From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Sat Feb 05 2000 - 19:36:10 MST
>http://unisci.com/stories/20001/0204006.htm
< Mutations have always been assumed to be
random. But mutations are caused by the
motion of fundamental particles, electrons and
protons -- particles that can enter the quantum
multiverse -- within the double helix. If these
particles can enter quantum states. then DNA
may be able to slip into the quantum multiverse
and sample multiple mutations simultaneously. >
Despite the apparently comic author name (Johnjoe McFadden indeed!), he's
for real, and British not from some place where they eat raw chickens' heads.
I kinda like this idea, which sounds straight out of David Deutsch (and
drives the plot of Greg Egan's recent TERANESIA, by the way). It just about
fits with the information optimisation models of lab parapsychology that
appeal to me (i.e., the brain might have some enhanced chance of knowing
the apparently unknowable if sampling superspace reveals a skew in favor of
one outcome over all others).
Damien
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Fri Nov 01 2002 - 15:26:38 MST