricting myself to a “formal background”. Any Physics class will have math on the blackboard/whiteboard/overhead/etc – and any student will quickly learn that you cannot gain a functional understanding of any subfield of physics without understanding the math involved.

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Mathematics is pure language – the language of science. It is unique among languages in its ability to provide precise expression for every thought or concept that can be formulated in its terms.

– Alfred Adler

How can you hope to understand science if you don’t understand the “language of science”? It would be a bit like somebody who doesn’t speak German trying to explain German poetry.

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Are you saying the gravity of the situation would force them to accelerate their understanding?

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To put it forcefully, that would be a massive understatement. :stuck_out_tongue:

Since we apparently do this sort of thing now, would this be a good time to bring up the way I’ve discovered that the principles of metallurgy overturn everything we know about pediatric dentistry? To be clear, I know nothing about metallurgy or about pediatric dentistry, but it seems to me that this means my insights will be not only worthwhile, but refreshing to those who dislike the whole “steel is hard” paradigm and the “children have teeth” paradigm.

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It is immaterial to me what you did or did not mean by “the basics of quantum physics”. I explained to you, in multiple posts, that the test was going to be on what are actually “the basics of quantum physics”. You said you studied them from multiple sources. I did not put those words into your mouth, you chose to speak them. Words you did not choose to speak were ones about how it only means babbling on about features that seem esoteric to those who could not derive them mathematically. And I’m not even asking to do that, mind you. What I’m asking are not high level concepts, nor is this particularly high level math. Presumably those sources wouldn’t be your own armchair ponderings, but materials produced by actually qualified people (or at least not significantly less qualified than yours truly, one should hope) who without a doubt would consider this test to be on what they too agree are “the basics of quantum physics”.

The entirety of Problem 2 concerns the uncertainty principles and their general derivation. In Question 2b you are asked to derive Heisenberg’s famous one, between location and momentum. In Question 3c you are asked to do this again, but with an alternative description of location and momentum. Since that’s in your cute little list of relevant things you presumably studied, you should score at least the eight points granted for Problem 2.

I could well have asked about quantum tunneling too. It would look something like Problem 4, just a little longer to work out. Surely if you understand the tunnel effect, you can solve Problem 4. Between it, Problem 2, and Questions 3c, 3b (which is required for 3c), and a part of 3a (which is required for 3b), we are looking at >36 points, already a passing grade.

Anyone can talk about quantum mechanics. That doesn’t take them any training whatsoever. The difference between someone who knows how to technobabble and someone who actually studied quantum mechanics, for even as little as a month, is that the latter can also do quantum mechanics, little though that be. Exercises like these are some of those most basic things they can do.

I suggest that instead of embarassing yourself with pathetic excuses, you use the seven days that began with the challenge’s uploading to brush up on the studying you claim you had done and give it your best shot. It only takes about one or two to actually complete the entirety of it, let alone a passable fraction, so if the material is any sort of familiar to you, this should be plenty time for you to prove as much to everyone on this board. Good luck.

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Alright, let me rephrase what I said before to be more clear.

I did not find any article that demolishes their theory so badly that they couldn’t or didn’t adequately respond back as of yet.

This was my point before when I quoted that part of the review article.

Can you provide an article that attempted to demolish their theory and they failed to adequately respond back?

Keep in mind, this list does not even include the primary research that attempts to disconfirm their theory:

https://www.nature.com/articles/srep07303

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0956566313001590

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41567-020-1008-4

No, I admitted that they were not experts in specifically quantum biology or quantum physics.

But, these are not necessarily relevant fields because they are proposes a theory that goes beyond those fields, which leads me to addresss this…

No, it would not be because they are proposing a new kind of physics and that consciousness is a property of quantum mechanics in neuroscience. Both of these subjects involve a new scientific paradigm. This means that having expertise in anesthesiology and mathematical physics are perfectly suitable to deal with those subjects.

But, I don’t see how molecular biology or quantum physics would be suitable. Can you explain how?

Yes, they are different, but pointing out this difference is either irrelevant or does not refute my argument at all. Instead, it is exactly what I have been arguing. Human consciousness was created directly by a larger non-contingent proto-consciousness and are both connected. This is why I am calling it the common designer theory.

Actually, I got disorganized during our discourse. The self-collapse of the wave-function is what represents digital information not the wave-function by itself because they represent discrete moments of time.

I am just going to stick with the term “Platonic values” so I don’t get disorganized again.

Yes because you want me to provide verbatim text. So I am trying to make sure the argument is identical on the surface since you guys choose to be willfully ignorant of their work.

Premise 1: The fine-tuning constants governing the universe are constant throughout space and time is caused by non-computable Platonic values

Premise 2: The non-compuable platonic values are confirmed if the fine-tuning constants governing the universe are constant throughout space and time is confirmed.

Premise 3: The fine-tuning constants governing the universe are constant throughout space and time is confirmed.

Therefore, the existence of non-computable Platonic values that cause the fine-tuning constants governing the universe is confirmed.

**Penrose (1989, 1994) combining features of the Copenhagen interpretation and multiple worlds, and introducing consciousness into science as an intrinsic feature of the universe. To do so, Penrose characterized superpositions as in the first step in multiple worlds, separations in spacetime geometry, and the structure of the universe. But unlike multiple worlds, spacetime separations, according to Penrose, are unstable, separations continuing only until reaching an objective threshold related to the quantum uncertainty principle, EG ¼ h/t. The magnitude of the superposition is EG (its gravitational selfenergy), h is the PlanckeDirac constant and t the time at which OR self-collapse occurs.

**In this approach, whenever superpositions reach threshold, OR events select particular classical states, accompanied by moments of (proto) conscious experienced qualia, basic units of feeling and awareness. The choice of classical states in OR events are influenced by (resonate with) what Penrose termed Platonic values embedded in the fine scale structure of the universe. The qualitative feeling of each quale, ie, good, bad, or otherwise, would depend on resonance and geometry of specific spacetime separations with deeper, Platonic levels of the universe. Most significantly, unlike the Copenhagen interpretation in which consciousness causes collapse, Penrose OR proposes that collapse causes consciousness (or that collapse is consciousness)
**

…As described in the Anthropic principle (AP), the universe is fine-tuned for consciousness and life. But how and why these key values are so precise are unknown, and approached by several versions of the AP. In strong AP (Barrow and Tipler, 1986), the universe is somehow compelled to harbor and enable consciousness. The weak AP (Carter, 1974) suggests there exist multiple universes, and that only this particular one harbors conscious beings able to ponder the question. The weak AP is often aligned with MWI or multiverse concepts. Penrose OR avoids the need for MWI and supports strong AP, suggesting that over aeons, dimensionless constants defining the universe evolved and self-organized to optimize life, qualia, and consciousness.

…However in Penrose OR the choices (and quality of subjective experience) are influenced by resonate with what Penrose called noncomputable Platonic values embedded in the fine scale structure of spacetime geometry.

These Platonic values, patterns, or vibrations in the makeup of the universe, may encode qualia, and pertain to mathematics, geometry, ethics, and aesthetics, and the 20 or so dimensionless constants governing the universe.

Yes, I would agree if my theory and the Orch-OR model was advancing a theory that was part of the old paradigm of quantum physics. However, this theory is advocating for a new paradigm of physics that goes beyond math.

For instance, as Penrose suggested, the fine-tuning constants governing the universe and the self-collapse of the wave-function both have their origin in non-computable Platonic values that are embedded in the structure of space-time. These values cannot be reduced to algorithms or computational procedures, but instead have a non-physical, abstract character that he associates with Platonic mathematical concepts.

The old paradigm says that these mathematical concepts are either descriptions of reality or possess no causal powers.

You suggested in a different thread that quantum mind theory is just quantum woo. This revealed to me how willfully ignorant you are about their work in their perspective fields.

Do yourself a favor and watch this video explaining the differences between quantum mind theory and quantum woo. All you need to watch is the summary part, which is between 15:20 to 16:00
Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics: How are they related? - YouTube

If you can’t do this simple task, then this is a complete failure on your part!

Which makes my point. The paper does not support his conclusion because more than one hypothesis can explain the data. As you alluded, He is just making his own conclusion about that evidence. Anybody can do the same thing about any paper.

No no no. Look at this again:

A traditional approach has been to consider the succession of taxonomic groups, such as the age of fishes giving rise to the age of amphibians, which gave way to the age of reptiles, and so on.

This is NOT a repeatedly observed phenomenon in real time. Instead, it is an unsupported claim that exists solely in your imagination.

That’s because you missed my point. LOL

You need to support this claim because the study you gave me certainly did not make this claim or conclusion.

It is obviously not realistic to obtain every single fossil. But, we should find enough fossils that would allow us to directly observe reptiles transitioning into mammals. Not simply a share feature that you claim supports your personally preferred hypothesis. My point is that it should not be left up to interpretation or inference.

No, it is relevant because it shows that reptiles did not necessarily evolve into mammals.

If they show differences, it gives us reason to suspect that they are created kinds though.

Actually, you did put those words in my mouth because I never said I studied the basics of quantum physics. Instead, I said and you pointed out as well that…

Simply studying it online or in school does not seem to count to you guys because I studied quantum physics online from various sources in order to develop the common design theory… (emphasis added)

Nice little bait and switch. As you know, studying quantum physics online from various sources is not the same thing as studying the basics of quantum physics.

You are forgetting what I said in post 716. I only need to know the basics of quantum physics and read ENOUGH about it online to make my case.

You did not construct it in a way that was relevant to my case because the theory in question goes beyond those fields.

They are proposing a new kind of physics and that consciousness is a property of quantum mechanics in neuroscience. Both of these subjects involve a new scientific paradigm. This means that having expertise in anesthesiology and mathematical physics are perfectly suitable to deal with those subjects. In contrast, quantum physics and neuroscience would be less suitable.