Perception runs on hardware, but it's software. It's importance is non-physical. Penrose[1] divided the realms of reality into 3: platonic-mathmatical, physical reality and the mind. I think Tesla is also suggesting scientific study of the mind is distinct from physics. I agree too. Perception is bad representation of reality, but it shapes all of the human experience.

Edit: I miss attributed to Mandlebrot originally. Both like tessalation!

1 https://astudentforever.wordpress.com/2015/03/13/roger-penro...

Except that the structure of neurons and their physical connections with each other in the brain is very much physical, and we don't have the understanding of those systems on a conceptual 'software' level yet, so observations such as those made in this article are based purely on observation of the physical phenomenon.

Except that the concept of friends is non-physical

This article compares the physical structure of the brains of friends.

Are abstractions a physical phenomenon?

Are brain waves abstractions?

Only if you consider being kept alive on life support a sufficient implementation to back the main interface of "alive.h"?

Yes.