Natural selection acts on the quantum world

Nature Magazine ^ | 23 December 2004 | Philip Ball

[PatrickHenry]

I donno. I just post the stuff. Maybe one of the smart guys around here can help.

[timer]

By percept I assume you mean perception. Kinetic energy IS time, the rate thereof, or dKE. There is no such thing as "time" in and of itself, thus no such thing as "space-time"; thus 5 dimensional xyzwp. What DOES exist is wave energy and particle energy, the 2 great languages of complementarity. When wave gets out of balance with particle(WsPv)you get TIME, a quantum movie that gives one living in the CM world the ILLUSION of continuous motion/time-as-a-river of nows. When Ws=Pv you get the balance that you call Momentum. Thus, t=dKE=m=(Ws not=to Pv) and not-t=PE=M=(Ws=Pv). Time-mass is IMBALANCE, not-time is Momentum is BALANCE. So, Heisenberg and Einstein both made oxymoron boo-boos : delta momentum and rest mass...think about what they actually say....

[puroresu]

This is quantum natural selection, not quantum evolution. As someone who questions macro-evolution, I have no problem with the ideas put forth in this article.

[PatrickHenry]

TimeCube placemarker.

[Thinkin' Gal]

Metaphysical paraconformities ping. (aka quantum fun-house mirror)

[edsheppa]

a phenomenon called decoherence, according to which interactions between the quantum states of the system of interest and its environment serve to 'collapse' those states into a single outcome.

My understanding is different. Decoherence is interaction with the environment destroying entanglement - in effect, the environment "factors" an entangled quantum state into independent parts. It does not explain how a mixed state "collapses" to a single outcome.

[Old Professer]

Whoever wrote this apparently has been spending too much time with my sister or has fallen into a Mixmaster at some point in his life.

[Old Professer]

This whole mess is B.S.; rather like comparing a telescope to a fishing net.

[LiteKeeper]

YEC INTREP

[longshadow]

>or at least they own a floating crap game, on a riverboat.<

... or in the back of the Biltmore Garage, especially if his name is Nathan.

[longshadow]

TimeCube placemarker.

Seems appropriate.

[RightWhale]

What DOES exist is wave energy and particle energy

What is waving? Particles are pieces of what?

[grey_whiskers]

"TimeCube" placemarker.

I followed the link, and my beeber was STUNED!
"All your conspiracy are belong to us."

Where do they come UP with this stuff??

On second thought, maybe I don't really want to know...

Cheers and Merry Christmas!

[Doctor Stochastic]

Take a look at Astumian's Paradox. It's also interesting. There are two games I & II. Each one is biased towards a loss. If you alternate I and II then the result is biased towards a win. (You can also make random choices between I & II, even with a 33% bias one way or the other.)

One need not use the game sequence number as Parrondo's version does.

There some evidence that muscle contractions use a mechanism simlilar to Astumians.

It's also interesting that there are two commentaries (one Polish and one in something like "Physics Today") that review these games but get the math wrong.

[Doctor Stochastic]

Detroit is snowed in today. (Amazing how Runyon ties into so much scientific discussion.)

[beckett]

This is a Darwin-like selection process. "One might say that pointer states are most 'fit'," says Zurek. "They survive monitoring by the environment to leave 'descendants' that inherit their properties."

Laughable nonsense.

[jennyp]

YEC INTREP

What does this have to do with YEC?

[Dataman]

Laughable nonsense.

Careful, they take this stuff seriously. You might hurt the purposeless feelings of some soulless, will-less evolutionist in his imaginary world who is particularly lonely this time of year.

[timer]

Waving? Visualize sawdust floating on a lake with waves moving across the surface, that's a rough analogy. In a sense the sawdust particles and waves are ONE. Now with ElectroMagnetic waves, from radio(long)to gamma(short)wavelengths it's like the(localized)particles are rotating in a circle as they move in a linear direction. Now change the floating sawdust to corks tied together on a string vertically at one foot spacings going down in the water(with some anchor weight at the bottom of the string). As you see, the top cork goes through the largest circular motion as the crest/trough passes by. The next one down(1 ft lower)a slightly smaller radius, the third cork(2 ft down)still a smaller radius, and so on down to where there is virtually no detectable circular motion at all. Now, this is just the opposite to EM wavelengths : shorter=higher energy. Getting tossed around in a boat on the LONG wavelengths of surface water waves in a storm is definitely more energy than being way under the waves in a submarine, yes? This then is the difference between EM waves, which govern bosons(photons of light)and DeBroglie's matter waves which govern fermions(electrons/protons/neutrons/etc):shorter waveLENGTH=higher bose energy and lower fermi energy. Ok then, get laid back and think about WAVES, WAVES, WAVES over the christmas to New Years holidays, then we can discuss PARTICLES.

[jonestown]

Physicist wrote:

Frankly, none of this sounds Darwinian at all. I suppose they just thought "quantum Darwinism" sounded catchy.

If you assemble enough people, those in the back won't be able to see the tree ...

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PatrickHenry wrote:

And if everyone goes home, the decoherence goes with them, the forest reverts to quantum mush, and the elves come out to play.

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If a tree falls in the quantum forest and nobody is around to hear it, - does it make an objective sound, or just mush?