Consciousness—Questions Collapse Consciousness

Letter Response To Dr. Clifford's Questions Continued

In quantum mechanics, when a measurement is taken, one of the many
possible states of the system becomes actualized (the system breaks
down). It is the collapse of the wave function that allows the
physical state of a system to be observed. An analogue to this
process, collapsing the wave function, exists in our own consciousness.
Asking a question collapses the "jumping monkey"
behavior of our awareness. The strange animal that Von Neumann was
talking about (see post below) does not just exist at the quantum level of experience.

While remaining whole, consciousness too, continually moves through
its possibilities, constantly changing with the passage of time, and,
it continues to do so until an observation (measurement) is made on
"the system under observation." Perhaps you have had this experience,
I know I have, -- many times. Take a "time out" and just listen to
people in conventional conversation. It's "just one thing after
another." Mental associations move the direction of talk seamlessly
through different subjects. Moved by mental associations,
consciousness develops indefinitely; that is, until a question arises.
With the question we "collapse the system." We actualize future
possibilities. Why do I believe what I do? What will I be doing
tomorrow at this time? A question collapses the jumping monkey behavior of consciousness in the same way as Von Neumann's “strange animal” becomes a
thing-in-itself after a measurement is taken on the physical state of a system to be observed—only, according to Sartre, consciousness is already stopped before we even can ask the question. According to him, the very existence of for-itself consciousness—is a question in waiting.

In quantum mechanics it is not possible to observe reality without
changing it. When we get close enough to a system to see what's
happening, we change the outcome, or put more succinctly, there would
be a different set of alternatives had we not interfered. Even our
choice of experiment affects the outcome. The particle-like nature of
light or the wave-like nature of light depends on how we choose to
look at it. In quantum mechanics we cannot eliminate ourselves from
the picture. Thus, an objective look at nature is prohibited. The
knower and the known, at that level of experience, are inextricably
intertwined. At the quantum level, just as it is in self-conscious, we
are looking at the reduction of primacy of knowledge to the primacy of
existence; but, even more than that we are looking at the reduction of
the primacy of existence to the primacy of freedom, or at least the
freedom of multiple possibilities.

Returning to Sartre, two consequences follow from the being of the
for-itself. 1) Consciousness and belief have overlapping meanings;
and, 2) negation and freedom form an inseparable unity. According to
Sartre, it is not possible to separate belief from consciousness, nor
is it possible to separate negation from belief and still have
cognitive awareness. In Sartre's terminology, this is my consciousness
of presence-to-self. Therefore, it is not possible to separate freedom
from consciousness and still remain in existence, and that is the
way I see things at the quantum level of experience, also.