From: Eliezer S. Yudkowsky (sentience@pobox.com)
Date: Mon Jun 11 2001 - 23:06:26 MDT
John Clark wrote:
>
> I always thought it odd that people use the term "quantum jump" to mean
> a huge transformation of some sort when actually a quantum jump is the
> tinniest possible physical change. Anything less and there is no change
> at all.
I suspect that it derives from the contrast of an instantaneous,
not-over-the-intervening-space transition to a continuous movement. It's
not how large the jump is, but how fast it is, or rather how fast it
appears. Heck, a change in electron orbital levels is pretty large if you
measure it in Planck increments.
Or people just hear "quantum leap" and think it sounds cool.
-- -- -- -- --
Eliezer S. Yudkowsky http://singinst.org/
Research Fellow, Singularity Institute for Artificial Intelligence
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