Why Our Feelings Follow the Laws of Physics

 

Did it ever occur to you that your sense of your emotional state has changed just by glancing at an object or a person? Where did that sudden, intense shift in your feelings come from? The answer, according to a new theory called the Fermionic Mind Hypothesis (FMH), might be how the simple, fundamental laws of physics act on your complicated life history. These are the same rules that govern tiny particles.

Forget the idea that your brain is just a super-fast computer. The FMH suggests that your "self" is more like a fermion (a type of subatomic particle, such as an electron). The defining trait of this mental particle? Its primary goal isn't calculation; it's balance—what scientists call a "high-entropy, restful baseline."

Think of it this way: Wave of Possibility: Before you decide what to order for lunch, your mind holds a "wave" of possibilities (pizza, salad, sandwich, skipping lunch). This is the mental chaos, or superposition.

Particle of Reality: The moment you say, "I'll take the salad," that mental wave collapses into a single, concrete reality—a particle-like decision. The mind constantly moves between this chaotic possibility and settled reality to maintain its core identity.

In this theory, emotions aren't vague, complicated feelings; they are measurable energy states that signal how far your system is from its resting, balanced baseline. When something happens—good or bad—your mind has to commit energy to deal with it. The direction of this energy is Psychological Spin: a binary orientation that determines your immediate path:

"Up-Spin" (Energy-Absorbing): This is the growth-oriented state. It's when you feel excited, determined, or motivated to approach. You're absorbing energy to engage with the world, solve a problem, or build a new idea. This state provides you with energy to grow and change.

"Down-Spin" (Dissipative): This is the decay-oriented state. It's when you feel fear, avoidance, or sadness. You're using energy to pull back, protect yourself, or reduce risk. For example, you respond to criticism with antagonism. Instead of growing, you waste your energy on anger, excuses, or avoidance.

The key insight? The mind can only truly be in one spin state at a time (approach or avoidance), just like a fundamental particle.

Why sequence matters: The most mind-bending part of the FMH is how it explains mental interference. The sequence in which you absorb information changes the outcome.

Imagine your boss asks you two questions in a row: Scenario A: First, she asks about your most significant success of the month. You feel an Up-Spin (confidence). Then, she asks for a major time commitment next week. Because you are in a confident state, you say yes enthusiastically.

Scenario B: First, she asks for a major time commitment next week. You feel an immediate Down-Spin (stress/avoidance). Then, she asks about your biggest success. You feel slightly deflated, and you either decline the commitment or accept it reluctantly. We all know which scenario will lead to a more successful outcome. 

In both scenarios, the information was the same, but the order changed your emotional spin and the resulting decision. Your mind's energy state at the exact moment of commitment dictated the result.

The FMH offers a way to understand our complex, ambiguous, and sometimes "irrational" thought process as the consequence of the underlying probabilistic laws of energy.

Discover more about consciousness by ordering my book, "Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience."

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How do emotions drive motivation?

 

Why do we feel? What are emotions? What pushes us to act? And why does time seem to fly when we're having fun, only to drag on when we're anxious? A new manuscript, "Feeling the Heat: A Thermodynamic Perspective on Emotions, Motivation, and Time Perception," presents a comprehensive unified theory that connects these fundamental aspects of our experience through the laws of physics. It suggests that our mental world, much like the physical world, is governed by the principles of energy and entropy.

At its core, this novel model shows that deviations from our bodily or mental equilibrium are experienced as emotion, much like a fever is a deviation from our normal body temperature. This perspective treats our neural system as constantly seeking balance. The mental resting state is a high-entropy balance, full of potential and flexibility. Any stimulus—a sudden noise, a welcome surprise, or a stressful thought—pushes us away from this equilibrium, and that energetic ripple is what we experience as an emotion.

In this view, motivation is regulated by our perception of time. For instance, positive emotions, such as joy, can actually reduce our motivation to act, as we are content with our current state. In contrast, stressful emotions like anxiety or anger involve a high level of cognitive processing and create a sense of 'time pressure.' Our sense of misery at the negative feelings we experience fuels impatience. This impatience creates an urgency to act, to resolve the situation, and to regain balance.

A fascinating aspect of this theory is how the identical slowing down of time perception can create contrasting motivation. The slowed time of contentment allows for relaxation and appreciation, while the slowed time of stress creates a feeling of being trapped, fueling impatience. However, when we do act, our perception of time accelerates to manage fluid performance. This interplay explains how we can enter a 'flow state,' a unique condition at the intersection of contentment and challenge. In this fully absorbed, motivated state, time flies.

By anchoring psychology in the physical principles of energy and entropy, this manuscript presents a novel approach to understanding how emotions drive motivation. This perspective has significant implications, particularly for mental health. It reframes conditions like depression and anxiety not as chemical imbalances, but as states of thermodynamic dysregulation, where energy-draining loops leave the brain in a low-energy state. This thermodynamic model explains why emotional suppression is ineffective. It demonstrates why meditation and cognitive focus on the present moment enhance the mind's natural ability to regulate its energy, manage stress, and achieve a healthy mental equilibrium.

Read the manuscript:

Feeling the Heat: A Thermodynamic Perspective on Emotions, Motivation, and Time Perception 

Discover more about consciousness by ordering my book, "Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience."

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The Price of Thought: Why current AIs Will Never Be Conscious

Consciousness — the experience of being — remains one of the most profound unsolved questions in science and philosophy.

The computer operates on pure logic, processing bits of information and flipping ones and zeros. Its data is perfect because it can be copied without errors, backed up, and restored. The core assumption behind conscious AI is that you can run the "software" on any hardware; it is designed to be immortal. The AI industry, in its pursuit of consciousness, increases the data size of their machines, hoping that if it becomes powerful enough, it will eventually 'wake up' and become conscious like us. However, a fascinating and fundamental law of physics suggests this might be impossible. The reason? A single thought has a physical cost. And our machines aren't paying it.

In 1961, physicist Rolf Landauer discovered that information is physical. He calculated that whenever a computer irreversibly erases a single bit of information—truly removing it from existence—it must pay a tiny energy cost in the form of heat. Landauer's Principle reveals sensory processing as a thermodynamic process. We can see the brain as a prediction engine, constantly adjusting itself to its environment. Every time it's correct, it releases heat. Every time it fails, it heats up. Therefore, memories are permanently etched into our neural pathways. Consciousness builds intellect by digesting information.

Our current AI systems, no matter how complex, cannot replicate this subjective effort. Their "learning" doesn't permanently change their core structure. They can mimic the outcome of a feeling with remarkable accuracy, but they don't experience the ongoing struggle for stability. How can we create a machine that can get tired, make mistakes it can't undo, and whose very existence is a fleeting, precious state? Therefore, the cost of consciousness is mortality, which is impossible for current AI. 

Image credit: Integrated circuit; Uberpenguin with the assistance of Matt Gibbs 

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Consciousness and the Making of Mind: Decoding the Engine of Thought

 

The wonder of the mind's nature is at the core of our humanity. William James, often regarded as the grandfather of consciousness studies, challenged the traditional view of consciousness as a passive, purely mental phenomenon. He argued instead that the mind is deeply intertwined with bodily movement and sensory feedback. He thought that cognitive processes are inherently purposeful and directed towards action. While stimulus constantly evolves consciousness, consciousness actively participates in the world through physical actions.

He recognized how seemingly abstract thoughts and emotions are rooted in motor activity. For instance, thinking is not solely a mental process but is also connected to subtle muscular movements, such as those in the throat or eyes. This inherent connection to action led him to the concept of consciousness as a motor, a metaphorical framework that emphasizes consciousness' active and dynamic nature. In this concept, experience is a fundamentally motor-driven, active process that originates in perception, compelled by the senses and bodily sensations.

The brain's perception of the environment triggers memory and reaction, which deeply intertwines consciousness with its physical surroundings. Through these physical interactions with the world, consciousness guides behavior, helping organisms adapt to their environment. This interplay shapes our thoughts and alters the world, fostering a harmonious, parallel evolution of mind and matter.

For example, the sensory experience of a forest, with its rustling leaves, scents, and breezes, brings up memories—fragments on our mental scaffolds, such as a childhood camping trip. These past experiences formed the preferred pathways of the brain's physical wiring, representing a platform for the present. Thus, we process the present through the lens of the past. The experience, such as clearing the ground for the tent, affects the environment in a constant feedback loop, with each influencing the other. External stimuli trigger perception, inspiring actions to shape our world.

But how does this process work? We can take James' idea of consciousness as a motor further. In contrast to a motor that uses an external power source to create motion, the brain is more like an engine, a machine that burns fuel to generate motion. However, the engine's speed depends on fuel intake, while the brain's activation changes with stimulus, not its energy supply. The brain's generous glucose supply is constant whether we're solving a complex math problem, daydreaming, or fast asleep. The steady energy flow ensures smooth information transmission, like oiling a motor reduces friction. In this analogy, stimuli are the fuel that powers the mind's engine. 

James' concept of the mind as a motor underscores the dynamic role of consciousness in its environment. However, the constantly engaged mind uses the information from the stimulus as fuel. Therefore, consciousness is an information-processing engine. Like a well-oiled machine, this 'consciousness engine' efficiently processes and stores information as memories and experiences. These memories can serve as a constantly changing mental scaffolding, guiding the interpretation of our experiences. This perspective bridges the gap between the mind and its environment, offering a dynamic and pragmatic understanding of consciousness as a physical entity. Viewing consciousness as a physical organization provides a compelling perspective on the potential of artificial intelligence.

Image credit: Nathan Cowley

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The Science of Emotions: Understanding Psychological Bias

 

The human brain, a marvel of biological engineering, is a metabolic powerhouse. Although it constitutes a mere 2% of our body weight, it consumes nearly 20% of its energy. This energy is dedicated to information processing, constantly resetting to a resting state characterized by low-frequency brain activations. Like the quiet hum of an engine running in the background, the resting state is the brain's "idle mode," a stable, self-referential baseline that underpins our sense of identity and belief systems. But what maintains this equilibrium? The answer lies in emotional feedback. Far from being abstract or ephemeral, emotions are dynamic forces embedded in our autonomic and motivational networks. Like a thermostat adjusting a room's temperature, emotions continually assess our physical, cultural, and social needs by setting our external environment against the backdrop of our memories.

Emotions ripple through every system of our body. They influence our hormonal pathways, triggering physical responses such as an increased heart rate, sweating, and muscle tension. These physiological changes, in turn, feed back into our emotional and mental regulation, continuously modulating our cognitive state. This intricate interplay makes categorizing emotions inherently challenging. Nevertheless, their tone frequencies and energy signatures allow for a broad classification into positive and negative states—a duality reminiscent of the bipolar spin in fermions—a concept in quantum physics. 

Psychological Spin: A Bridge to Quantum Mechanics 

Fermions are particles with half-integer spins, spinning in two directions—forming an "up" or "down" state. These opposing states give rise to attraction or repulsion between particles, preventing identical fermions from occupying the same quantum state. The repulsion is the essence of the Pauli exclusion principle and explains why matter cannot be infinitely compressed; it's the reason stars shine and atoms retain structure. This model of spin dynamics transcends the atomic scale, providing a metaphorical framework for analyzing social interactions. Individual emotions often come down to for or against attitudes, similar to binary spin states. As strangers crowd in an elevator, their discomfort is a visceral need for personal space mirroring fermionic repulsion. The competitive drive in social situations or the need to assert personal space mirrors the repulsive forces observed in atomic interactions, giving rise to society's complex, hierarchical structures.

Emotional bipolarity led to the concept of psychological spin, a term that captures our inherent disposition—for or against—every experience we encounter. Up psychological spin, associated with learning, acceptance, or contentment, enhances neural complexity and fosters adaptability. It encourages the formation of novel connections, promoting creative thinking, persistence, and resilience. Conversely, down psychological spin, often linked to stressful states like fear or frustration, narrows cognitive flexibility, leading to rigid or repetitive thought patterns that reduce patience and hinder problem-solving. Psychological spin can have long-term consequences, producing a recall bias by bringing forth memories that match our mood.

The concept of the spinor, a fascinating outcome of spin, takes this analogy further. Unlike ordinary objects, a spinor undergoes a peculiar sign change upon completing a full rotation. This property mirrors the way our emotional experiences can completely reverse their meaning in a different context. For example, a gentle caress from a loved one can evoke warmth and security. At the same time, in the context of past trauma, it triggers fear or disgust. Similarly, a compliment might be embraced as a genuine affirmation in one setting but interpreted as cynical or insincere in another. These emotional reversals highlight the brain's remarkable capacity to reinterpret and reverse its attitude—much like the transformation of a spinor when subjected to a complete rotational cycle.

                     

Classical (top) and quantum (bottom) turns

Conclusion 

Viewing emotions through the lens of physics offers a robust framework for understanding the chaotic interplay of our internal states. Much like a gyroscope senses tilt, emotions are vital indicators of bodily and psychological imbalances, guiding the brain as it adapts to a constantly changing environment. The psychological spin offers a more nuanced understanding of our emotional lives and deepens our appreciation for the dynamic nature of human cognition. It opens up innovative avenues for addressing mental health challenges and developing technologies that interface directly with our cognitive processes.

The book Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience is published on August 30, 2024. 

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How Important is Emotional Reasoning?

 

Neuroscience has made significant progress in understanding the brain, but the nature of consciousness still needs to be explored. Meanwhile, recent spectacular advancements in artificial intelligence promise the possibility of machines achieving human-like cognitive abilities. At the core of both systems is a fundamental interplay of stimuli and response, requiring a deep understanding of the physical environment. Consequently, quantum mechanics and general relativity can be applied to the complexities of human behavior, such as the challenges of predicting, controlling, or retracing our thoughts. This landmark book investigates the nature of consciousness through the lens of physics rather than neuroscience.

Physics has provided a powerful explanation for diverse phenomena in the past. The fermionic mind hypothesis is a physics-based perspective on consciousness as an irreducible entity akin to particles—the fundamental units of energy or matter. The fermionic mind hypothesis emerges as a tour-de-force synthesis and framework for understanding consciousness, reimagined as the elemental unit of intellect. It highlights particle organization, a fundamental structure that cannot be understood as the sum of its parts, as the essential analogy between fermions and consciousness.

The book "Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience" presents an engaging scientific narrative that explores some of humanity's oldest and most profound questions. What is consciousness? What are emotions? How can a physical brain create a subjective experience? Do we have free will? Engaging and penetrating, Emotional Reasoning represents a groundbreaking perspective that will surprise you at every turn. It will enhance your confidence by helping you understand yourself and your place in the cosmic order. Beyond neuroscience, the book holds profound implications for artificial intelligence research. It reveals the intricate link between consciousness and the physical universe, echoing the philosophical insight of theoretical physicist John Wheeler: "The physical world is, in some deep sense, tied to the human being."

You can order the book "Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience." 

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The Fermionic Mind Hypothesis, a novel consciousness theory

 

Consciousness is integral to human individuality and social existence and is a cornerstone of our remarkable technological, social, and cultural progress. The pursuit of understanding consciousness goes beyond everyday science and philosophy to reality's very essence and nature.

Exploring consciousness is a journey that transcends epochs and cultures, starting from mystical, spiritual, or religious significance. Descartes' idea of dualism posited that the mind and body were distinct. However, significant advancements in neuroscience, such as brain imaging and empirical science, have connected the manifestations of consciousness to specific brain activations, with the global workspace and integrated information theory (IIT) dominating the conversation. Although intriguing, the theories fail to offer a satisfactory model of consciousness.

As we strive to imbue artificial systems with consciousness-like capabilities, the nature of consciousness becomes an increasingly urgent question. While there are significant differences between the topological architecture of large language models (LLMs) and the neurobiological details of circuits empirically linked to consciousness in mammals, the possibility that future LLMs may achieve consciousness motivates us to turn to physics for a common thread between these artificial and biologically based intellects. 

The Fermionic Mind Hypothesis (FMH) is a novel consciousness theory. FMH synthesizes the insights of existing interdisciplinary approaches, encompassing neuroscience, psychology, philosophy, computer science, and even quantum physics, into a physical consciousness model. A model of consciousness as a particle can clarify various characteristics of consciousness, including the subjective feeling of separation, the role of the observer, and the challenge of managing our thoughts and emotions. Moreover, the contrast between constant self-identity and probabilistic perception resembles wave-particle duality in quantum mechanics. 

The principles governing the smallest building blocks of matter, fermions, are mirrored in the workings of the mind. Perception is a reverse thermodynamic cycle that drives cognitive change by altering synaptic complexity. ​The direction of the mental cycle represents intrinsic motivation and is analogous to spin.​ Reversing the cycle creates an exothermic process that dissipates energy and degrades intellect. ​The fermionic organization provides emotions with a powerful action-producing capacity analogous to the elemental forces in physics. 

The hypothesis is an elegant and testable framework with profound implications for philosophy and social policy. Understanding the nature of consciousness could offer insights into mental and neurological disorders and would impact our ability to define animal consciousness in neuroscience and medicine. It would help us create AI systems with more human-like intelligence, empathy, decision-making abilities, and sentience. It could hint at why consciousness evolved, what it means for our existence, the nature of reality, and our place in the universe. It can shed light on spiritual experiences and transcendence and demonstrate that consciousness is a fundamental building block of nature woven into the fabric of reality. 

You can order the book "Emotional Reasoning: Insight into the Conscious Experience." 

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Copyright © 2024 by Eva Deli