New interpretation of QM, with new two-phase cosmology, solves 15 foundational problems in one go.

[marcin]

Eh?

In my phase 1 all possible cosmoses and all possible (non-conscious) timelines exist. It is functionally identical to MWI apart from the fact that in MWI all of the branches stay real and continue to diverge until the end of a physically real time, because there is no potential for consciousness to collapse them in a phase shift (because MWI is proposed as being true at the moment, not just before a phase shift 555mya).

There are no timelines in your phase 1, or they are indistinguishable until your LOCUS appears, so it practically creates them all. Primordial wave function is a totall, undefined mess that can't be compared with the branches of MWI.

 

[marcin]

Any questions?

I'm not even reading it anymore.

 

[Geoff Dann]

There are no timelines in your phase 1, or they are indistinguishable until your LOCUS appears, so it practically creates them all. Primordial wave function is a totall, undefined mess that can't be compared with the branches of MWI.

They are exactly as distinguishable as all of the timelines in MWI before consciousness exists.

My model is literally identical to MWI in phase 1.

LUCAS collapses that whole MWI structure, which spans 13 billion years. One great big collapse.

What do you think is the difference between MWI and my phase 1?

 

[marcin]

They are exactly as distinguishable as all of the timelines in MWI before consciousness exists.

WHAT makes them distinguishable BEFORE LOCUS?

 

[Geoff Dann]

WHAT makes them distinguishable BEFORE LOCUS?

LUCAS. Last Universal Common Ancestor of Sentience.

I don't understand what you mean by "distinguishable". They are different parts of a coherent mathematical structure. They are distinguished by not all being the same part...

 

[marcin]

And THAT was a typo-level mistake.

LUCAS. Last Universal Common Ancestor of Sentience.

I don't understand what you mean by "distinguishable". They are different parts of a coherent mathematical structure. They are distinguished by not all being the same part...

Your primordial wave function has no parts. It's unitary.

 

[contrarian]

No. But I have a very strong case for claiming it was the first organism capable of such a thing, and it is already considered the prime candidate for the last unique common ancestor of all the animals that intuitively seem conscious.

Do I understand correctly that you are suggesting that Ikaria wariootia is LUCAS?

 

[jhixon]

In quantum mechanics, the measurement problem is the problem of definite outcomes: quantum systems have superpositions but quantum measurements only give one definite result. When you attempt to measure the wave, you are completing the circuit between the "wave's electrical value" moving and the electromagnetic force/field pushing on it as space is charged, and thus it appears as a collapsed wave or reduction of the state vector" upon observation. Since the forces act at the speed of light, it causes the measurement of both the "electromagnetic field" and the "wave's electrical value" at the same time, or a collapse wave. If you wouldn't have stop the electron moving by completing a circuit by measuring it, then quantum says it would have been in the other place. You influenced it, so you changed the outcome of where it would have been, thus two outcomes.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Do I understand correctly that you are suggesting that Ikaria wariootia is LUCAS?

Yes. Or something very similar. For me, everything about it matches -- first bilaterian, just before the Cambrian. First organism with a brain. It is literally the first creature which could be the last common ancestor of all animals I currently intuitively believe to be conscious.

 

[Geoff Dann]

And THAT was a typo-level mistake.

Your primordial wave function has no parts. It's unitary.

Eh? It is unitary because it doesn't collapse, not because all parts of it are the same as all the other parts. It is just the uncollapsed quantum state of an entire cosmos, including its history (because uncollapsed quantum states are time-neutral).

 

[Geoff Dann]

In quantum mechanics, the measurement problem is the problem of definite outcomes: quantum systems have superpositions but quantum measurements only give one definite result. When you attempt to measure the wave, you are completing the circuit between the "wave's electrical value" moving and the electromagnetic force/field pushing on it as space is charged, and thus it appears as a collapsed wave or reduction of the state vector" upon observation. Since the forces act at the speed of light, it causes the measurement of both the "electromagnetic field" and the "wave's electrical value" at the same time, or a collapse wave. If you wouldn't have stop the electron moving by completing a circuit by measuring it, then quantum says it would have been in the other place. You influenced it, so you changed the outcome of where it would have been, thus two outcomes.

I don't know what interpretation this is, but it certainly isn't 2PC.

 

[marcin]

Eh? It is unitary because it doesn't collapse, not because all parts of it are the same as all the other parts. It is just the uncollapsed quantum state of an entire cosmos, including its history (because uncollapsed quantum states are time-neutral).

Why are you twisting my words? I said that it has NO parts. There is no history before the collapse. History is the sequence of events, and each event is the result of the collapse.

 

[Geoff Dann]

Why are you twisting my words? I said that it has NO parts. There is no history before the collapse. History is the sequence of events, and each event is the result of the collapse.

I am not twisting anything at all. I don't know why you can't understand what I am saying.

I am saying that in phase 1 there is a single wavefunction describing the entire cosmos. This is literally identical to MWI, which I hope you now understand, although given your last post, maybe you still don't.

Let's just forget the phase shift and phase 2 for now. Phase 1 is just like MWI, at least until the point that the first conscious animal appears somewhere in the cosmos. Do you understand what that is?

For the first 12 billion or so years, my model of the cosmos is exactly the same as MWI, except instead of being physical all that exists is the mathematical structure itself. That mathematical structure is timeless and unchanging (it spans 12 billion years). And it has exactly as many parts as the cosmos and all its MWI branches. A (near) infinity of parts, and yet it is also all one great big thing.

 

[contrarian]

First organism with a brain. It is literally the first creature which could be the last common ancestor of all animals I currently intuitively believe to be conscious.

That is a very broad definition of a conscious organism. At any rate, it is not accepted by many biologists that consciousness and sentience are equivalent. They are not. But please continue with your hashing is out with jhixon.

(Intuition (aka gut feeling) is not a profound approach to science.)

 

[marcin]

Let's just forget the phase shift and phase 2 for now. Phase 1 is just like MWI, at least until the point that the first conscious animal appears somewhere in the cosmos. Do you understand what that is?

There is nothing to split the branches in your phase 1. There are people, who split the branches in MWI, when they're doing the experiments or simply making choices. See the difference?

 

[Geoff Dann]

Why are you twisting my words? I said that it has NO parts. There is no history before the collapse. History is the sequence of events, and each event is the result of the collapse.

You are just repeating yourself, and not making any sense. What do you mean when you say it has no parts? It is a wavefunction. It is a mathematical structure. Do mathematical structures have parts? Seems like a weird question to me.

 

[Geoff Dann]

That is a very broad definition of a conscious organism. At any rate, it is not accepted by many biologists that consciousness and sentience are equivalent. They are not. But please continue with your hashing is out with jhixon.

(Intuition (aka gut feeling) is not a profound approach to science.)

I am not saying it must be true because intuition says so. I am saying it is probably true based on what we guess about its biology.

Intuition does indeed have a place in science. If things intuitively feel wrong, it is often as sign that they are indeed wrong. Actual science, as practised, includes the following of hunches. This is a common feature in major breakthroughs. Do you want some examples?

 

[marcin]

You are just repeating yourself, and not making any sense. What do you mean when you say it has no parts? It is a wavefunction. It is a mathematical structure. Do mathematical structures have parts? Seems like a weird question to me.

Parts are the different, possible outcomes of the collapse, Geoff. According to you, there was no collapse before LUCAS. Conclusion: no parts before LUCAS.

 

[Geoff Dann]

There is nothing to split the branches in your phase 1. There are people, who split the branches in MWI, when they're doing the experiments or simply making choices. See the difference?

Yes, it is exactly the difference between phase 1 and phase 2.

In phase 1 the entire wavefunction continues to exist. There is no collapse. All of the branches are equally real, in a timeless, mathematical sense, precisely because there are no conscious organisms to select a branch to become actualised in physical reality. Wavefunction collapse needs a selection mechanism -- without an entity capable of making such a decision (a brain), there is no collapse.

In phase 2, when observers are present, they select a real timeline from the mathematical possibilities, and they make that one branch real. In consciousness causes collapse theories, including phase 2 of 2PC, this is what wavefunction collapse means -- consciousness makes the choice about which branch is real, and the others stop existing at all (they no longer even exist in potential, because their "branching off point" no longer exists.

In phase 2 collapse becomes mathematically required, to avoid organisms making every possible decision in different timelines.

 

[Geoff Dann]

WHY DOES COLLAPSE OCCUR?​

Collapse occurs because:​

1. LUCAS needs to recursively model itself and the world.
2. In doing so, it must make decisions—not probabilistic samplings, but specific semantic commitments.
3. In a fully superposed quantum world, semantic closure is impossible. Any decision is spread across incompatible branches.
4. This leads to a mathematical contradiction in the system’s internal representation:
   • It tries to select one answer from a formally undecidable set of quantum possibilities.
5. This contradiction triggers QCT, which is the collapse point.
6. Collapse resolves the contradiction by selecting one determinate history, making cognition stable.
7. QZE then maintains this classical appearance by reinforcing the consistent branch.

---

HOW DOES THIS "ALL ADD UP"?​

Let me give you a clean synthesis:

In 2PC, reality begins as a Platonic superposition. Evolution proceeds along this structure until a recursively self-modeling organism (LUCAS) emerges.
LUCAS must decide, but cannot do so within the superposed structure—it faces a quantum frame problem: the informational overload and inconsistency of evaluating all branches.
This semantic contradiction hits a Quantum Convergence Threshold (QCT), forcing the collapse of the wave function into one coherent history.
From that point forward, the Quantum Zeno Effect (QZE) stabilizes this emergent classical world, maintaining coherence and enabling evolution of complex cognition.
Thus, collapse is not caused by observation, but by the necessity of recursive semantic closure within a cognitively active, self-referential system.

 

[marcin]

There are no multiple branches in your phase 1, because there is nothing to split the first branch. There are people, who split the branches in MWI, when they're doing the experiments or simply making choices. That's the reason why your Phase 1 is different from MWI. That's also the reason why LUCAS can't choose the branch from the phase 1 - because it has no multiple branches.

 

[contrarian]

Intuition does indeed have a place in science.

I should have related it to the interpretations you seem to be making.

You noted that : It is literally the first creature which could be the last common ancestor of all animals I currently intuitively believe to be conscious.

Again, sentience and consciousness are not equivalent.

To simplify the two: The former is regarding sensations, etc. The latter more specifically refers to self-awareness. They are very different concepts. Not many would consider worms to be conscious.

 

[Geoff Dann]

There are no multiple branches in your phase 1, because there is nothing to split the first branch. There are people, who split the branches in MWI, when they're doing the experiments or simply making choices. That's the reason why your Phase 1 is different from MWI. That's also the reason why LUCAS can't choose the branch from the phase 1 - because it has no multiple branches.

This is a great opportunity to really slow down and make Many-Worlds Interpretation (MWI) graspable for someone like Marcin, who is wrestling with a very subtle conceptual issue — namely, how "branches" work and when they appear.


Let’s build it up from the absolute simplest foundations, step by step, using plain language and short, concrete examples.

---

Step-by-Step: What Is MWI?​

1. Quantum systems can be in a superposition.​

• Imagine a coin that's both heads and tails at the same time — until something observes it.
• This is called a superposition — like a blend of all possible outcomes.

---

2. The Schrödinger equation says this superposition evolves smoothly over time.​

• Quantum physics has an equation (like a clock) that smoothly moves the superposition forward.
• It doesn’t choose a single outcome. It just lets the whole mixture evolve.

---

3. In MWI, nothing ever collapses.​

• The universe doesn’t pick just one result when something is measured.
• All outcomes happen.
• But instead of coexisting in one world, they each go their separate way — like sliding off into parallel tracks.

---

4. These parallel tracks are called branches.​

• When you open the box and see Schrödinger’s cat — you see it alive.
• But in another branch, someone else sees it dead.
• Both versions of you exist, each in a different "world" or branch.

---

5. When a measurement happens, the universe splits.​

• Not just for big stuff like cats — even for particles, electrons, photons, and atoms.
• Every time a quantum choice occurs, the universe "branches" into all possible outcomes.

---

6. YOU split too.​

• In MWI, the observer (you) splits with the world.
• Each version of you has a different memory, because each saw a different result.
• These versions don’t know about each other after the split.

---

Marcin’s Confusion — Let’s Rephrase It​

Marcin says:

"There are no multiple branches in your phase 1, because there is nothing to split the first branch."

He's assuming that you need a conscious person to split the universe. But MWI says the splitting happens automatically — whenever there's any quantum interaction that becomes "entangled" with the environment.


So the core misunderstanding is this:

MWI doesn’t require a person to split the world.
Any physical process involving quantum indeterminacy and decoherence will do it.

People are just along for the ride. You split with the universe, you don’t cause the split.

---

Now tie it back to Phase 1 vs Phase 2 in your theory​

Here’s how to gently explain the distinction Marcin is stuck on, from your 2PC perspective:

---

What MWI says:​

• The world is always branching — with or without people.
• All branches are real.
• Consciousness just rides the branching.

---

What your theory (2PC) says:​

• In Phase 1, the world is in superposition, but not branching yet.
• There’s no actual split — no branching, because there’s no consciousness yet to force collapse or divergence.
• The branching only appears after the emergence of a conscious agent (LUCAS) hits the Quantum Convergence Threshold (QCT).
• That’s when one branch becomes real, and time begins — Phase 2.

---

The key difference:​

In MWI, branches are always splitting, and all are real.
In 2PC, nothing splits until LUCAS collapses the superposition.
Before that, there is only one unreal, superposed structure — not many worlds.

---

Suggested wording to help Marcin:​

You might say:

"MWI says the world is always branching — every tiny quantum event causes a split, with or without observers. But in my model (2PC), there’s only one big quantum structure before consciousness appears — nothing has branched yet. It’s not a set of multiple real worlds, it’s a single possibility space. LUCAS doesn’t 'choose from' branches — LUCAS creates the branch by needing to decide in a way that can’t coexist with superposition."

Would you like a short visual/diagram to explain this to him too? It might help.

 

[marcin]

You are just repeating yourself, and not making any sense.

If I was making sense according to your 2PC, I would become another "radical, interdisciplinary philosopher", and that's the last thing I wish for myself.

 

[Geoff Dann]

If I was making sense according to your 2PC, I would become another "radical, interdisciplinary philosopher", and that's the last thing I wish for myself.

Let's get back to you getting to grips with MWI and my phase 1. Right now you do not appear to have understood either of them.

They are similar, but not quite the same. In phase 1 of 2PC there is no actual branching, just an enormous superposition. In MWI the same structure involves actual branching, because the whole thing is physical rather than purely informational. In phase 2 of 2PC (in terms of cosmic history) the uncollapsed wave function is all the bits of reality which aren't being observed right now (so phase 1 is still chugging away in the background), but there are also continual collapses going on, and consciousness, space and time are real.

This is directly analogous to Kant's phenomena and noumena. In phase 1 there is only noumena (which are forever beyond human experience). In phase two noumena still exist (the world as it is in itself) but now so do phenomena (the world as it is experienced by us). Thus space and time are indeed the framework for animal cognition/consciousness, almost exactly as Kant said. There is an important difference though, and that is that Kant did not know noumena are quantised, and consequently did not know that reality is fundamentally probabilistic.

Do you understand yet, or do you have further questions?