Thought for the Day – May 27, 2026
Here’s what I’m thinking.
Reality and Quantum Reality
At macro levels (the major content of our experience), reality is consistent, stable and predictable. The physics of reality is elegant, understandable, explainable, and testable. This gives great weight to materialist views of reality. The goal of science at this level was to reduce everything to the principles of physical reality. This reductionist determinism ruled until the end of the 19th century.
As experiments became possible at micro levels (that is atoms, electrons, photons, etc.), this “classical” view of reality became unexpectedly relative rather than absolute. The results required a different way of thinking and this became the basis for two levels of reality: the classical world and the quantum world. In the quantum world, particles can have two forms: solid particles and waves. These waves are not like waves of water, but are waves of probabilities of all possible measurements. Approaching this reality with a classical mindset kept leading to “impossibilities.” So, a totally different form of thinking was required. Quantum thinking embraced these impossibilities as necessary to make sense of what was being discovered and verified by experiments and measurements. These “impossibilities” required rethinking of the nature of matter, time, space, energy, and basically all fundamental concepts.
Gain
It turns out that measurement and experiment must be done involving what has become known at the quantum level. If experiments and measurements adhere too closely to classical traditions, the quantum effects often disappear. But when measurements and experiments are more sensitively designed, the quantum level becomes “visible” again. So observation effects what is being observed, but not in the sense of observation as seeing. Observation is a physical intrusion at the sub-atomic level ands this changes what happens. This leads to the idea that quantum reality is not hidden or distant. It is, rather constantly present in classical reality but it so consistently “disrupted” by massive interactions that it as if the quantum world (and its “strangeness) disappears. Realization of this shows that determinism is not fundamental. At the deepest level, reality is not a conglomeration of “fixed” entities, but a structured layering of probabilities embracing all possibilities. At the macro level, the quantum world is invisible as certain probabilities become smooth realities through interference as described above.
The understanding of classical reality is now thousands of years old in its basic form. The quantum world has been known for less than 150 years.
Enter AI. As quantum computers become possible, and as AI comes to use quantum computers, it becomes possible for the nature of quantum reality (and perhaps other realities not yet known), to become known. This is cleverly the future. But we have no idea what that future will be. What we do have is the phenomenon of human presence (AI) in quantum reality.
But human dreams may already be there. It is those deepest dreams that reveal what is there and what is coming from there and what can become known. Do dreams “interfere” with quantum reality in the way “observation” does? Maybe so. But if not, then deep dreams and visions became a way of observing that does not interfere and can thereby come to “see” more of the reality of this level. My thinking is leaning in this direction. So I see deep dreams as a counterweight to AI.
Russ
Hi Russell,
your post brings to mind a couple of dreams that relate to your idea of dreams as ‘counterweight’ to AI. Funnily enough one of them directly references one of your own dreams that was included in Dreams, Bones and the Future pt 3; of the three increasingly alien waves.
1st dream:
Two of my friends are building a skate park. Then I’m hurrying along somewhere. I come to a large machine; maybe it’s an experiment of some sort, but by who? There’s a glowing white sphere a bit bigger than a tennis ball with six white laser beams pointing at it. It’s awesome – I can’t believe that such a machine exists. I keep on down past the side of it feeling that there’s something for me behind there. I come to a coastline – this is where Russ Lockhart saw the three waves coming in. I’m going to find out about the second and third waves.
The first wave comes in and the water is warm and bubbling like a hot tub. The water rises to my waist and sweeps me back a few dozen feet – a pleasant feeling, funny even. The tide goes back out and is out of sight, now I’m eager to find out about the third wave and rush toward the water. People are fleeing in the opposite direction in droves, increasingly panicked, but my curiosity is too much and I push past. But as I get closer it’s a horrible scene – the sea has vanished altogether, maybe it just boiled away? Now it’s a barren landscape with pockets of fire about. An army of humanoid robots, about 7 or 8 feet tall, made from black (phone) screens, are charging up where the tide should have been. I turn around to run myself but it’s no good. I’m caught by one of the robots. Whilst a struggle ensues a prophetic voice speaks – ‘streamers’ are the only hope against this onslaught.
In the dream I took ‘streamers’ to mean people who stream content on online platforms such as twitch/youtube etc. Maybe specifically gamers. But there is a clear link to an earlier dream which also features an overt AI prophecy:
2nd Dream:
I’m speaking to my sister (who at the time was in a late stage of cancer), she impresses upon me the need for resilience in these times. One of my relatives is overseeing the restoration of a spectacular futuristic looking holy building. Everything starts to resemble more and more an animation/cartoon. I’m being shown an array of animated characters, ‘Minne’ is singled out – she’s a beautiful blonde woman wearing a white robe. She was created by accident when the voice actress who was supposed to be playing a different character delivered one of her lines wrongly. Now I’m weaving through an incredibly beautiful animated sequence. My entire field of vision is filled with characters of all kinds in a seemingly infinite vertical stream. Then this world is plunged into total darkness. After a while the glowing outline of a male character appears flying through the dark void, the only source of light that can be seen. (He reminds me of a character called Vault Boy, from the video game Fallout, which is set in a post apocalyptic future) Eventually the light returns, now I’m back on something like normal terrain. Some disaster is taking place – nothing but threat wherever I turn. Up to my left I see a vague impression of the vertical stream from the outside, reaching high into the sky. A gigantic, metallic, grasping hand is growing out of it almost like a tumor – it’s frozen in mid air and looming over the entire scene. An authoritative female voice begins to speak, a prophecy is being told. She explains that the giant hand represents something technological, perhaps AI, and suggests that it will be touch and go whether it can be stopped in time. Then using characters from Lord of the Rings as touchstones, she explains that some are chosen to survive these catastrophic events and carry forward the new world.