'Twould be nice if we head in that sort of direction. The brain-frying, of course, comes predominantly from non-physicists who often don’t really grok what the physicists themselves are – for the most part – reticent to assert. There are very deep unanswered questions that have far-reaching implications but those implications are only relevant once the underlying data and its reasonable interpretations are clearly understood. Irwin makes clear that this is not yet the case as there are other interpretive frameworks that may be worth thinking about seriously.
To my mind, there is a simple core question that we laypersons need to ask ourselves, regardless of which theoretical stance seems to be dominating at any particular time of the day, be it deterministic (which admittedly is showing lots of signs of wear-and-tear), non-deterministic (a much better word than random, which is misleading), or, as Irwin and his colleagues are trying to advance, code-theoretic, namely: what does [a given interpretation] mean for my own understanding of how reality “works”? That is: What does it allow? What does it prohibit? And, most importantly, how does it support/contradict/enhance/restrict my own experience?
Of course, it should also be recognized that such a depth of understanding is totally irrelevant for many things that we could be doing or that need to be done. There is little political activism, for example, that needs be grounded in a quantum-or-other-physical-understanding-of-reality. But, for those of us who are sometimes more interested in the roots, in contrast to the branches, of reality, these day-trips can be immensely exhilarating. They also shine at least some indirect, but not blinding, light on other, non-physics-based approaches to the topic, like we will be experiencing in our upcoming Sri Aurobindo projects.
Thanks for the clip, John.