Attaching Theories of Consciousness to Bohmian Quantum Mechanics

Abstract

The de Broglie—Bohm theory of quantum mechanics (here simply called Bohmian Mechanics or BM) (de Broglie 1928; 1953; 1956; 1970; Bohm 1952a,b; 1953b; Bell 1987a; Albert 1992; 1994; Dtirr et al. 1992a,b; 1993; Bohm and Hiley 1993; Holland 1993; Cushing 1994; Berndl, Daumer, Dürr, Goldstein, and Zanghì 1995) is an augmentation of “bare” quantum mechanics (the bare theory being given by an algebra of operators and a quantum state that sets the expectation values of these operators) that includes a definite history or Bohmian trajectory. This definite trajectory gives BM a somewhat more classical flavor than most other forms of quantum mechanics (QM) (though the trajectory certainly has highly nonlocal and other nonclassical aspects in its evolution), but to see whether or not this makes a difference for observations by conscious beings, one needs to attach theories of conscious perceptions to BM and other forms of QM. Here I shall propose various forms of theories of consciousness for BM, which I shall call Sensible Bohmian Mechanics (SBM), and compare them with a proposal I have made for a theory of consciousness attached to bare QM, which I call Sensible Quantum Mechanics (SQM) (Page 1995a–d, 1996). I find that only certain special forms of SBM would give essentially similar predictions as SQM, though a wider class might be in practice indistinguishable to any single observer. I also remain sceptical that a viable complete form of SBM will turn out to be as simple a description of the universe as a viable complete form of SQM, but of course it is too early to know yet what the form of the simplest complete theory of our universe is.