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Quantum Anthropology: Man, Cultures, and Groups in a Quantum Perspective
Abstract and Figures
The book offers a fresh look on man, cultures, and societies built on the current advances in the fields of quantum mechanics, quantum philosophy, and quantum consciousness. The authors have developed an inspiring theoretical framework transcending the boundaries of particular disciplines in social sciences and the humanities. Quantum anthropology is a perspective, studying man, culture, and humanity while taking into account the quantum nature of our reality. This framework redefines current anthropological theory in a new light, and provides an interdisciplinary overlap reaching to psychology, sociology, and consciousness studies.
Contents:
1. Introduction: Why Quantum Anthropology?
2. Empirical and Nonempirical Reality
3. Appearance, Frames, Intra-Acting Agencies, and Observer Effect
4. Emergence of Man and Culture
5. Fields, Groups, Cultures, and Social Complexity
6. Man as Embodiment
7. Collective Consciousness and Collective Unconscious in Anthropology
8. Life Trajectories of Man, Cultures and Societies
9. Death and Final Collapses of Cultures and Societies
10. Language, Collapse of Wave Function, and Deconstruction
11. Myth and Entanglement
12. Ritual, Observer Effect, and Collective Consciousness
13. Conclusions and Future Directions
Figures - available via license: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
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Supplementary resource (1)
... After death, the spirit is believed to be transformed into a kind of non-local state that can be described as "being everywhere and pervading all nature". This idea is very similar to the concept of the "quantum sea", which originally emerged in physics (Puthoff, 2002) and was later also applied in anthropology (Trnka & Lorencova, 2016) and research of indigenous mythologies (Laughlin & Throop, 2001). The quantum sea is an all-pervasive energetic field including quantum vacuum energy that is a random, ambient fluctuating energy existing even in so-called empty space. ...
... The quantum sea is an all-pervasive energetic field including quantum vacuum energy that is a random, ambient fluctuating energy existing even in so-called empty space. This field is a single underlying substructure that is common for the entire universe and represents a primary source for the emergence of all material objects, as well as non-material processes (Puthoff, 2002;Trnka & Lorencova, 2016). The conceptual basis of the metaphor of the "quantum sea" is similar to the Sioux concept of the "Great Mystery". ...
Different cultures show different understandings of consciousness, soul, and spirit. Native indigenous traditions have recently seen a resurgence of interest and are being used in psychotherapy, mental health counselling, and psychiatry. The main aim of this review is to explore and summarize the native indigenous concepts of consciousness, soul, and spirit. Following a systematic review search, the peer-reviewed literature presenting research from 55 different cultural groups across regions of the world was retrieved. Information relating to native concepts of consciousness, soul, and spirit were excerpted from the sources and contrasted. Contrasting these indigenous concepts revealed important implications for understanding consciousness within a cross-cultural perspective and has practical implications for applied approaches utilizing native indigenous traditions. Keywords: #consciousness, #Indigenous psychologies, #decolonial psychology, #decolonial turn, #Indigenous science, #Indigenous knowledge, #decoloniality, #decolonizing, #cross-cultural comparison, #cultural psychology, #relational ontology, #global consciousness, #collective consciousness, #quantum binding, #quantum entanglement, #mind-body problem, #mind-body relations, #soul-body relations, #shamanic consciousness, #Indigenous concepts, #altered states of consciousness, #Indigenous Peoples, #Shamanism
... The technological developments in over the past few decades made the consciousness a significant area of interdisciplinary research and chief contributors are psychologist, anthropologist [Cohen 1996, Trnka 2016] neuropsychologist and neuroscientist. The primary focus is on determining the neural and psychological correlates of consciousness. ...
The purpose of the book is to explain the basic concepts of Engineering Ethics, moral values and consciousness. Taking ethical decision is not only depending upon the circumstances, values and culture, but depend upon the individual consciousness. This book provides an introduction to the professional ethics more specific the engineering ethics and moral dilemma which an engineer faces in his professional and personal life. These issues are illustrated with the relevant case studies of engineering practices. This book provides sufficient material for a full course to engineering ethics and moral values with sufficient flavour for consciousness. It can also be used for a 2-3 week modular course on engineering ethics specially related to general professional ethics, human values, applied philosophical ethics, ethics and modern technology, etc. Contents : Contents 1. Human Values 2. Professional Ethics 3. Engineering Ethics 4. Corporate and Business Ethics 5. Consciousnesses, Mind and Brain Study 6. Measurement of Consciousness 7. All Round Development for Well Being
... Currently the trialism of matter, energy, and information is very popular (e.g. Trnka & Lorencova, 2016;Gaiseanu, 2021), but we think this is not necessary. Energy is a property of matter while information is created by minds in living creatures, so actually they are not independent (Cui, 2021b). ...
... Rather they emerge as relational effects in what we call 'entanglements' in line with quantum physics (Barad, 2007;Steinmo, 2017). 10 Involving quantum physics into our frame entails that we widen our focus from considering entities as distinct objects, localizable at a single point in space and time, as classical Newtonian (social) science would have it, so as to include the relational processes of becoming through which entities as effects emerge and individuate (Barad, 2007: 97-107, 137-138, 250-252;Trnka & Lorencová, 2016). Quantum physics indeed teaches us that entities (re)emerge from an undifferentiated whole in a process that Barad calls (2007:332-333) 'differential becoming'. ...
Food and life are intimately entangled. To grasp the underlying complexity of this seemingly simple statement, this article first introduces the approach to food/eating as an assemblage enacted by various heterogeneous components, and further develops it by engaging with actor network theory and material semiotics. Thereafter the focus turns to ‘entanglement’, as inspired by quantum physics, to elicit the basic dynamics of the entanglement of food and more-than-human beings, conceived of as involving mutual and differential becomings within and among assemblages. The article illustrates these entangled becomings by drawing upon examples from Sri Lanka, which in an intercultural philosophical fashion serve to establish an articulation (in the sense of a connection) between the proposed abstract approach to food and some basic premises of Buddhism and Ayurveda, a South Asian health system. Overall, the article crafts a conceptual toolbox and performs ontological groundwork wherein food and human beings as entangled assemblages provide a productive, refined, and sensitive research apparatus for the intimate study of more-than-human life and organization while also spurring novel theorizations through food/eating.
Massive inclusion of artificial intelligence (AI) in the technosphere and electronic governments urges an update in legal regulation of these and related areas. The issue converges on the key question of whether AI can be endowed with legal personhood and capacity. Opposing views in this respect build on hardly compatible ethics and largely outdated scientific grounds with a clear perspective for deep cultural antagonisms and further fragmentation of the world. We contribute to this debate from the perspective of quantum cognitive science and show how it can resolve some of the current impasses. Our approach builds on the quantum-theoretic refinement of the concept of uncertainty into quantum and classical types: classical uncertainty denotes subjective ignorance of the present state of affairs, while quantum uncertainty accounts for individual freedom to construct the future. We show that legal capacity of intelligence, at bottom, is defined by the type of uncertainty it is capable to resolve. Natural intelligence, in particular, can resolve quantum uncertainties, generating genuine novelty and affective experience in the process. Classical AI, in contrast, is limited to algorithmic computation, bound to produce predefined results regardless of its complexity. Concepts of decision-making, subjectness, creativity, and personal meaning then are recognized as physically inapplicable to such systems. The proposed definitions of these terms complement and sharpen the criteria of legal capacity in the existing legislations, indicating that “autonomy” is essentially equivalent to “appreciation.” Classical AI then appears as fundamentally alien to subjectness and legal capacity both in civil and common laws, resolving a delicate contradiction between them. Quantum-empowered AI, in contrast, escapes this conclusion due to its access to quantum uncertainty, introducing novel challenges with respect to responsibility gaps and meaningful human control. The developed approach aligns with the present legal practice and ethical discourse, contributing to the scientifically informed development of law in technological societies.
The authors postulate that their recently published theory explaining the essence of human self-awareness is useful to consider whether a personal planetary consciousness is emerging on our planet. Their earlier published theory posits that the feeling of self-awareness can be effectively explained when it is assumed that it arises as a result of the interaction of three processes, namely the feeling of qualia, the recurrent activity of neural circuits realizing the self-image, and the formation of the brain's electromagnetic field, important for the sense of subjectivity. This allows the authors in the next stage of inference to consider whether it is possible to find analogical elements and processes on a planetary scale. The authors specify the layers of distributed intelligence emerging on Earth. This allows them to consider the concept of a planetary global brain. The authors believe that the recent, quite unexpected, widespread use of new global-scale artificial intelligence systems such as Chat/GPT is an argument in favor of the formation of a global brain. Next, the authors mention the first known published intuitions related to planetary consciousness, especially Teilhard de Chardin's concept of the noosphere. The authors also indicate the observable manifestations of existence of alleged planetary consciousness. They believe that people's transcendent feelings should be considered as such its manifestation. They hypothesize that the recently observed polarization of worldviews is also magnified by alleged emerging planetary consciousness. The authors, drawing on the analogy between brain hemisphere specialization and the planet's two ideological blocks, conclude that it's vital to patiently moderate conflicts and accept that altering this pattern is unfeasible. Some other practical conclusions are also formulated.
İnsanın karmaşık ve bölünmez bütünlüğünü açıklayabilmenin basit bir yolu yoktur. Onu bir bütünlük olarak, parçaları içinde ve dış dünyayla ilişkisi içinde aynı anda kavrayacak bir yöntem ya da yaklaşımda yoktur (Carrel 1959). İnsanı analiz edebilmemiz için çeşitli tekniklerin yanı sıra çeşitli bilimleri de birlikte kullanmamız gerekir. Doğal olarak, bu bilimlerin her biri farklı yaklaşımları temelinde ortak nesneleri olan insana ilişkin farklı bir anlayış sunarlar. Her bir bilim dalı kendine has özel yöntemleriyle insanın parçalarını soyutlar; ancak, bu soyutlanan parçalar tekrar birleştirildiklerinde, insanın kendi gerçeğinin zenginliğinden daha fakir oldukları için arkalarında göz ardı edilemeyecek kadar önemli bir sorun bırakırlar. Oysaki, son derece karmaşık bir varlık olmasının yanı sıra insanlığın eğilimlerini, kavramlarını ve özlemlerini de temsil eden insan kavramımız metafizikle de yüklüdür. Özetle, insan kavramımız ait olduğumuz bilim dalına, duygularımıza ve inançlarımıza göre farklılık gösterir (Carrel 1959). Örneğin, pazarlama ve ekonomi disiplinlerinde insan, köleleştirildiği makineleri çalışır halde tutmak için durmadan üreten ve tüketen homo economicus'tur. İnsanı anlama konusundaki kafa karışıklığımız, öncelikle pozitif olguların içinde mevcut olan bilimsel, felsefi, inançsal yanıltıcı kalıntıların bir sonucudur. Zihnimiz bir inanca, bakış açısına ve sisteme bağlıysa insan ve somut olguların yönü ve anlamı değişir. Örneğin, materyalist ontolojide insan bir töze sahip bir madde olarak görülürken, vitalist ontoloji insanın bir süreç olduğunu öne sürer. Demek istediğim, her disiplin insanı doktrinler, inançlar ve yanılsamalarla renklendirilmiş mercekler aracılığıyla görmektedir. Bu yanlış veya kesin olmayan fikirlerin ayıklanması için tartışılması gerekir (Carrel 1959). İnsanı bir nesne olarak inceleyen tüm bilimlerin henüz tatmin edici bir başarı düzeyine ulaşmadığına ve insan hakkındaki bilgimizin hala çok sınırlı olduğuna şüphe yoktur (Carrel 1959). Bu yetersizliğin temel nedenlerinden olan entelektüel köleliğin zincirlerinden kurtulmanın gerekliliğinden sıklıkla bahsedilmektedir.
Ontolojiye, yani var olana, dair bir görüş Batı felsefesine ve Batı felsefesinin hükmündeki günümüz bilimsel çalışmalarına hakim olmuştur: Dünyanın en temel şeyleri madde ya da daha teknik felsefi terimle tözlerdir (Dupre, 2019). Ancak, dünya için en temel olan şeyin “değişim ya da süreç” olduğunu savunan başka görüşler de bulunmaktadır. Gerçekte hiçbir şey sabit durmaz ve sadece tesadüfi özelliklerini değiştiren istikrarlı şeyler olarak görme eğiliminde olduğumuz şeyler, çevrenin akışındaki kısmi istikrarlardan, sürecin akışındaki girdaplardan başka bir şey değildir (Dupre, 2019). Dolayısıyla, ontolojik olarak insanın bir dizi temel özelliğe sahip maddeler mi yoksa bir dizi faaliyetle nedensel olarak bağlantılı süreçler mi olduğuna karar vermek gerekir. Çünkü pozitivist ontoloji açısından insanı bir madde olarak görmeyi bırakıp, bir süreç olarak kabul etmeye başladığımızda bugüne kadar maddeci ontolojinin üretmiş olduğu bilginin çöp niteliğinde olduğu görülecektir. Geldiğimiz süreçte bilgi sorunu bir “izm”, yani pozitivizm doğrultusunda işlenmiş, pozitivizmin damgasını vurduğu bir bilimsellik açısından bilgi meşrulaştırılmıştır. Pozitivizm, insanı bir üretim ve tüketim varlığı olarak görmektedir. Bu pozitivist bakış açısı ve yöntemle insanı değer koyan, isteyen, tavır alan, yapan, özgür olan, bilen, gelişen ve idealize eden, bio-psişik bir varlık olarak anlamak mümkün değildir. Kanımca bilim dünyası insan gerçekliğini yaşamak mı yoksa bilmek mi gerekirin tercih ayrımına gelmiştir. Bilgi sorunu herhangi bir dogmatik "izm "den hareketle çözülemez (Mengüşoğlu, 2017). Yani insanı sadece davranış ve olgu düzeyinde belirlenebilen toplumsal ilişkiler çerçevesinde bir olgu olarak ele almak yetersizdir. İnsanı parçalamadan somut bütünlüğü ve bütünlüğün içinde ele almak ve bu somut bütünlüğü tüm yönleriyle fenomenolojik bir şekilde ortaya koymak daha makul bir yaklaşım olacaktır (Mengüşoğlu, 2017). Pozitivizmin dayandığı dış duyular, insana sürekli değişen zıtlıklardan oluşan bir dünya verir. Sürekli değişim içinde olan bir dünya pozitivist akıl tarafından kavranamaz. “Çünkü akıl, oluş ve değişim karşısında çelişkiye düşer” (T. Mengüşoğlu, 2017, s. 337). Oysaki dünya, karşıtların ayrı ayrı değil, birlikte eriyeceği bir bütün olarak deneyimlenebilir (T. Mengüşoğlu, 2017). Üç parçalı bu çalışmanın ilk bölümünde de vurgulandığı üzere eğer kuantum durumu sadece atom altı dünyaya ait bir durum değil ama aynı zamanda günlük yaşam içinde de var ise, ki var olmaması olası değil; o zaman klasik mantık (ya o-ya bu) ve klasik fiziğin varsayımlarıyla (determinizm, nedensellik, süreklilik, zorunluluk, kesinlik vb.,) insanı anlamak ve açıklamaya çalışmak yetersiz ve oldukça tartışmalı bir yaklaşım olabilir. Çünkü, evren makroskopik düzeyde bir kuantum alanı ise insanın da bu alanda kuantum bir varlık olması muhtemeldir. İnsan, sabit olmayan, sürekli kendini yeniden oluşturan bir varlıktır. Özellikle kuantum dünyasında süreçte “şeylerin” karşılıklı olarak kendilerini karmaşık şekillerde şekillendirebilmeleri olası ise bu maddeci ontolojide kabul gören “kesinlik” ve “bilinebilirlik” kabullerinin bir kenara konmasını gerektirebilir. Bu nedenle bu bölümde klasik insan ve kuantum insanın ne olduğu “materyalizm, atomizm, determinizm, yerel nedensellik, rasyonellik, otonomluk, dış duyuların güvenirliği” gibi araştırmacılar tarafından genelde sorgulanmadan kabul edilen varsayımlar eleştirilmekte, karşılaştırmalı olarak tartışılmaktadır. Klasik insan ve kuantum insan arasındaki olası fark ve benzerliklerin sosyal bilimlerdeki araştırmalara etkileri irdelenmektedir.
Psychology suffers from the absence of mathematically-formalized primitives. As a result, conceptual and quantitative studies lack an ontological basis that would situate them in the company of natural sciences. The article addresses this problem by describing a minimal psychic structure, expressed in the algebra of quantum theory. The structure is demarcated into categories of emotion and color, renowned as elementary psychological phenomena. This is achieved by means of quantum-theoretic qubit state space, isomorphic to emotion and color experiences both in meaning and math. In particular, colors are mapped to the qubit states through geometric affinity between the HSL-RGB color solids and the Bloch sphere, widely used in physics. The resulting correspondence aligns with the recent model of subjective experience, producing a unified spherical map of emotions and colors. This structure is identified as a semantic atom of natural thinking—a unit of affectively-colored personal meaning, involved in elementary acts of a binary decision. The model contributes to finding a unified ontology of both inert and living Nature, bridging previously disconnected fields of research. In particular, it enables theory-based coordination of emotion, decision, and cybernetic sciences, needed to achieve new levels of practical impact.
This article presents the approach to religion taken by the Blackwell Companion to the Study of Religion, edited by Robert Segal. The approach taken is largely, though not wholly, that of the social sciences: anthropology, economics, psychology, and sociology. The social scientific approach to religion is pitted against the approach taken by the field of religious studies itself—an approach called “religionist.” The claims by the religionist approach against the social sciences are identified and refuted.
Three orders of simulacra: 1. counterfeits and false images: from renaissance to industrial revolution, signs become mode of exchange, these signs are obviously flase. 2. Dominated by production and series: mass produced signs as commodities, signs refer not to reality but to other signs (money, posters). 3. Pure simulacra: simulacra mask over the idea that there is no reality, reality is an effect of simulacra (disneyland masks simulacra of LA, Prison masks nonfreedom outside the walls).