Mix of quantum physics and consciousness?

[mohadib]

Anyone read Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe? These fields fascinate me and was hoping someone could shed some light on this book before I spend the money.

[Ninjalawyer]

"Biocentrism" is pseudoscience.

Not a review of the book itself, but Steven Novella (he does the Skeptics Guide to the Universe podcast) discusses some of the author's ideas at his blog here.

To save you a click:

Lanza combines the lottery fallacy of the strong anthropic principle with the quantum woo of Chopra – grossly misinterpreting quantum physics in the typical way that we have encountered numerous times before. Evolution does not need an observer – there is nothing in the process of evolution, and no observation of nature that requires it. Bohr is talking about a quantum phenomenon of the collapse of the probability wave. But this does not require a literal observer, just interaction with the surrounding environment. Other particles, in other words, can serve as the “observer” – the universe can observe itself just fine without us, and we are back to the laws of nature unfolding on their own without the need of intelligent observation of guidance.

In the end Lanza’s biocentrism is a laughable mess of confusion, poor logic, misinterpretation of quantum mechanics and cosmology, and rampant egocentrism. It is egocentric in two ways – in the very concept that we humans create reality around us, and in his presumption that he has come up with a theory of everything. The TOE is, in fact, a classic sign of a cosmological crank. Walk up to a physicist and try to tell them about your theory of everything, and see how desperate they will become to get away from you. But now such cranks get space in the HuffPo to spew their TOE to everyone.

[Jozawun]

He didn't like it?

[SeaKing]

Are we talking about whether there is a noise in the forest when a tree falls and no one is there to hear it?

I hate that kind of mushy thinking.

Now days we just say that "our drone was observing."

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by SeaKing

Are we talking about whether there is a noise in the forest when a tree falls and no one is there to hear it?

I think it's more like a religion-without-God kind of thing.

Here's a summary that I'm amazed was accepted by a once-good magazine:

http://theamericanscholar.org/a-new-...-the-universe/