From: Damien Broderick (d.broderick@english.unimelb.edu.au)
Date: Tue Feb 08 2000 - 04:49:19 MST
At 10:10 PM 5/02/00 -0800, Robert Bradbury wrote:
>> >http://unisci.com/stories/20001/0204006.htm
>>
>> < But mutations are
>> < caused by the motion of fundamental particles, electrons and
>> < protons -- particles that can enter the quantum multiverse -- within
>> < the double helix.
>[Snip the rest because it really goes off the deep end!!!]
Aw gee, don't be a spoilsport.
>Atoms or molecules are *large*
>compared to quantum effects (spin states, electron energy
>states, etc.) and cannot be affected by quantum scale
>activities unless you do something like cool the atoms
>almost to absolute zero generating things like a Bose-Einstein
>condensate. At the level of the cell, the motion and location
>of atoms & molecules is driven by Brownian motion, e.g. heat,
>*not* quantum effects.
I snip Robert's sound points abt mutation (directed at the url above) in
order to make one vehement point. By playfully/provocatively linking this
`directed mutation' argument (which I have not read in detail, only in
precis) to David Deutsch's version of Many Worlds, I was assuming a clear
distinction between quantum entanglement - and subsequent decoherence - in
*our* world, and the kind of thing Deutsch means when he speaks of `shadow
light' - mysterioso effects from adjacent not-quite-us superpositions. He
invokes these to account for the two slit interference fringes; I do not
think this discourse has anything directly to do with, say, the Aspect
entanglement experiments or anything similar.
I hope for clarification from the soi disant quantum mechanics on the list.
Damien
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