Quantum weirdness: particles or waves (Introduction)

by David Turell , Tuesday, November 24, 2015, 20:58 (3074 days ago) @ dhw

dhw: I have read the whole article through twice, and am more confused than ever. This is probably because I lack your scientific background, David, but maybe you can enlighten me. If I put the bits and pieces together, the author seems to be focusing partly on the question of whether there really is such a thing as matter.-Of course here is matter, but quantum mechanics defies logic, as you have discovered.--> The article also tells us that although our ultimate component parts are indistinguishable, “the state that they together form starts to be more and more capable of being distinct” - and this is what gives us our identity. “It's our state that's distinguishable, not our materiality.” (Pesic) Presumably this is a reference to our PHYSICAL identity, which is the result of physical components combining into their own particular individual pattern. This is later confirmed: "“My thingness is in how I'm organized, not what I'm made of,” says Ladyman. “But of course we know that anyway, because we know that the cells in our bodies are getting replaced all the time. Functional organization of structure, not the matter it's made of, is what counts.” That's fine with me, but it is organization of matter, not of nothing. However, this seems to be contradicted by another statement: “Our identity is a state, but if it's not a state of matter—not a state of individual physical objects, like quarks and electrons—then a state of what?” I thought functional organization of structure WAS the “state” that the parts form together, so is the structure made of matter or not? Are they talking about physical identity or about character, or do they see the two as inseparable? These are genuine questions. I simply don't understand how it all links up.
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> dhw:The answer to a “state of what” is apparently our old friend “information”, which is thrown in without any definition of what it actually means.-Every organized being or machine runs on information. I've presented another article today to help you capture this concept. Information theory is vital to our understanding of life's processes.-
> dhw:It's a wonderfully dramatic conclusion to a beautifully written piece, but bearing in mind the statement that elementary particles (not information) which are made of nothing are the basic building blocks of the material world, perhaps you can explain to me whether (a) the author is telling us that matter is real or not, and (b) how the material brain with its billions of material neurons constitutes the “I” (identity) when it is “compressed” to...exactly what? -The 'particles' are not nothing. They are points of energy moving in wave-like fashion, appearing as waves or points, depending on the method of measurement. Their absolute location is not every fully known, but is a sum of probabilities. Welcome to the quantum world at the base of our reality.-> 
> dhw: Along the way, there are intriguing hints at BBella's concept of the oneness of everything, and perhaps the lines of thought might fit in with your own concept of an immaterial identity. My apologies if my confusion is not shared by anyone else.-Your confusion is shared by all of us. But the quantum formulas work when you throw out infinities ('renormalization').