Can one identify quantum physical correlates of ethics and moral?

TGD inspired theory of consciousness involves a bundle of new concepts making it possible to seriously discuss quantum physical correlates of ethics and moral assuming that we live in TGD Universe. In the following I summarize the recent understanding. I do not guarantee that I will agree with myself tomorrow since I am just going through this stuff in the updating of TGD inspired theory of consciousness and quantum biology.

Quantum ethics very briefly

Could physics generalized to a theory of consciousness allow to undersand the physical correlates of ethics and moral. The proposal is that this is the case. The basic ethical principle would be that good deeds help evolution to occur. Evolution should correspond to the increase of negentropic entanglement resources, defining negentropy sources, which I have called Akashic records.

This idea can be criticized.

1. If strong form of NMP prevails, one can worry that TGD Universe does not allow Evil at all, perhaps not even genuine free will! No-one wants Evil but Evil seems to be present in this world.
   
   
2. Could one weaken NMP so that it does not force but only allows to make a reduction to a final state characterized by density matrix which is projection operator? Self could choose whether to perform a projection to some sub-space of this subspace, say 1-D ray as in ordinary state function reduction. NMP would be like Christian God allowing the sinner to choose between Good and Evil. The final entanglement negentropy would be measure for the goodness of the deed. This is so if entanglement negentropy is a correlate for love. Deeds which are done with love would be good. Reduction of entanglement would in turn mean loneliness and separation.
   
   
   
3. Or could could think that the definition of good deed is as a selection between deeds, which correspond to the same maximal increase of negentropy so that NMP cannot tell what happens. For instance the density matrix operator is direct sum of projection operators of same dimension but varying coefficients and there is a selection between these. It is difficult to imagine what the criterion for a good deed could be in this case. And how self can know what is the good deed and what is the bad deed.
   

Good deeds would support evolution. There are many manners to interpret evolution in TGD Universe.

1. p-Adic evolution would mean a gradual increase of the p-adic primes characterizing individual partonic 2-surfaces and therefore their size. The identification of p-adic space-time sheets as representations for cognitions gives additional concreteness to this vision. The earlier proposal that p-adic--real-phase transitions correspond to realization of intentions and formations of cognitions seems however to be wrong. Instead, adelic view that both real and p-adic sectors are present simultaneously and that fermions at string world sheets correspond to the intersection of realities and p-adicities seems more realistic.
   

   The inclusion of phases q=exp(i2π/n) in the algebraic extension of p-adics allows to define the notion of angle in p-adic context but only with a finite resolution since only finite number of angles are represented as phases for a given value of n. The increase of the integers n could be interpreted as the emergence of higher algebraic extensions of p-adic numbers in the intersection of the real and p-adic worlds. These observations suggest that all three views about evolution are closely related.
   
   

2. The hierarchy of Planck constants suggests evolution as the gradual increase of the Planck constant characterizing p-adic space-time sheet (or partonic 2-surface for the minimal option). The original vision about this evolution was as a migration to the pages of the book like structure defined by the generalized imbedding space and has therefore quite concrete geometric meaning. It implies longer time scales of long term memory and planned action and macroscopic quantum coherence in longer scales.
   

   The new view is in terms of first quantum jumps to the opposite boundary of CD leading to the death of self and its re-incarnation at the opposite boundary.
   
   

3. The vision about life as something in the intersection of real and p-adic words allows to see evolution information theoretically as the increase of number entanglement negentropy implying entanglement in increasing length scales. This option is equivalent with the second view and consistent with the first one if the effective p-adic topology characterizes the real partonic 2-surfaces in the intersection of p-adic and real worlds.
   
   

The third kind of evolution would mean also the evolution of spiritual consciousness if the proposed interpretation is correct. In each quantum jump U-process generates a superposition of states in which any sub-system can have both real and algebraic entanglement with the external world. If state function reduction process involves also the choice of the type of entanglement it could be interpreted as a choice between good and evil. The hedonistic complete freedom resulting as the entanglement entropy is reduced to zero on one hand, and the negentropic entanglement implying correlations with the external world and meaning giving up the maximal freedom on the other hand. The selfish option means separation and loneliness. The second option means expansion of consciousness - a fusion to the ocean of consciousness as described by spiritual practices.

In this framework one could understand the physics correlates of ethics and moral. The ethics is simple: evolution of consciousness to higher levels is a good thing. Anything which tends to reduce consciousness represents violence and is a bad thing. Moral rules are related to the relationship between individual and society and presumably develop via self-organization process and are by no means unique. Moral rules however tend to optimize evolution. As blind normative rules they can however become a source of violence identified as any action which reduces the level of consciousness.

There is an entire hierarchy of selves and every self has the selfish desire to survive and moral rules develop as a kind of compromise and evolve all the time. ZEO leads to the notion that I have christened cosmology of consciousness. It forces to extend the concept of society to four-dimensional society. The decisions of "me now" affect both my past and future and time like quantum entanglement makes possible conscious communication in time direction by sharing conscious experiences. One can therefore speak of genuinely four-dimensional society. Besides my next-door neighbors I had better to take into account also my nearest neighbors in past and future (the nearest ones being perhaps copies of me!). If I make wrong decisions those copies of me in future and past will suffer the most. Perhaps my personal hell and paradise are here and are created mostly by me.

What could the quantum correlates of moral be?

We make moral choices all the time. Some deeds are good, some deeds are bad. In the world of materialist there are no moral choices, the deeds are not good or bad, there are just physical events. I am not a materialist so that I cannot avoid questions such as how do the moral rules emerge and how some deeds become good and some deeds bad. Negentropic entanglement is the obvious first guess if one wants to understand emergence of moral.

1. One can start from ordinary quantum entanglement. It corresponds to a superposition of pairs of states. Second state corresponds to the internal state of the self and second state to a state of external world or biological body of self. In negentropic quantum entanglement each is replaced with a pair of sub-spaces of state spaces of self and external world. The dimension of the sub-space depends on the which pair is in question. In state function reduction one of these pairs is selected and deed is done. How to make some of these deeds good and some bad?
   
   
2. Obviously the value of h_eff/h=n gives the criterion in the case that weak form of NMP holds true. Recall that weak form of NMP allows only the possibility to generate negentropic entanglement but does not force it. NMP is like God allowing the possibility to do good but not forcing good deeds.
   

   Self can choose any sub-space of the subspace defined by n-dimensional projector and 1-D subspace corresponds to the standard quantum measurement. For n=1 the state function reduction leads to vanishing negentropy, and separation of self and the target of the action. Negentropy does not increase in this action and self is isolated from the target: kind of price for sin.
   

   For the maximal dimension of this sub-space the negentropy gain is maximal. This deed is good and by the proposed criterion the negentropic entanglement corresponds to love or more generally, positively colored conscious experience. Interestingly, there are 2ⁿ possible choices which is the dimension of Boolean algebra consisting of n independent bits. This could relate directly to fermionic oscillator operators defining basis of Boolean algebra. The deed in this sense would be a choice of how loving the attention towards system of external world is.
   
   

3. Could the moral rules of society be represented as this kind of entanglement patterns between its members? Here one of course has entire fractal hierarchy of societies corresponding different length scales. Attention and magnetic flux tubes serving as its correlates is the basic element also in TGD inspired quantum biology already at the level of bio-molecules and even elementary particles. The value of h_eff/h=n associated with the magnetic flux tube connecting members of the pair, would serve as a measure for the ethical value of maximally good deed. Dark phases of matter would correspond to good: usually darkness is associated with bad!
   
   
4. These moral rules seem to be universal. There are however also moral rules or should one talk about rules of survival, which are based on negative emotions such as fear. Moral rules as rules of desired behavior are often tailored for the purposes of power holder. How this kind of moral rules could develop? Maybe they cannot be realized in terms of negentropic entanglement. Maybe the superposition of the allowed alternatives for the deed contains only the alternatives allowed by the power holder and the superposition in question corresponds to ordinary entanglement for which the signature is simple: the probabilities of various options are different. This forces the self to choose just one option from the options that power holder accepts. These rules do not allow the generation of loving relationship.
   

Moral rules seem to be generated by society, up-bringing, culture, civilization. How the moral rules develop? One can try to formulate and answer in terms of quantum physical correlates.

1. Basically the rules should be generated in the state function reductions which correspond to volitional action which corresponds to the first state function reduction to the earlier active boundary of CD. Old self dies and new self is born at the opposite boundary of CD and the arrow of time associated with CD changes.
   
   
2. The repeated sequences of state function reductions can generate negentropic entanglement during the quantum evolutions between them. This time evolution would be the analog for the time evolution defined by Hamiltonian - that is energy - associated with ordinary time translation whereas the first state function reduction at the opposite boundary inducing scaling of h_eff and CD would be accompanied by time evolution defined by conformal scaling generator L₀.
   

   Note that the state at passive boundary does not change during the sequence of repeated state function reductions. These repeated reductions however change the parts of zero energy states associated with the new active boundary and generate also negentropic entanglement. As the self dies the moral choices can made if the weak form of NMP is true.
   
   

3. Who makes the moral choices? It looks of course very weird that self would apply free will only at the moment of its death or birth! The situation is saved by the fact that self has also sub-selves, which correspond to sub-CDs and represent mental images of self. We know that mental images die as also we do some day and are born again (as also we do some day) and these mental images can generate negentropic resources within CD of self.
   

   One can argue that these mental images do not decide about whether to do maximally ethical choice at the moment of death. The decision must be made by a self at higher level. It is me who decides about the fate of my mental images - to some degree also after their death! I can choose the how negentropic the quantum entanglement characterizing the relationship of my mental image and the world outside it. I realize, that the misused idea of positive thinking seems to unavoidably creep in! I have however no intention to make money with it!
   
   

There are still many questions that are waiting for more detailed answer. These questions are also a good manner to detect logical inconsistencies.

1. What is the size of CD characterizing self? For electron it would be at least of the order of Earth size. During the lifetime of CD the size of CD increases and the order of magnitude is measured in light-life time for us. This would allow to understand our usual deeds affecting the environment in terms of our subselves and their entanglement with the external world which is actually our internal world, at least if magnetic bodies are considered.
   
   
2. Can one assume that the dynamics inside CD is independent from what happens outside CD. Can one say that the boundaries of CD define the ends of space-time or does space-time continue outside them. Do the boundaries of CD define boundaries for 4-D spotlight of attention or for one particular reality? Does the answer to this question have any relevance if everything physically testable is formulated in term physics of string world sheets associated with space-time surfaces inside CD?
   

   Note that the (average) size of CDs (, which could be in superposition but need not if every repeated state function reduction is followed by a localization in the moduli space of CDs) increases during the life cycle of self. This makes possible generation of negentropic entanglement between more and more distant systems. I have written about the possibility that ZEO could make possible interaction with distant civilizations (see this. The possibility of having communications in both time directions would allow to circumvent the barrier due to the finite light-velocity, and gravitational quantum coherence in cosmic scales would make possible negentropic entanglement.
   
   

3. How selves interact? CDs as spot-lights of attention should overlap in order that the interaction is possible. Formation of flux tubes makes possible quantum entanglement. The string world sheets carrying fermions also essential correlates of entanglement and the possibly entanglement is between fermions associated with partonic 2-surfaces. The string world sheets define the intersection of real and p-adic worlds, where cognition and life resides.
   
   

For details see the article Good and Evil, Life and Death.