Adam Becker

Okay.

I think there's a lot of good evidence for that.

Our neurons are made of subatomic particles.

Those subatomic particles are governed by quantum physics.

So in one sense, yes.

But there's often another sense that people have in mind when they ask this question.

But what's measurement, right?

What counts as measurement?

Some people will say things like, well, maybe consciousness counts as measurement.

Maybe it's when a conscious being interacts with a thing.

Maybe that's what measurement is in quantum physics.

a couple of things first of all that still leaves you with this problem of okay but but does that mean that like the wave function of the universe was waiting for a conscious being to come along also what is conscious what do you mean by consciousness what counts as conscious you still have that problem

yeah it really seems like a very human-centric view and i'm always really wary of human-centric views there is a mystery in human consciousness right or or there seems to be one like you know what is human consciousness where does it come from sure you can have different views on on how consciousness works and what it is and like they're whether or not there's even a mystery there but i do not see a compelling reason

to invoke consciousness in quantum physics given that there are alternatives and i do not see why we would say that it is more related to quantum physics than to any other you know issues in physics like i don't think that consciousness plays a more special role in quantum physics than it does in any other area of physics the question of consciousness sure whatever that's a that's a good question we can have interesting conversations about it

But I don't see it as related to these questions about quantum physics.

So first it was abject terror after I got the contract because I, you know, like after I finished partying.

Right.

I was I realized I was on the hook for 90,000 words and I'd never published anything longer than about 3000.

So that was completely fucking terrifying.

I had a history earlier on in my career of having difficulty writing.