Science > Physics > Erasure Crosses Microscopic and Macroscopic Physics 2
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Science > Physics |
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"OsherD" |
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16 Aug 2005 12:39:48 AM |
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Erasure Crosses Microscopic and Macroscopic Physics 2 |
From Osher Doctorow
As of now, I'm inclined to let readers read the literature on the
internet on quantum reversibility and erasure and proceed here to seek
some clues from the psychological experiment or even thought-experiment
that I introduced in the previous post.
Answers.com "Toffoli gate" is a very clear and useful explanation of
quantum reversibility, which can be accessed under the title keywords
or at http://www.answers.com/topic/toffoli-gate.
Let's get back to the psychological experiment. Readers are to
separately go to sleep when tired physically, but with eyes shut
repeat: "My brain (or mind) will remain awake while the rest of my body
falls asleep or may fall asleep." Auditory and visual stimuli are
presumed eliminated mostly from the room, and the room is mostly dark.
The result of this which I predicted is usually very deep and relaxing
sleep with a possible but not necessarily usual impression of having
remained mentally awake. I also should add that I think sleep will
come unusually quickly this way ordinarily.
Rather than spend an "eternity" arguing as to whether or not
macroscopic erasure is going on as I claimed in the experiment, let's
analyze what would happen if such erasure is going on.
In typical quantum erasure, something is recorded somewhere (possibly
by the act of occurring) and then the computer erases its memory of
that.
So if erasing on the macroscopic level is occurring in the above
psychological experiment, it is occurring by the clash of instructions:
(a) by the body to go to sleep period (being tired physically), (b) by
the brain to stay awake period without physical or even mental effort
other than to repeat either verbally or mentally the above statement.
This leads us to the curious question of whether something can be
erased by clashing or contradictory or "opposite" instructions. It
seems intuitively likely. If "a" is a proposition, then "a and not a"
is a contradiction, and both people and computers don't seem to
function well under contradictory instructions, but what do we mean by
"function well"? It doesn't necessarily mean that they "halt" as in
the computer "halting problem". It's probably accurate to say that
they enter a "third phase", neither "a" nor "not a" but "undecided",
which may disturb their usual functioning but not necessarily
dangerously or permanently.
What seems to be the case here is that a beneficial "side effect"
actually occurs with the contradiction, and that is analogous to the
beneficial side effects of reversibility and erasure.
Does this all seem familiar somehow? Well, if any of you listen to
classical music, you may well have encountered some of the greatest
composers like Beethoven, Mozart, Schubert, Schumann, whose lives were
"stressed out". Is it possible that the contradictions in their lives
from childhood onward (read their internet biographies) resulted in
Creative Genius as a beneficial side effect? There are analogies in
philosophy (Socrates for example), literature (Shakespeare, Milton),
mathematical logic (Godel), painting (van Gogh), astronomy/physics
(Galileo, Sir Isaac Newton), probability (Pierre de Fermat), blues
music (George Gershwin), romantic music (Chopin), and on and on.
Osher Doctorow
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| User: "OsherD" |
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| Title: Re: Erasure Crosses Microscopic and Macroscopic Physics 2 |
16 Aug 2005 12:59:42 AM |
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From Osher Doctorow
There is an interesting converse to the last conclusion or question,
namely that scenarios "free of stress" may actually result in failure
of a civilization or nation or people to have significant Creative
Genius.
As an example, many of the small South Seas islands spent their
histories relatively well provided for in terms of food and water or
coconuts and are often depicted as "paradises" in terms of lack of
stress, but almost nobody believes that they created significant
Creative Genius either.
Readers can choose their favorite "adventurous" part of the world,
often regions near the tropics or subtropics where food until recently
at least was plentiful, and similar scenarios tend to occur there at
least until recently.
There may be a very negative side to this picture too. Some of the
"folk heroes" of current secondary school students and young people in
general tend to be hedonists following the scenario of "immediate
gratification of wishes". It might be wise to avoid them as a way of
life if you seriously think that Creative Geniuses can be developed
rather than just be born. It's also interesting how many politicians
and actor/actress heroes tend to be hedonists and how few of them are
Creative Geniuses. Of course, hedonism may keep them calm enough to
wait for promotion and step over other people. It may thereby explain
bureaucracy in and out of academia.
Osher Doctorow
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