One of the biggest mysteries in science is consciousness.....Or is it?
I know we have alot of materialists here, so would like their take on this, and ofcourse the non-materialistic POV too.
Instead of - to be is to be perceived - (consciousness precedes matter), it should have been - to be is to perceive - (matter precedes consciousness).
John Von Neumann was right when he said that the evolution of the Schroedinger wave depends on quantum mechanical observables, implying that this information can only come from spacetime. Yet, since the theory considers brains to be quantum measuring devices, it includes the observer as an efficacious agent. The only reason human brains entered the equation was that, as they received light (EMR) coming from the particle, just like all objects in spacetime do, information about momentum and location, which is vital to maintain energy conservation laws, became known to the particle/system, allowing it to complete the feedback control loop and continue to condense.
According to present day theory the total energy available to the Universe was preset at the moment of its emergence and Thermodynamics tell us that each of its parts must register how much energy is being used in relation to the whole. Each object that moves in space must follow the laws of energy conservation. But how else could the Universe register how much energy is being used by some galaxy 5 billion light years away if it wasn't through momentum space, a non-material medium from which spacetime emerges as a product of active information?
As Ernst Mach explained inertia he came to the conclusion that energy usage by objects within the Universe is instantaneously registered through momentum space. This is where phenomena like inertia comes from. Particles sense other particles as they complete the state information exchange and realize the spatial relationships, between them and space, required to collapse the state-wave packet from hyperspace as they crystallize into spacetime. Holistic perception is an intrinsic function of matter explained by the Aether's oneness and this function helps Nature to evolve.
The observer, in the present theory, must refer to any object that is able to interpret environmental information brought to it by EM waves. Observation with the only purpose of establishing the particle's spatial parameters (speed, size, mass...) in any given inertial frame. The particle must first be in thermal equilibrium with the environment before it can exist as matter in spacetime, that is the law.
So Quantum Mechanics' big mystery was - why do I have to observe the cat in order for Schroedinger's cat to live or die? The answer is that our brains are measuring devices, just like the rest of all matter. We are the best quantum measuring device that ever emerged from all the information processing that has transcurred in our neighborhood to date. Interactions within a system, like a brain for example, depend on more than the information it gets through the senses.
Perception is a very old natural function inherent to all matter, not some exclusive human ability. Particles in spacetime perceive, select, and integrate into their state-wave function only that information which is important or useful to them in their endless quest for thermal efficiency and equilibrium. Our mind, with all of its mental waves and accompanying frequencies, became the modern version of that same holistic awareness function after 14 billion years of information processing, autopoiesis and evolution. Wholeness in time and space is what allowed Nature to evolve.
