nucleation

LIT-1284: Consciousness and the Collapse of the Wave Function

1 min read

Properties3
StatusActive — read in part 2026-10-20 (NOTE-1012); worth reading as the most developed consciousness-collapse proposal and as the source that frames quantum collapse as the gap in causal closure that a property-dualist consciousness could fill: consciousness (phenomenal Q-shape in integrated information theory) is super-resistant to superposition and drives a continuous-collapse dynamics, simple versions are falsified by the quantum Zeno effect, and more complex versions are in principle testable with quantum computers.
Tagsquantum-foundations, consciousness, metaphysics
Cited as “paper” byNOTE-1012 — Consciousness and the Collapse of the Wave Function

Graph View

David J. Chalmers and Kelvin J. McQueen (2021), arXiv preprint; chapter in S. Gao (ed.), Consciousness and Quantum Mechanics, OUP — ARXIV-2105.02314

  • Consciousness-collapse can be made precise: take consciousness (on IIT, phenomenal Q-shape) to resist superposition and give it a continuous-collapse dynamics. Simple versions fail on the quantum Zeno effect; others remain open and are in principle testable.
  • The thesis need not be dualist, since on a materialist IIT it is a fundamental physical law about a complex physical property. On a property-dualist reading a consciousness-to-physics law gives non-physical consciousness a causal role.
  • The authors argue that wave-function collapse “appears to be precisely such a gap” in causal closure as non-physical consciousness might fill, so the closure argument against interactionist property dualism does not reach the consciousness-collapse view.

Filed 2026-10-20 in promotion-audit batch 059 to check how Poltorak (LIT-164) represents it, the reading THEORY-485’s promote_when asks for.

Backlinks