A Conscious Universe

[bennyboy]

Tell me, how sure are you that QM particles exist, and what is your basis for being sure (assuming you are)?

Let me phrase it this way - to be able to say that they don't exist, you would have to use an entirely useless definition of existence, which basically excludes everything there is.

This is what Heywood would say about God. My criteria for the existence of actual things is that they can be directly observed: you can look at them, locate them in space, and determine their mass and volume. A "thing" which is describable only in mathematical terms I would suspiciously regard as being, after all, the expression of an idea.

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Not being able to directly perceive atomic or sub-atomic particles does not mean that their existence, interactions, and effects on higher level assemblies cannot be known with a high level of confidence.

Nobody, as far as I can see, has denied the existence of sub-atomic particles. What I'm saying is that in an idealistic monism, those particles are not things which are described by wave functions: they ARE wave functions. I think you and others have made the mistake of thinking that idealism contradicts or attempts to invalidate the knowledge or views of science; it doesn't. A bridge is still a bridge, and a brain is still a brain, and a photon is still a photon. The difference is that all these things are seen as expressions of ideas.

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In the "what is wrong with this premise" I am told mathematics and numbers are just made up. If that is the case how can the universe just be a mathematical object?

Different people, different ideas.