What exactly is Quantum Superposition?

[precalculus]

I know that the foundation of atoms is quanta energy, and the foundation of that is the human mind, and the foundation of the human mind is quantum superposition. What exactly is the quantum superpostion though? I have a feeling that I might be asking a dumb question because I am new to this kind of stuff. Actually, I am still pretty new to science in general, and I have a lot to learn.

[swansont]

You have allowed energy states in bound systems. It is possible to take an ensemble of atoms and put half in one state and half in the other (or at least that how it looks classically), and they will behave as if they are in both states at once — you can see this in certain interactions where the states can interfere.

 

So the wave function would be a linear combination of the two states.

[rooshidavid]

The perfect meaning of Quantum Superposition is :

Ans: Superposition is a principle of quantum theory that describes a challenging concept about the nature and behavior of matter and forces at the sub-atomic level. The principle of superposition claims that while we do not know what the state of any object is, it is actually in all possible states simultaneously, as long as we don't look to check. It is the measurement itself that causes the object to be limited to a single possibility.

[swansont]

Please don't plagiarize.

 

That exact definition is found here and is only a word or two off from a number of other sources.

[ajb]

The superposition principle can be though of as a consequence of the Schrödinger equation being linear. This means that given any two solutions, the sum of them is also a solution.

[jimmydasaint]

I know that the foundation of atoms is quanta energy, and the foundation of that is the human mind, and the foundation of the human mind is quantum superposition.

 

Are you referring to Penrose here?

 

What does all this have to do with consciousness? Penrose proposes that the physiological process underlying a given thought may initially involve a number of superposed quantum states, each of which performs a calculation of sorts. When the differences in the disnibution of mass and energy between the states reach a gravitationally significant level, the states collapse into a single state, causing measurable and possibly nonlocal changes in the neural structure of the brain. This physical event correlates with a mental one: the comprehension of a mathematical theorem, say, or the decision not to tip a waiter.

 

http://www.dhushara.com/book/quantcos/penrose/penr.htm

 

I think the above means that a single conscious moment occurs when proteins in the neurones of the brain behave like mini computers and that the whole brain behaves like a super computer. Penrose and Hameroff have a hypothesis which is hugely attractive, but, as yet, have no direct experimental evidence to back the hypothesis (called Orch OR - Orchestrated Objective Reduction).

 

I spent twenty years studying how computer-like structures called microtubules inside neurons and other cells could process information related to consciousness. But when I read The emperor’s new mind by Sir Roger Penrose in 1991 I realized that consciousness may be a specific process on the edge between the quantum and classical worlds. Roger and I teamed up to develop a theory of consciousness based on quantum computation in microtubules within neurons. Roger’s mechanism for an objective threshold for quantum state reduction connects us to the most basic, “funda-mental” level of the universe at the Planck scale, and is called objective reduction (OR). Our suggestion for biological feedback to microtubule quantum states is orchestration (Orch), hence our model is called orchestrated objective reduction, Orch OR.

 

http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/