Introduction

Discretization, as defined here, is the observable humanistic cognitive propensity to divide continuous reality into distinct categories, measurements, and symbols. This highly developed perspective has, for millennia, functioned as the direction of human evolution and has united humanity by forming the basis of a common experience of reality. Language, mathematics, science, technology, and the arts each exemplify achievements derived from the processes of this sophisticated simplification process. However, the very processes that have empowered extraordinary advancements in human being are rapidly becoming the primary limiting factors in its continued expansion.  

Logical thinking is generally considered the epitome of humanistic mental capacity. Yet, it is indicative of the limitation being elucidated here. In a logical paradigm, the statically few outliers are often considered non-sensical and impertinent, which is entirely true to the logical thinker. They do not make logical sense. However, from an expanded view the outliers become important purveyors of that which will eventually become a new norm. Their influences and activities therefore become extremely pertinent to any comprehensive understanding.

Quantum mechanics has been pointing toward a broader view of reality for more than a century. The notion of relativity, which demonstrates human experiences as ultimately a matter of perspective, was a powerful shift in the directional impetus of human evolution. Nonlinearity, which is the antithesis of the discretization of time and space, is in line with this divergent developmental path. In quantum physics we have seen non-localization of events in phenomena such as quantum entanglement and quantum superposition. Though in the past they have proven elusive to observational evidence, quantum computing is currently achievable due to the existence of these effects, rendering them fundamental.   

Nonetheless, this humanistic perspective pervades nearly all aspects of human perception. Human being generally regards its own perceptions, such as the notion that time is sequential and space is contiguous, as immutable. Its unending quest for a static universal view is blocking an expanded dynamic view that is inevitably looming on the horizon. A quintessential example of this myopia is held in the phenomena of the collapse of the wavefunction (ψ). In quantum mechanics, it is a currently held axiom that quantum quanta exist in superposition. This means they are not in a discrete time and space, and their wave-like activities are calculated as wavefunctions. When a quantum particle is measured it assumes a discrete position. This is termed the collapse of the wavefunction. However, here it is asserted that the wavefunction does not collapse. It is instead the humanistic perception of the wavefunction that collapses it to a discrete point. Measured with discrete instruments and observed with minds conditioned through eons of unquestioned discretization, human being experiences discrete representations of the continuous reality they imperfectly sample. In short, human being constrains the reality experienced.

Here it is proposed that the next cognitive evolutionary step in human development involves continuous nonlinear cognition. This is a paradigm shift from a deterministic to a probabilistic perspective. The complete abandonment of discretization is not being suggested here, as it currently remains an essential tool when seen for its limitations. “This is demonstrated in the current use of classical computers as an interface to quantum computers — a discrete intermediary that translates continuous quantum reality into humanly readable outputs, and which will eventually be unnecessary in lieu of a direct perceptual interface. The quantum holographic cavity proposed in the final section of this book represents one vision of what that direct interface might become. However, it is suggested that the exclusive cognitive dominance of the linear discretizing perspective can and must be transcended for humanity’s continued evolutionary growth.

This book demonstrates that quantum computational creativity is one practice through which this development is becoming accessible and hypothesizes a vision of perceptual technology, the quantum holographic cavity, that could make continuous quantum reality directly perceptible through the elimination of the discretizing step of measurement.

When time is experienced as non-linear, space is not contiguous. When the discretizing mind quiets, continuous reality becomes perceptible. The extremely quiet mind is extremely powerful.