Living Quantum Systems can Bias WF Collapse ?

[Widdekind]

(1) Living quantum systems can cause & control Wave Function Collapses

 

At deepest root, all physical systems are quantum systems. And, living cells are "self-measuring" quantum systems -- "at its most fundamental level, the living cell is a quantum system, which measures its own internal state"

(McFadden. Quantum Evolution, p.164). Thus, quantum systems that are "alive" can cause, or "self-trigger", their own Wave Function Collapse events (quantum evolution by von Neumann Type I process).

 

Moreover, modern human science has hinted that quantum Wave Function Collapse, normally an unbiased random process, can be biased, so that quantum possibilities, latent in the quantum system's Wave Functions, can be willfully, or volitionally, selected, in a non-random way. For example, Carl Sagan did not dismiss "that by thought alone, humans can (barely) affect random number generators in computers" (Haisch. Purpose-Guided Universe, p.38). And, some scientists have suggested, that (human) Consciousness can cause & control the "quantum jump" (or, Wave Function Collapse) process (Goswami. Quantum Activist (DVD); Eysenck & Sargent. Explaining the Unexplained, p.136-149), suggesting specifically that "Consciousness [can] influence internal state-vector [Wave Function] collapse" (ibid., p.146).

 

 

 

(2) Preferenced selection, of quantum possibilities, into actualized realities, is the "Miracle" of Life -- "if it can, then it will"

 

Imagine, if only for a few moments, that there truly is some "Miracle Magic" quantum phenomena, by which quantum possibilities, latent within a Wave Function's super-position state, can be selected, in an active & non-random way. By such "Miracle Magic" means, as soon as some event became quantum mechanically possible, no matter how unlikely, that event could be made manifest, as a well-defined actual reality. And, as it happens to happen, such a "Miracle Magic" phenomena, is already popularly attributed to Life processes, with the popular expression, "if it can, it will", and, "where there's a Will, there's a way".

 

Therefore, it could be construed self-consistently, if somewhat circularly, that the popularly perceived "Miracle of Life" is the "Miracle Magic" quantum phenomena, by which the picking of possibilities can be preferenced, to actualize even unlikely events, "without waiting" for those possibilities to become probable. Life, then, would be able to Willfully "deal cards from the deck", without "drawing cards randomly". To wit, Life is a skillful "mechanic" card cheat. Alternatively, Life has "the luck of the Irish", whereby if a fortuitous event is quantum mechanically possible, it is automatically made manifest*. To wit, whenever some quantum event could occur "if the stars aligned", Life can miraculously make "those stars so align".

*

Cf.

Murphy's Law

, whereby latent quantum possibilities are preferentially selected, but

male

-volently, not

bene

-volently. So, if good-willed WFC underlies

Life

, then the ill-willed WFC (allegedly) observed in

Murphy's Law

suggests the same as some sort of "death (

or

, kill) process".

[Widdekind]

ROUGH DRAFT

 

Consider organelles, inside "sovereign" cells. A vescicle, for example, seems to be a "beaker" w/in the cell, w/in which chemical cocktails are "brewed" by the combination of sugars, enzymes, proteins, etc.

 

Such an organelle, ultimately, can be described by a Wave Function which -- a little like an electron whose spatial WF can be complex, but still has the two spinor-states (up/down) -- which describes that organelles functionalities. To wit, a vescicle might have several "states" -- "open up", "close off", "shake & bake" (as it were).

 

Then, by "volitional WFC", the "sovereign" cell can -- by invoking the "Quantum Magic" phenomena -- "articulate" the states of that organelle, "switching" it from "gear to gear" (car transmission analogy), by causing & controlling the organelles WFC processes.

 

The "information-bearing pattern", of the self-sovereign cell, then, might be a record of the "states", of all of its "subordinate" organelles & substructures, which are "gear-shifted" from state-to-state, as per the "will" of the self-sovereign cell.

[Widdekind]

... Cells can continue to function without the DNA, such as red blood cells. However, they will not be able to replicate. For red blood cells this is practical thinking, since you don't want the red blood cells clogging the blood supply sliding up and down their energy hills to the beat of their own drum. It is better to use a feedback loop and input new red blood cells from a regulated source.

 

The reverse is not the case. We can not remove the rest of the cell and leave only the DNA and expect the cell to return to normal. The DNA needs the logistics of a minimum functionality within the rest of the cell, with being closer to the mother cell, conducive to not only reestablishing all the needed functionality, but the differentiation of the DNA. For most cells, they have more DNA than they need. To help distinguish what the mother cell used from what remains packed away, feedback is needed from the cytoplasm.

 

Interpretation:

 

The "magic" of Life, lies more in the "Metabolism", than in "Replication". Such seemingly suggests a poignant parallel, to "macro-animal" instincts, wherein Survival (perpetuating Metabolism) = Instinct #1; & Replication (sex) = Instinct #2.

 

Let us look, at the simplest, single-celled Life presently upon this planet -- Prokaryotes. A Prokaryotic single-celled organism is a "streamlined, stripped down, bare-bones basic" sort of cell, composed primarily of a cell-membrane (barrier, defining 'self' vs. 'non-self'), ribosomes (protein synthesis), & DNA (self-replication):

 

Source:

[barCharts]

QuickStudy --

Biology

(chart)

Now, without the DNA, such a simple single cell, would basically be (1) barrier (defining 'we' vs. 'they'); (2) ribosomes (protein synthesis for Metabolism):

 

Such a cell would be a swimming Metabolic engine, consuming, storing, & accessing / utilizing energy, from its environment, perpetually, if w/o replication.

 

This seemingly suggests, that the "[Quantum] Magic" of Life, lies in the Metabolism of (chemical) Energy. Indeed,

 

[Physicist John] Polkinghorne’s hope is for a ‘discovery’ to integrate the triad: matter-energy-information. Consciousness would thereby be explained, human nature accepted as ‘amphibious’ between material and mental, and a place would even be found for the spiritual with ‘non-embodied spiritual beings, such as angels, if such there are.’ (clsg.org).

Furthermore, Energy is subject to cosmic Conservation Laws, which can influence Quantum Wave Function Collapse, in Quantum-Entangled systems (wherein the 'collapse' of one system, into a given fixed energy state, forces entangled systems, to collapse into corresponding fixed energy states, to conserve global energy accounts). Thus, via Anabolism (energy storage) & Catabolism (energy use), Living cells can "manipulate" an "energy reservoir", which, if "entangled" with cellular sub-systems' Wave Functions, could "articulate" those sub-systems, by exploiting the non-random WFCs, of energy-conservation-constrained, quantum-entangled, WFs.

[Widdekind]

Possibility Preferencing Process would allow Quantum Coherence to survive "thermal harassment" by "ignoring the abuse" whilst "focusing on the goal"

 

A Possibility Preferencing Process (P³) would allow Quantum Systems (QS's) to maintain Quantum Coherence (QC) 'through the flak' of thermal agitations, by allowing QS's to "de-select" Wave Function Collapse (WFC) opportunities, with "extraneous" mass-energy. By "refusing" WFC, with "external QS's", somehow recognized as "other"; and, by "choosing" WFC, only with "internal QS's", somehow recognized as "self"; then, a vast armada, of mutually-self-entangled Quantum Objects (qo's), could maintain strongly-quantum mechanical QC, despite the presence of interloping "intruding" qo's, by essentially "ignoring" those "other" qo's, as if they were not even there. If so, Living Systems may operate, in a "virtual vacuum", maintained by a "callous disregard" for "out-group member" qo's. For example, interacting bio-molecules, inside a living cell, may effectively "ignore" the Cell Water molecules, as "beneath their consideration". Such a "haughty disdain", would allow biologically active molecules to "stay focused" on Life-maintenance tasks, even as sports-players actively ignore the antics of fans, to focus fully on their free-throws & field-goals. Such a proposed P³ would be integrally associated with a "sense of self", to wit, a "soul".

 

Note that this proposed P³ would only affect von Neumann Type I Quantum Jump WFC's. During 'normal' Type II quantum evolution, according to the SWE, the "incorporeal WF's", of "self-organized" biologically active qo's, would still be "scattered & dispersed", by interactions with "intruding" qo's (which would apply appropriate potential terms, to the Hamiltonians, in the SWE). However, despite the "scattered smearing" of their "harassed WF's", self-organized qo's would "stoically refuse" all Type I WFC's associated with those "other, non-group member" qo's. Only upon 'proper' quantum interactions, with the appropriate "same, in-group member" qo's, would Type I WFC finally be triggered, according to the particular preferences, of the self-organized qo's, by the "magic means", of the proposed P³. Thus, the only difference, between macro-quantum coherence, in (1) isolated QS's; and (2) 'preference-isolated' self-organized QS's; would be in the "actual evolution" of the "incorporeal WF's", the "messy sloppy noise" of which, would be made moot, upon "preferenced possibility actualization" (selective WFC), by the proposed P³. Such thermal agitations, would only influence actual observed outcomes, if they were sufficiently strong, to completely "skew" the "spread of possibilities" present, in the thermally-agitated incorporeal WF's, beyond the 'point' where 'proper' quantum interactions could still occur.

 

How is the necessary [quantum-system] isolation achieved, so that some modes of large-scale quantum coherence can be maintained without their being fatally corrupted by environmental decoherence ? Does life in some way make use of the potentiality for vast quantum superpositions, as would be required for serious quantum computation ?

 

...

 

We may think of chemistry as being only rather “weakly” quantum mechanical, where the more puzzling features of quantum mechanics in which distant entanglements and globally coherent behaviour do not seem to feature significantly. Such coherent behaviour is witnessed in the phenomena of superfluidity & superconductivity, and in the mysterious entanglements that one can find between the distantly separated quantum particles of EPR (Einstein-Podolsky-Rosen) situations, where the overall behaviour of the combined system cannot be understood simply in terms of the individual nature of its constituent components. A question of great interest, therefore, is whether or not such “strongly” quantum-mechanical features of Nature might be playing significant roles in the essential processes of life...

 

An area where such a non-local role has been argued for is in the operation of the brain, where the “binding problem”, according to which widely separated areas of the brain, with very little in the way of direct neuronal connection, are responsible for the processing of different types of perception (such as colour, shape, and movement, in visual processing); nevertheless all come together in the formation of a single conscious image. On the other side of the argument is the seemingly inhospitable environment that the warm and apparently “messy” living brain provides for such delicate and subtle non-local quantum processes. Indeed, there is no question that if the brain does make use of such “strongly” quantum-mechanical phenomena, it must do so through the agency of some very sophisticated organization (foreward).

Edited December 19, 2010 by Widdekind

[Widdekind]

ROUGH DRAFT

 

Consciousness is correlated to brain electrical activity. Now, an actual electrical signal, sent by some neuron, by virtue of being observable, must (??) represent a Type I 'quantum jump' WFC process. Such suggests, that before any 'actualized' electrical signal is sent, by any constellation of neurons engaged in cognition, Type II 'incorporeal ghost-phase' quantum evolution (of WFs according to SWE) was previously occurring, in a 'pre-observed sub-reality', presumably of the coherently quantum-entangled WFs, of the neurons 'cognition structures'.

 

If so, then any 'quantum computations' occurring within the brain, have already happened, by the time any electrical impulses are discharged, across the neuronal-net, involved in the thinking of the thought. And, if so, actualized electrical discharges merely convey the results of those prior quantum calculations. Such suggests the following schematic of the brain's (proposed) quantum calculation procedure:

 

1. WFs, of 'cognition structures', of neurons in a Neural Net, carry out quantum-coherent quantum computation, in 'incorporeal pre-observed ghost-phase' (Type II evolution)
   
2. Completion of Quantum Computation triggers 'quantum jump' WFC (Type I evolution)
   

Such might mean, that whenever scientists record actualized electrical activity in (human) brains, they are only recording the after-effects of thought -- to wit, the conveyance, of quantum-calculated result-data, from one Neural Net, to another (a 'conscious thought'). But, the actual 'thinking', reflecting the 'pre-observation quantum-coherent quantum-calculation', occurred, before the final 'result-thought' was 'determined into actualization'. Again, electrical activity in the brain, reflects post-quantum-calculation information transmission, not the 'incorporeal ghost-phase' quantum-calculation. The 'magic' of cognition, has happened already, by the time Neural Nets activate actualized electrical discharges.