What are your thoughts on this theory

[dhuyd]

I have a theory that I'd like to share. The theory is that psychology and sociology are a part of physics. I believe that they work and can be acted upon and calculated in the same way that gravity and other classical physics can.

In classical physics: a computer uses electricity to operate its electrical circuits. These networks of electrical circuits are used to build higher levels of software abstraction (such as word processing, graphical user interfaces, or rendering and exploring 3d environments.) This is used to create and execute the audio, the visuals, and the user controlled experiences that the software or a video game can provide through its hardware.

Similarly for psychology, our brains use physical electrical signals and chemical reactions to create our thoughts, our dreams, our emotions, our sensory inputs, our motor controls and our vocal outputs.

Basically all of what we experience, and consider our consciousness and subconscious to be, is a high level of abstraction from our electrical and chemical components.

Biological functions are a subset of general physics functions.

Psychological functions are made from the compounding and abstraction of biological functions.

Sociological functions are made from the compounding and abstraction of psychological functions, in which 2 or more individuals are involved.

For Example: we gravitate towards certain people with values that align with our own values and needs. We are repelled away from people that conflict with our values and needs, such as those who want to hurt us.

This means that our psychological and sociological processes can be quantified, and qualified. It also means that forces/magnitudes and trajectories can be applied to functions such as decision making logic and the probabilities of our actions .

A second example is that our emotions can be calculated by mapping in 3 or more axes. This would create a spectrum of emotions just as there is a color spectrum. There is no standardization at the moment, but if you were to give each axis a maximum of 100 and a minimum of -100, that would give it relative scale.

Axis 1: Attraction (gravitation) towards the emotion //Technical term is Valence

Range: Sad-Happy; Negative-Positive

Axis 2: Intensity (magnitude) of the emotion

Range: Apathy-Rage; Low-High

Axis 3: Attraction (gravitation) towards the emotional target

Range: (Fear) Motivated away from the target-(Anger) Motivated towards the target

You can then apply points and ranges of values for where an individual is at, trajectories for where their emotional state is going, and thresholds for each personality.

Newton's First Law: An object at rest stays at rest and an object in motion stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

An emotional trajectory stays the course with the same speed and in the same direction (when quantitatively mapped) unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

A train of thought, a conversation, a social context, ect, stays in motion with the same speed and in the same direction (when quantitatively mapped) unless acted upon by an unbalanced force.

In conclusion, I believe physics can be applied to calculate our emotions, our psychology, and our social situations in the same way they can calculate physical matter big and small.

Thanks for your time, and let me know your thoughts.

Edited April 8, 2014 by dhuyd

[Strange]

 

In conclusion, I believe physics can be applied to calculate our emotions, our psychology, and our social situations in the same way they can calculate physical matter big and small.

 

 

While this might be true (and I can immediately think of a few reasons why it might not be) it is way too complex to be practical. It takes massive amounts of computing just to model a relatively simple chemical reaction from first principles. And "from first principles" means using a number of simplifications and approximations; actually doing it using quantum theory is impossible.

 

http://xkcd.com/435/

[Endercreeper01]

We could calculate the behaviors of a human through physics, but only if our brains acted classically. If our brains acted quantum mechanically, we would only be able to find certain probabilities that a human will react in a certain way. We do not completely know how the brain works, so we cannot predict anything for now.

[physica]

I notice that there are no calculations that can offer predictions in this post. If you look at physics you'll realise that concepts such as classical physics has to rely of probability when large numbers of particles are involved. They realised this in 1906 with simple gasses, having to rely on probability and statistical mechanics to give accurate predictions. As for psychology there are too many factors, past experiences, diet, recent chemical alterations like stress, external stimuli at the moment of measurement, the subjects' intelligence level and so on.

 

As for your computer analogy they work on quantum calculations. Transistors require quantum computations to work.

 

in conclusion this is pub talk. Certainly not a scientific theory.

Edited April 13, 2014 by physica