The Spooky World Of Quantum Biology
This article originally appeared in H+ Magazine.
One hundred and fifty years ago, paleontologist Thomas Henry Huxley (an autodidact and philosopher who coined the term “agnostic” and was known as “Darwin’s Bulldog” for his passionate defense of natural selection) asserted that humankind would eventually take the processes of evolution into our own hands. Within a few decades of his proclamation, a cadre of equally brilliant scientists including Werner Heisenberg, David Bohm, and Max Planck began to unravel the mysterious properties of quantum mechanics. These two theories -- evolutionary and quantum dynamics -- can each be considered among the most important discoveries of all time. Taken together, they have changed almost everything about the way we understand reality. However, in spite of the popularity of interdisciplinary research and unifying theories over the last hundred years (despite, even, quantum physicist Erwin Schröedinger’s 1944 book, What Is Life?), it was only recently that the relationship between these two vastly important domains was even considered. Now, a new kind of science, called “quantum biology,” is beginning to emerge -- and it could change everything we know, again.
The premise is simple. Life is a molecular process; molecular processes operate according to the quantum playbook; therefore, life is a quantum process. And yet, it wasn’t until the nineties that anyone suggested biology could be better understood by looking at it through the lens of quantum theory. (The seminal paper was D.V. Nanopoulos’ "Theory of brain function, quantum mechanics and superstrings.”) Not long after that, the idea caught on -- particularly in the neurosciences, where the idea of the brain as a quantum computer quickly became a topic of fierce debate.
Quantum computation, a science still in its infancy, promises swiftness and efficiency vastly superior to anything possible with conventional silicon chips. Rather than relying on binary bits like contemporary systems, quantum computers use “qubits” that include all possible superpositions of a particle’s classical state. Instead of being “trapped” in a single configuration, the logic gates of a quantum computer employ multiple possibilities in synchrony -- using the entire set of alternative outcomes to arrive at an answer.
It’s a promising avenue for people with big plans for strong AI or virtual reality. The only complication is that coherence -- in which the many possible states of a particle or group of particles stay hung in superposition -- is something scientists have only been able to study under extremely controlled conditions. It’s only possible when that system doesn’t interact with anything else that might “collapse the wave function,” and so most of the major options for quantum computing involve impractical scenarios like creating a supercooled vacuum.
This is one of the reasons that many scientists have considered quantum biology both unlikely and unscientific. The thermal noise of biological systems seemed too great to allow for quantum weirdness; and even if it could, how on Earth would we study it? But science is the story of ingenuity’s victory over shortsightedness -- and one research team, led by Gregory S. Engel at UC Berkeley, has devised a way to directly detect and observe quantum-level processes within a cell using high-speed lasers.
They were trying to establish exactly how organic photosynthesis approaches 95% efficiency, whereas the most sophisticated human solar cells operate at only half that. What they discovered is nothing short of remarkable. Using femtosecond lasers to follow the movement of light energy through a photosynthetic bacterial cell, Engel et al. observed the energy traveling along every possible direction at the same time. Instead of following a single trajectory like the electrons on a silicon chip, the energy in photosynthesis explores all of its options and collapses the quantum process only after the fact, retroactively “deciding” upon the most efficient pathway.
What does this all mean? Not only do quantum phenomena occur in living systems, but the basic processes of life we take for granted rely on the transfer of information backward in time. Life is so magical because it cheats.
Although the mechanisms by which a living cell can prevent decoherence by dampening its own chemical “noise” remain utterly mysterious, findings such as Engel's conclusively demonstrate that room-temperature quantum computing is possible (and knowing how something works isn’t always necessary in order to use it). And Engel’s group isn’t the only team to detect it: other laboratories have implicated a phenomenon called electron tunneling (micro-teleportation, in which an electron disappears in one location and instantaneously appears somewhere else without having traveled the intermediate distance) at work behind a range of organic phenomena, from our sense of smell and the activities of our enzymes to the neutralization of free radicals with anti-oxidants… possibly even consciousness itself. Paul Davies (Arizona State University) and JohnJoe McFadden (The University of Surrey) have independently suggested that computation in the netherworld of quantum coherence might explain how the earliest self-replicating molecules overcame the inestimable odds against them -- life’s very existence may be the consequence and continued operation of a quantum computer. We may ultimately have to accept our human quest for qubit calculation as a kind of biomimicry, rather than something new and unique.
Quantum biology stands to answer other big questions, as well -- questions that many contemporary biologists prefer to ignore. McFadden, in his excellent primer Quantum Evolution, cites several experiments that suggest certain mutations are “intelligent,” even “anticipatory.” For example, bacterial cultures have been observed to evolve clever responses to lab toxins at speeds that -- just like the emergence of DNA from a primordial soup -- defy astronomical odds. Can biological quantum calculation account for this? McFadden thinks so. (His hypothesis was itself anticipated in the science fiction of Greg Egan, whose novel Teranesia featured some very “spooky” retrocausal mutations -- including the instantaneous appearance of entire new ecosystems via competing future evolutionary scenarios. Whether such extreme examples of quantum biological principles are possible remains to be seen.)
As we continue to probe biological phenomena that beat quantum computer scientists to the punch, a new picture emerges of evolutionary computing and design. Huxley’s prophecy that we will eventually take the reins of our own evolution might come true sooner than predicted by establishment geneticists. But by appealing to the quantum oracle, we may be acting in service of something far older and more intelligent than we can even guess. Ultrafast computing, accelerated by our explorations into the new science of quantum biology, could well be the critical technology that pushes us over the edge into the Singularity -- a timeless and transcendent event in which we already live, because it is the nature of life itself -- a vast sentience beyond human comprehension, and we are merely the newest avenue for its expression in the world. Classical or quantum, human or ecological, natural selection still gets the last laugh.
Article image: "Just Another Desert Party" by Michael Garfield
- 10-21-09
- Michael Garfield's blog
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synchronicity?
interesting post michael. you might find some synchronicity in dr. bruce lipton's work, in cellular biology/spontaneous evolution... and his contention that hereditary DNA doesn't control destiny... he may already be connected w/others you mention.. i hav no idea... he has a nice site. http://www.brucelipton.com/ also a 7pt series on the 'biology of perception' (crap vid quality - but informative - in 10min chunks) and its effects on cell function/DNA, on youtube. 7 of 7.. overviews the series quite well.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=53ApMxcTw40&feature=related
Lipton, absolutely
I actually just cited his work in the notes to my Burning Man lecture on evolutionary biology, which you can download here:
http://evolution.bandcamp.com/album/entheon-biology-symposium-2009
Thanks for the tip!
Michael Garfield (live painter & avant-guitarist)
Star Article
This is a great example of science reporting not just for Reality Sandwich, but for news coverage in the world in general.
I'm amazed and look forward to reading more about quantum biology.
I wish there were more links and book references; Or perhaps there are none, because it's all made of white papers in science journals at present?
smore...
lipton has several books out...
http://www.brucelipton.com/
ted hall, nice guy.. has some good stuff
http://www.biofractalevolution.com/articles.html
lipton makes an appearance on ted's site.
lot's of stuff here, quantum bio/physics
just scroll thru
http://www.energetic-medicine.net/bioenergetic-articles/pages/Site-Map-o...
enjoy :)
Oh nice!
Thanks for posting these links!
Michael Garfield (live painter & avant-guitarist)
The Rabbit
Very synchronistic that this
True that, psychonaut...
Finally saw the vid last night (knew song for years):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tUjIl4_DYiU&feature=PlayList&p=048971E1EF...
Was jus browsing and the title pic shows up.
'It' starts around 1:03...
Wow.
bathe in light
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2009/04/does-dna-have-t.html
^ a bit of telepathic dna to add into the mix... seems to fit the "quantum biology" bill - i'm sure calling the effect telepathic is a bit premature, more likely the dna is communicating like little crystal-radios tuned to some very delicate frequency of light, adjusting to a shared field or something...
*
Interesting article Michael (nice artwork btw) ... quantum biology, eh? I wonder how big this quantum thing could go... quantum sociology?
DNA Light
I agree...it's my understanding that DNA emits laser light and it seems likely that coherent but invisible light waves are responsible for the recognition-at-a-distance they've reported.
And yes, I think quantum sociology is a reasonable place to go with this. I could be wrong, but I imagine that there are nested levels of quantum coherence, and that you don't recognize you're entangled from within the field of entanglement, which is why it appears to only occur in micro systems. Maybe.
And thanks about the art! That painting is hanging in the University of Kansas Natural History Museum, where I used to work as a scientific illustrator.
Michael Garfield (live painter & avant-guitarist)
painting
What about...?
Aren't scientists missing the obvious? Hasn't the quantum computer already been built? Doesn't it look something like the human brain, plugged into its body, interacting with its environment as a co-creator, constantly informing the quantum field that emerges out of black holes as recycled "what was" or "pure potential", manifesting the next cycles of the unfolding universe?
Isn't trying to build a quantum computer a bit like trying to reinvent the wheel?
Doesn't it follow that if an electron can be in multiple places at the same time - I heard they've measured simultaneous manifestations of the same electron in over 3000 places now - that "God", who is apparently in all places, in all times, at the same time, could literally be the "I" that we all are, referencing Itself in multiple places at the same time, exactly like all of the individually conscious cells of our bodies?
Stop me if you're not following this...
It's like a bunch of pieces to a puzzle, and we get a much clearer picture if we put the pieces together. Right now there's so much ego involved that it's blinding a lot of people to the fact that they each hold a piece, but not the whole answer. Thankfully, there are many ways to address that. The only thing that's required is a willingness to participate in a bigger picture. Keeping puzzle pieces to oneself is only going to slow, but not stop the process of connectivity currently underway.
Dumb question
Not a dumb question. I
Not a dumb question. I don't know the answer, only that they've reported this. My pieced-together guess at an answer would be that there's some kind of signature that can be measured that distinguishes the particle they're observing. Also, they can choose to emit one particle for experimental purposes, and yet in these high energy experiments, that one particle (which isn't a particle until it's measured!) has been shown to appear simultaneously in more than one place.
That, and when I put the findings of the physicists together with the information and stories from the mystics and shamans, it adds up to the same outcome, just a different way of talking about it.
Sorry I don't have a better answer for you...I'm working on the implications for consciousness.
adaptive mutation
Very interesting, Michael, thank you. You wrote:
"McFadden, in his excellent primer Quantum Evolution, cites several experiments that suggest certain mutations are “intelligent,” even “anticipatory.” For example, bacterial cultures have been observed to evolve clever responses to lab toxins at speeds that -- just like the emergence of DNA from a primordial soup -- defy astronomical odds."
You are referring to the field of adaptive mutation which has been accumulating results for over 20 years, results that present a serious challenge to conventional textbook biology. Specifically, what is being challenged is the current dogma that all genetic variation is a result of *random* mutations only. In other words, the textbooks say that if the bacteria had not accidentally lucked upon the right mutation to survive the environmental threat, they would not have survived. There are now many impressive experiments indicating that there is some kind of intelligence or directiveness in the process, and not just trial and error.
The idea of quantum biology is a plausible description of *how* that intelligence might be operating. Personally, I am not a materialist and I am already happy to have it confirmed that Life itself is alive and intelligent.
Marc
"Random" Mutations
Marc, we're definitely on the same boat, here. I just posted a talk I gave at Burning Man's Entheon Village this year about biology, in which I discussed how one mathematical definition of randomness is that "no order is perceptible," NOT that no order exists, and thus I don't have any problem with biologists calling them "random" mutations...because for the most part we lack the resolution of inquiry necessary to see how these changes are environmentally determined. You'd probably dig the talk, which you can find here:
http://www.realitysandwich.com/evolutionary_biology_symposium_entheon_village
Michael Garfield (live painter & avant-guitarist)
Quantum Jazz Tao of
Quantum Jazz Tao of Biology
http://www.i-sis.org.uk/QuantumJazzTaoofBiology.php
Michael Garfield -- notice you are musician as well and that this article was published previously in June?
Anyway the above is Dr. Mae-Wan Ho's amazing biophoton research -- the Europeans call it "biophoton" but also admit "squeezed light" This happens in studying gravity waves as well -- it's due to the "time-frequency uncertainty principle" from Dennis Gabor who created the holograph.
Everyone's heard of Heisenberg's "time-energy uncertainty principle" but "time-frequency" is more fundamental -- it has to do with how the very concepts of frequency and amplitude are established and how in quantum physics the more you measure frequency the less you measure amplitude and vice versa.
This, actually is the original Pythagorean concept except in quantum physics it's still a "divide and average" approach while in Pythagorean logic it's through complementary opposites -- just like in Taoist Yin and Yang. I discovered in my masters thesis research "Epicenters of Justice" (2001) that yang is the music ratio Perfect 5th, 2:3 and yin the ratio Perfect 4th, 3:4. If you've studied music theory you know the original source for the time-frequency uncertainty principle -- the Comma of Pythagoras.
You can google the masters thesis or my name "drew hempel" for more details but I studied with a qigong master http://springforestqigong.com Chunyi Lin who works with the Mayo Clinic -- doing real Taoist "quantum biology" healing. He can shoot lasers out of his brain and has holographic long-distance vision, can see into your body and read your past-lives AND he heals patients from the top hospital in the world, he collaborates with them in writing a qigong chapter for the Mayo Clinic medical textbook, etc. Thanks for your article.
Excellent!
Whoa, thanks Drew! I'll be sure to check all of that stuff out. Sounds right up my alley, indeed.
Michael Garfield (live painter & avant-guitarist)
Know Your Maker
The brain builds the super computer that can tell the brain it's nature ... sounds like a crutch indeed .
.. no direct criticism intended ... before chicken ... after egg ...
When super computers figure out we have our own quantum energetic stuff going on
... well ... the blue pill ... or the red pill.
The Sign says For God's Eyes Only
"Chickens squawk, dogs bark - this is something men understand. But no matter how great their understanding, they cannot explain in words how the chicken and the dog have come to be what they are, nor can they imagine in their minds what they will become in the future. You may pick apart and analyze till you have reached what is so minute that it is without form, what is so large that it cannot be encompassed. But whether you say that "nothing does it" or that "something makes it like this", you have not yet escaped from the realm of "things", and so in the end you fall into error." (Chuang Tzu)
Intuitively I don't believe that the "Quantum Playbook" will ever be understood by men. Check out the latest hype concerning the Hadron super collider! In the mysterious world of quantum probabilities the future and the past are one, one interaction. The latest Hadron, (quantum sabotage), theory must considered before the habitual line steppers cross the boundary between man and God. Maybe God has a intrusion detection and deterrent system? Intuitively I would say yes there is some kind of fail-safe that prevents us from understand God's quantum playbook. Even if we could steal it from God, it can't be comprehended and what would we do with it? Probably something un-God like.
Chickens barking up the wrong tree
I agree, as well as with the more general idea that we will never fully understand human consciousness, but for a far simpler reason. If our brains were simple enough for us to understand them, we'd be too simple-minded to do so.
You can't touch your elbow with the fingers on the same arm.
Buddha sez...
Agreed, Buddha would never answer speculative questions about the universe. His task was to alleviate suffering, and all other philosophical inquiries lead to more confusion. I find all this discussion interesting, but frankly too mechanistic and utopian. If you want to understand nature, just experience it.
* * *
Be sure to check out my book, Mediacology (http://mediacology.com/the-book/)
Touching your elbow
The Zen of Egg ... The Tao of Chicken
Actually millenniums before Taoism ... the Vedic sages knew of why dogs bark ... all species were "souls" or "quantum entities" that according to the "gunas" or "modes of material force" determine how the "soul" in any given form behaves.
The denser the mode the more "gross" the behavior ... the more refined the mode, the more subtle the behavior.
Each specie'ss material form is a mixture of three such modes ... and each individual within a species has a few more subtle variations.
In ancient times "Karma" simply meant the work one does with the type of form one has ... it was never a "good and evil fruit" interpretation.
In the original "so-called" caste system {Varnasrama Dharma} it had nothing to do with birth or privilege {this was lost when the Vedic time period, called "Kali Yuga" began, about 5100 years ago.{as a side point this is the approximate time period that Christian fundamentalist think human civilization started ... leaving Eden {myth} and the consequent need to be saved ...{Love Without End ... Jesus Speaks, by author Glenda Green reveals the Quantum Jesus}
One's occupational inclinations ... labor, merchant, artist, administrator, intellectual etc, were all built in modes of behavior.
The sages could learn the karma of each individual animal simple through internal observation relative to external modes {law of average}
One could not be King unless his guna supported it ... one could not inherit his fathers spiritual congregation if he was a guru unless he had natural built in mode combinations that favored such.
External science is and has always been at the expense of internal insight hence the term "experiment" ... exiting out of of Eden {the "quantum exogate" ...the exact opposite of the "stargate fantasy"} to pursue karmic "information" ... tree of knowledge ...
The "Tree of Life" integrating insights of Quantum Unification or "soulfulness" are the very opposite of "mech-tech" infatuation ... as there is nothing else that is causing resource depletion on this planet outside of the advancement of empirical science period.
If one has to spend millions or billions to build a particle accelerator and/or super computer just to "get" quantum truth it is a quantum fact that the cost is already greater than the result ... and less and less of the population will benefit.
Everything that is of actual value {not virtual ideology} in present time human transition is found only in those who are giving up "sci-fi" for the organic.
Returning to life ... leaving all that so called knowledge behind.
It was absolutely necessary to match people according to their modes.
Of course in modern times, life necessity has been replaced by "lifestyle choice"
Yet they never thought one "was that mode combination" ... subtle swan{good} ... gross hog{bad} ...{non judgmental} ..
Each entity 'but a "eternal quantum unit" {soul} ... with an eternal identity of character {Caitanya- Sanskrit}
Like if ones sweet young child puts on a Halloween mask of a grosser nature he immediately wants to make a sound {behave} appropriately matching his costume to make an impression ...
All karma follows this premise.
The human form was the only form that could finally figure out that "play time" is over and eternal Dharma {quantum behavior} can now replace relative Karma {relativity} once and for all
The less contemplative prowess one has the more one needs machination, computers to gain insight.
There is no modernistic "neo nut case" that is escaping karma. This is quantum fact.
The second one turns on his computer to do whatever he sacrifices indigenous propensities to pursue more organic avenues .. ones very posture becomes compromised as one sits and surfs. The mind and emotions are effected by posture
People say all these stupid things like mankind has so much more knowledge now and that he is increasing at an exponential rate
This is the Biblical "Tree of Knowledge" fruit ... every single modern environmental trashing is "directly due" to our so called scientific advancement.
It is a Quantum fact that the more energy is put into high;y specialized field the less knowledge is found in the common man.
All of our high tech farming methods have made things worse ... even occupational farmers have lost the wisdom beyond "cash crops"
Local check out people at the store do not recognize local produce ... "is that Kale or Collards" .. yet they can push hundreds of buttons to chat with someone very far away ... but again that is karma ... they are playing the cosmic game of give and take.
If you need a super computer to figure it out ... well that is like the monkey trap ... a box with a hole in it just big enough for the monkey to put his hand in and grab the banana ... but not big enough to pull hand out with banana ...
Modern empirical methods can only reveal the degree of nescience of those who endeavor in this way ... the more nescient you are becoming, the more experiment one needs to do.
Louis Pasteur had to figure out pasteurization due to dark age nescience .. yet in India thousands of years previous even the simplest villager knew to bring the milk to a boil 3 times before drinking.
One acquires material wealth only to degree one is lacking in contentment as
. Karma is always Karma ... relativity is the tree of knowledge"
... can the monkey let go of the banana
.. we are so close to truth ... yet unbelievably so far away.
If one says the global humanity is not being traumatized by all this "out of Eden eating" ... well they have simply degraded themselves to being their own "lab rat" for the most part.
Playing with all the humanistic toys until demise.
The second ones mind forms an opinion about defending this premise the modes of nature of ones karmic reaction becomes balanced out by the loss of internal Dharmic nature {take that law of average Pythagoras ... who historically got his original insights from India ... the original abode of all this karma/dharma stuff.
Anyhow not really trying to "preach" here .. just offering counter weight to the one-sidedness of the humanistic drama.
Dharma already always includes Karma ... just like the eye of the hurricane {quantum potential} contains all the karmic wind manifestation.
Deep sleep {potential state} contains all the waking state or dream states karmic exploration.{manifestation}
Astro-Physicist Adam Trombley says that there is more energy in a "zero point field state" the size of a nickel .. than in million and million tons of uranium.
There is more "quantum prowess" in an "Entheogenic contemplation" than in many many many external endeavors {up to life times of karma}
Simple Living ... High Thinking {Motto} or High Living ... Simple thinking {lack of motto}
Humanism or "soul"
Science or "self"
Insight or excite
... not a wormhole to escape through until ones actual choice matches the quantum possibility.
Pippalayana...but a "eternal
Pippalayana...but a "eternal quantum unit" {soul} ... with an eternal identity of character {Caitanya- Sanskrit} This actually raises an "ancient" debate about the soul as some eternal unit of immortality -- which is the Hare Krishna Movement contention or the soul as losing all individuality as a unit by merging back into nonduality in a post-death samadhi state, as taught by Ramana Maharshi and the NeoAdvaitins.
I agree with your even more ancient caste system based on the gunas -- which was the original "3" in "1" in India -- just like Taoism's use of yin-yang-emptiness or Pythagorean use of the Tetrad as 1 -- 2:3 (yang) and 3:4 (yin) through trance music -- like the Bushmen healing, the original spiritual shamanism. So the whole "quantum unit soul" argument is contained within the Kali Yuga and goes nowhere. haha.
Dr. Goswami's book "Creative
Again, thanks!
Drew,
I really appreciate you throwing some relevant resources here, rather than just riffing on how we can never know the Absolute Mystery (which many people in this community seem to confuse with the solution of relative mysteries...).
Michael Garfield (live painter & avant-guitarist)
The Spirit of Soul
Any soul that can "know of Yugas {ancient time periods} contains the yugas ... it is all just a question of awareness.
Is one caught up in the football games details or aware of the crowd, players and all associated "maya"
The unlimited consciousness of the soul, when focused through mind or senses, cannot but see "less than it's full potential ... {the faster one drives in a car ... the less peripheral vision one has}
.. when released from that intent or vector, then back to further expanded awareness ... not void ... the term void refers only to the minds limited sense of inertia ... it cannot ever describe a state of being
... there is no void outside of the idea of extinction in the mind.
The soul {quantum unit} can never be burnt, cut, dried, withered or dissolved according to the "Bhagavsd Gita" ... the most central scripture of this line of thinking {Vedic thought}
What dissolves into the "brahmajoti, or Brahman, ...{zero point field state in physics} ... is but the deha-physical} ...{ mana-mind }... {buddhi- intelligence} ... {ahankara- ego} - bodies ... or coverings ... "of the quantum unit/soul}.. like the Halloween costume example in previous post
... we put on gross and subtle bodies and play out the role according to the modes of the costume ... the type/tint color of the sunglass lens determines the visionary ambiance.
In other words the souls conscious existence, before or after material manifestation, can never be "known" by mind intelligence ego .. or felt physically .. they can only relate to other manifest/material energies .. subtle/gross}
There are whole Vedic scriptures {Srimad Bhagavatam} that describe in detail all of these differences ... the Srimad Bhagavatam is older than these other ideological sources ... detailed ... in depth ... and sublime}
As a side point the Hare Krishna movement is ultimately but one branch of the eternal Veda{s} .. yet they represent, in a pretty straight forward way, the very premise of the most ancient and original sources of such understanding
... above and beyond any other qualities associated with their behavior.
They are not likely to make such "quantum connections" as of yet however, being steeped in tradition.
I have been intimately aware of both Ramana Maharshi {1975} and the Hare Krsna's since about 1978 ... the conclusion is that the interaction between the formless and form ... ... the void and the stuff is eternal ... {void is actually the opposite of the Brahman, zero point field state, or spirit
... in other words this field of being is "all potential" rather than "lack of stuff"
The eye of the hurricane is the potential for all manifest wind .. not void of wind.
... too much of everything to be anything ... rather than not enough of something to be anything.
This is why "all energy" is there in the "zero point field state" in quantum physics ... each manifest frequency only in relation to time and space.temporal manifestaion.
The "Zero" in mathematics does not refer to "nothing" ... {like the neophyte spiritualist's "nothingness" }... but the potential for "all numerical possibility"
Zero is not only before 1 ... but after 9, {more potential} 99, 999 ... {also negative 1 .. 9 99 999}
So if you, the quantum unit or soul was a negative number ...{stuck in matter as of present}... everything negative about you would appear to dissolve as you approached "zero"
... yet on the other side of zero a whole new conscious you would be there on the positive side {spirit}... as there is no space without place.
there can be no void by definition ... a mere ideological state .. a temporal adverb at best describing a vacuum state in physics... that of course has no stasis on 'it's own ...
There cannot be ... "a void" .. but there can be "someone".... void of "what was"
The mana-mind cannot but fathom the loss of it's own manifest folly {Don Juan} or karma{Vedas} so it concludes "formlessness, void ...
However the consciousness of the soul proper, or quantum unit, continues beyond this "quazi /pre-quantum" transitional phase ... actually originating before this dream like maya ... {being both before and after the Brahman.
Just like the Milky way is 'but a grouping of individual stars and not a cosmic river .. ... this Brahmajoti... {spiritual effulgence of God} ... or Brahman field, according to Vedic literatures, is actually unlimited numbers of other quantum units{infinitesimal in size} ... or souls
... the very smallest spherical shape known ... {the God particle speculations in physics}... no further division ... pure consciousness
... every being that ever was is one of these
... like a cloud is composed of infinitesimal drops of moisture.the "Brahman is the collective presence" of these units {us} {zero is the presence of all numbers in potential state}
It is said that about 3/4 of all such souls {us} remain, at any given time, merely present in this potential state ... while at any given time the other 1/4 are experiencing manifest reality {us as we are now in dimension, time and space}
There is infinite give and take as we rotate, or take turns at fulfilling these proportions.
In the Srimad Bhagavatam 10,000 earthly years is the longest any individual unit remains in the potential field state ... any number of manifest lifetimes of karma can rotate before one needs to return .. like after all the dreams and/or nightmares one enters the beyond dream into the potential/non-manifest deep sleep state ....
Yet in material manifestation this infinitesimal quantum unit may have the body of an ant ... or body of a whale .. it is only the bodies that "dissolve"
... the minds last chance terminology to express it's own limited conception {maya} as "void".. as the mind itself also goes to.
The soul can be "void" ...{adverb} ...of mind ... {what noise can I make}... and ego { I am this monster Halloween costume ... growl}. .. but there exists no void {noun} itself ... adverb only.
Actually there are descriptions of great sages in the 11 or 12 Cantos of the Srimad Bhagavatam that tell how, as death approaches, they "consciously witness the dissolution, or "merging" of the mind, intelligence and ego
... but consciousness remains .. it has no beginning and end ... no one that merges can be left to say that merging is what happens
.. chicken or the egg ... formless or form ... which or what ... who and why .. all of it comes and goes ... in infinite variations ... finding transcendental respite in this potential state in between manifest moments or karma's.
Those who merge are only tired of being here .. those here were rested from merging ... head and tail of serpent
... or bird and serpent ... any / all duality... take your pick ... when the duality overtakes your presence it is called "maha maya" {great illusion}
... when ones presence is the very yoga of these poles of being .. then it is called "yoga maya" ... {by Sages of the bygone Puranic Age}
What "reality or truth" is, is but the ongoing relationship between both the immortal "state of presence" {dharma} and the non-immortal manifest activity Karma}
The very word "Yoga" means there can never be one not 'but in relation to another {"Yo"-connecting back... "Ga". getting out
.. one does not know the eye of the hurricane without the manifest storm ... one does not know of merging without the manifest mind.
This is an interesting
The Great Year and the Binary Model
http://www.binaryresearchinstitute.org/bri/research/update.shtml
Some Sirius research going on here
'From' QM to Hadronic Mechanics?
I haven't really studied your article yet to be able to give a more fuller review of it, but I wanted to mention and link you'll to this VERY intriguing video I happened on the other week. I blew my MIND actually. From what I do understand of what he is saying is that QM is limited, and it is rather Hadronic Mechanics that is more akin to new revolutionary developments regarding diggin the magical nature of biology Here it is anyway: Ananda Bosman Hadronic Mechanics & Entheogens
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lF4y93hvDBY Normal 0 MicrosoftInternetExplorer4
Atomic pile at center of the
I agree with the direction - yet not your conclusion
I believe you're moving in the right direction yet your conclusions are not entirely accurate as to where I believe "singularity" is found - I'm definitely not a fan of the machinist view of reality a la Kurzweill.
My interest is more one of the paradigm of how we view ourselves and our cosmos and reality. Many follies of our civilization have been born out of a misunderstanding and disrespect for the inherent intelligence permeating reality, and our bodies....
More Of note in your article is the observation about the way that light works in photosynthesis - as evidence of "intelligence" in the building blocks, currently seen as dead lifeless components in quantum machinery.
I believe that if such understanding of "intelligence" were to be incorporated into Kurzweil's view of the building blocks of the human brain - he would recognize that the brain, the most sophisticated piece of equipment known, would not need any outer machinery The paradigm of "the quantum reality of which I speak is more along the lines of "The Living Universe" work done by Duane Elgin. Which points to a new understanding and paradigm from which an integral science can truly be born.
http://wakeupdream.blogspot.com/2009/07/living-universe-book-by-duane-el...
Here's a biophoton interview