Elusive Consciousness

Author(s): Narendra Bhandari, Surendrasingh Pokharana, Jitendra B Shah
Publisher: L D Indology Ahmedabad

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century, it was recognized that some experimental results could not be explained by the conventional classical mechanics, but the same could be explained by the newly discovered quantum physics. It resulted in a new mechanics called quantum mechanics that revolutionized scientific and technological development. The uncertainty principle, the quantum theory of measurement, the statistical significance of the wave functions of quantum mechanics, the mathematics involving operators and the abstract vector space, quantum statistics, etc., are some of the various features of quantum mechanics that are not available in the conventional classical mechanics. Therefore, in case of difficulty in explaining some aspects of psychology, or economics, or any other branch of knowledge through the classical mechanics, one may expect that some special features of quantum mechanics may be helpful. As mentioned earlier, we have already noted some success in this direction in the area of human decision making. In view of such aspects, it becomes valuable to be familiar with some basics of quantum mechanics.
By the phrase, "understanding human decision process through quantum mechanics," we mean the application of some aspects, such as mathematical framework, of quantum mechanics. For example, we may consider some states of mind in an abstract space that mathematically behave as the quantum states in the Hilbert space (von Neumann 1983, Messiah 1970), and the decisionmaking process as a process statistically governed by the formulation based on the postulates of quantum mechanics. This, however, does not mean that the human mind becomes a quantum mechanical object. Just as a quantum description of electrons, light quanta, etc., require the necessity of a constant known as Planck's constant (h= 60626 x 10-34 Joule-Second), we do not need Planck's constant for explaining the above mentioned disjunction effect or other paradoxes of psychology. Likewise, in quantum mechanics, Schrodinger's time-independent and time-dependent wave equations contain Planck's constant, but in the corresponding equations of quantum dynamics of human decision making (Busemeyer et al. 2006, Pothos and Busemeyer 2009), this constant occurring in the equations of quantum mechanics is replaced by another parameter.
1.2. Application of Quantum Models to Disjunction Effect and Other Decisions
While explaining the disjunction effect and other paradoxes of psychology with the help of quantum models, Khrennikov (2009) considers the effect of quantum interference in the form of an equation that has an adjustable
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