“There can be only one true explanation for any given event” is actually what I am challenging. PBR supposes reasoning and physical descriptions have to be based on a prespecified perspective. And there is no one “true explanation” that transcends all perspectives.
By PBR’s logic, the perspective center being not physically describable is to be expected. That’s what I meant by “why quantum physics does not cover the observer” because physics actually shouldn’t. I am not claiming I know more than physicists. If you are interested in quantum interpretations proposed by actual physicists, that work well with the idea of PBR, I suggest RQM by Carlo Rovelli.
Btw, the steelmaning portion is not my argument. “whenever two conscious minds interact” is ontologically impossible per PBR. The “conscious mind” is inherent to the first-person, or more generally inherent to the thing at the perspective center. There cannot be two conscious minds in any given analysis. For example, reasoning from my first-person perspective and conducting physical analysis would not conclude or infer that you are conscious. You are just a complicated machine in this analysis. Whatever your actions are, they can be physically deduced. Alternatively, we can conduct the analysis from your perspective instead of mine. But then you will be the conscious self, and I will just be the complex, yet physically-reducible machine.
We can also conduct the analysis from the perspective of some other thing, then neither you nor I would be conscious. However, we shouldn’t conduct the analysis with “a view from nowhere” or “god’s eye view” that transcends all perspectives that think in terms of the “true nature” or “absolute reality” of things.
“There can be only one true explanation for any given event” is actually what I am challenging. PBR supposes reasoning and physical descriptions have to be based on a prespecified perspective. And there is no one “true explanation” that transcends all perspectives.
By PBR’s logic, the perspective center being not physically describable is to be expected. That’s what I meant by “why quantum physics does not cover the observer” because physics actually shouldn’t. I am not claiming I know more than physicists. If you are interested in quantum interpretations proposed by actual physicists, that work well with the idea of PBR, I suggest RQM by Carlo Rovelli.
Btw, the steelmaning portion is not my argument. “whenever two conscious minds interact” is ontologically impossible per PBR. The “conscious mind” is inherent to the first-person, or more generally inherent to the thing at the perspective center. There cannot be two conscious minds in any given analysis. For example, reasoning from my first-person perspective and conducting physical analysis would not conclude or infer that you are conscious. You are just a complicated machine in this analysis. Whatever your actions are, they can be physically deduced. Alternatively, we can conduct the analysis from your perspective instead of mine. But then you will be the conscious self, and I will just be the complex, yet physically-reducible machine.
We can also conduct the analysis from the perspective of some other thing, then neither you nor I would be conscious. However, we shouldn’t conduct the analysis with “a view from nowhere” or “god’s eye view” that transcends all perspectives that think in terms of the “true nature” or “absolute reality” of things.