Putting Ourselves Back in the Equation: Why Physicists Are Studying Human Consciousness and AI to Unravel the Mysteries of the Universe

“Explaining our inner experience might require new physics,” according to this electrifying report. Science writer Musser (Spooky Action at a Distance) surveys how physicists, who since René Descartes have largely studied matter as distinct from the mind, are now attempting to explain the vagaries of subjective experience and consciousness. Quantum theory, he notes, has forced physicists to consider the human mind because the presence of “sentient observers” affects the location of quantum particles, which remain in an indefinite state “not sitting anywhere in particular” until observed. Musser explores the fascinating ways in which scientists are studying the physics of the mind, including theoretical quantum “meta-experiments” that consider situations in which “observers observe other observers.” Other researchers are building artificial neural networks (digital “webs of basic computing units”) to better understand how neurons, which function as biological computing units, contribute to cognitive function and consciousness. Musser has a talent for distilling complex science into accessible language, as when he explains that Italian physicist Carlo Rovelli’s theories about gravity imply that “things have no properties in isolation but acquire them only at their point of contact with other things,” raising provocative questions about the nature of objective reality. Lucid and endlessly intriguing, this will expand readers’ minds. (Nov.)