Bernardo Kastrup has been leading the renaissance of metaphysical idealism, the notion that reality is essentially mental. He is the executive director of Essentia Foundation and specializes in artificial intelligence and reconfigurable computing. He has been a scientist in some of the leading research laboratories, including the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) and Philips Research Laboratories.

Federico Faggin developed a theory of physics which posits that consciousness, not matter, is the ground of being. He developed the silicon chip, the microprocessor at the heart of all electronic devices today such as your computer. He led the 4004 (MCS-4) project and the design group during the first five years of Intel‘s microprocessor effort. He created the self-aligned metal–oxide–semiconductor(MOS) silicon-gate technology (SGT), which made possible MOS semiconductor memory chips, CCD image sensors, and the microprocessor.

Fred Alan Wolf, PhD looks into what quantum physics tells us about the nature of reality, specifically the parts of reality we do not directly perceive, so-called called ‘hidden variables’? It shows that what we observe can actually change depending on what else is revealed along with it. This contrasts strongly with what we experience in our everyday lives. Quantum correlations cannot be explained assuming that the result of a test C is independent of whether C is performed together with a compatible test B or with a compatible test A (which may be incompatible with B). Thus, quantum physics shows that our common sense notion that what we observe does not depend on what else we observe along with it is wrong. Contrarily, change the “what else” e.g., the context, and the observation itself changes. Many experiments have been performed confirming that, indeed, observations can and do change depending on what else is observed along with them. This result might have been expected since the uncertainty principle tells us that we cannot observe certain pairs of observables, such as momentum and position, of an object simultaneously. But these contextual considerations go much farther than that, for they consider observation of things that normally can be observed simultaneously without changing. Such observations do not follow as our classically intuitive consideration would dictate – they are dependent on what other observations are made with them. What we see may not at all be what is “really out there,” but instead may be dependent on what else has been observed, even if not by us. We conclude that if quantum physics applies to real-world observations, the world cannot be a classical one – what we expect to see in it can, and does, depend ultimately on what context one includes in one’s observations as well as one’s expectations and worldview. I believe this adds credence to the notion that it would be more fruitful to consider the “out there” as a product of the “in here.” In other words, quantum physics is telling us that the universe is a mental construction after all.

Graham Priest on ‘Entanglement’ underscores the philosophical idea that everything depends on everything else. When trying to observe a position, you push it and disturb its position sending it elsewhere. It is ‘Everywhere and Nowhere’. A paper by Einstein, Podolsky and Rosen showed that particles apart at great distances can yet signal instantaneously, something which the theoretician John Bell said was possible in the Bell Theorem. This blends in with Buddhist approach to Reality, nature of the Universe etc as regards the view that Nothing stands alone and Everything is dependent on all else (a case of all holding hands) – the Theory of Dependent Origination. The probability is that every particle – probably from the inception of the cosmos – is interconnected with every other particle. Each particle is paired and each has an equal and opposite pull. There is no geographic limit to the distance over which this takes place. The deciding point at any given instant at which an outcome – of the positive or negative charge, say – is realised is at the point that it is observed. Until that point, alternative outcomes of situations are possible.

Johnjoe McFadden and Jim Al-Khalili in Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology explores such questions as ‘Nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we missing a vital ingredient in its creation?

Sean Carroll in The Many Worlds of Quantum Mechanics explains why an increasing number of physicists are led to an astonishing conclusion: that the world we experience is constantly branching into different versions, representing the different possible outcomes of quantum measurements. This could have important consequences for quantum gravity and the emergence of spacetime. His research focuses on fundamental physics and cosmology, quantum gravity and spacetime, philosophy of science, and the evolution of entropy and complexity.

Professor David Albert author of Quantum Mechanics and Time and Chance goes into inter alia the philosophical implications of physics. Are there objective matters of fact? The more science tells us about the world, the stranger it looks. Initial conditions can help explain different present results. Laws governing going backwards are the same as those governing going forwards. The whereabouts of subatomic particles has ramifications as regards the locations of tables and chairs and the contents of our thoughts.

Conscious (eg Visual) perception involves three waves post-thalamus; the third wave corresponds with conscious perception which occurs hundreds of milliseconds after sensory input. Yet we respond to visual input after less than a hundred milliseconds, seemingly consciously. So begins the lecture which then, according to a summary on the website: ‘Consciousness/mind is the Power of the spirit / soul acting through the brain. Brain is the radio, Spirit is the signa. Or you could think of the brain as a mirror reflecting the powers of the Spirit as well. The Quantum is the world of the Spirit acting on Creation … Our minds and the Quantum is the bridge between the material reality and the reality of the Spirit/Kingdom…’

Leonard Susskind discusses The marrying of Quantum mechanics with General Relativity. Quantum Mechanics is not mere theory; several practical inventions have flowed from its discovery. Among surprising findings of late is the Quantum Hologram. The information encoding an ‘object’ is not where one would suppose it to be but for instance on what might have been called its ‘circumference’. There can be a bridge between two very distant places, Entanglement and Worm holes may be connected just as Gravity and Quantum Mechanics may be more connected than has been supposed.