The foundations of contemporary physics are based upon the “naïve reality” assumption that an objective physical world exists independently of the observer’s subjective experience. Yet it is clear that subjective experience is a critical aspect of reality and its presence must be included if we hope to properly account for the observer’s existence. Accommodating the observer requires abandoning the “naïve reality” assumption. A careful examination of what we do to see what we see shows that the processing steps required to explain our obvious first person experience involve a flow of action between our sensations and our memory which holds our model of whatever we believe explains those sensations. By applying a reductionist methodology to our first person view of matter, I will show that we do not objectively identify atoms or elementary particles, but rather that observers are a process that produces conceptual particles as theoretical interpretations of their subjective experiences. This suggests a tangible processing connection exists between the subjective and objective aspects of reality. By examining the architecture of quantum theory I will demonstrate that a general flow of action between the outside first person view of matter and the conceptual inside of matter is already codified in quantum physics. This examination shows that quantum theory is a linear approximation of a more comprehensive theory that treats reality as a flow of activity which processes observable experiences into theoretical models of their causes and back again. By acknowledging a ubiquitous flow of action between an objective physical world and an observer’s subjective experience, the foundations of physics are expanded. Elementary particles are replaced with elementary events happening in observers, events are implemented by a flow of physical action through sequential subjective and objective processing phases, and all systems are at least primitive observers.
Wolfgang Baer