Information, Time and the Human Mind

<p>Quantum approaches to consciousness seem to explain several but not all observations in the field of mind-brain interaction. Information is introduced as a key to a wider world view since we have – according to Thomas Nagel –<i> to transcend the built-in limits of contemporary scientific orthodoxy </i>before we may <i>understand mind</i>. In the macroscopic world information is limited in contrast to the capability of our mind to work with unlimited information in mathematics. The world of mathematical concepts with unlimited information is independent of time and space and the mind is an intermediary between the macroscopic and the mathematical world. In the macroscopic world time is unidirectional while for the mind as well as in quantum physics time is bidirectional. In a given experimental system a photon carries 1 bit of information. Using a double slit gedankenexperiment it is shown that the transmission of the information from the photon to the detector takes the time span delta t = λ/c and Planck’s formula for the energy of the photon can be interpreted as Planck’s constant h multiplied by the elementary information flux (1bit) c/λ. The time span was determined by an observer in the macroscopic world. For the photon, however, time does not flow and space is shrunk to zero. For the discussion of time in quantum physical measurements these two viewpoints have to be distinguished. We may describe the photon as the elementary information unit in a world independent of time and space. The world of the photon is evidence for the existence of the world of mathematical concepts which is independent of time and space. When the information is transmitted from the world of the photon to the world of the detector it is absorbed and the loss of 1 bit information causes an increase of energy in the system. For complex information the hypothesis of an extended energy conservation law is formulated. An experimental test of the hypothetical equivalence of energy and information flux is necessary as a next step on the way which could lead to a better understanding of consciousness as well as to a quantitative theory of information.</p>