Subject: Re: Calling for papers, again
Date: Sat, 01 May 1999 13:57:52 -0400 (EDT)
From: RobXXVIII@aol.com
Reply-To: BRIN-L@cornell.edu
To: BRIN-L@cornell.edu
About quantum life, one possibility that occurred to me is goblin universes. This notion, suggested I think by Gell-man, and described in 'the quark and the Jaguar' allows the possibility of creatures existing in the quantum noise.
Broadly the argument is:
Classical states are a fine graining of quantum states. We average out the states of most
particles, and it is this averaging that cancels out quantum phenomena. There is a minimal fine
graining, looking in any more detail reveals quantum effects, but if we look no closer the world looks
classical.
However there is no proof that there is only one such
minimal fine graining. There may be other orthogonal grainings which which produce coherent non-quantum
states. These would obey a different classical physics which reduced to the same quantum theory. E.g.
by averaging together quantum states in the right way you might get equations describing some type of
classical physics in 12 space and 3 time dimensions. We would only be able to see correlations in the
quantum noise, but that is what our universe would look like to them.
Such life forms wouldn't be quantum computers, but they would be utterly alien.
Robert
Subject: RE: Calling for papers, again
Date: Sun, 02 May 1999 16:48:10 -0700
From: Joshua Bell
Reply-To: BRIN-L@cornell.edu
To: "'BRIN-L@cornell.edu'" <BRIN-L@cornell.edu>
> From: RobXXVIII@aol.com [mailto:RobXXVIII@aol.com]
>
<<<<<<<<<<<
There may be other orthogonal grainings which which produce coherent non-quantum states. These
would obey a different classical physics which reduced to the same quantum theory. E.g. by
averaging together quantum states in the right way you might get equations describing some type of classical
physics in 12 space and 3 time dimensions. We would only be able to see correlations in the quantum
noise, but that is what our universe would look like to them.
>>>>>>>>>>>
Yikes. I hope the inhabitants of 12/3 don't treat us poor denizens of a mere 3/1 as inferior (shades of _Flatland_, of course). On the flip side, they couldn't exactly squish us underfoot, as we're more than flat to them already. ;-)
Joshua
Subject: Re: Calling for papers, again
Date: Mon, 03 May 1999 16:13:16 -0400 (EDT)
From: RobXXVIII@aol.com
Reply-To: BRIN-L@cornell.edu
To: BRIN-L@cornell.edu
In a message dated 02/05/99 23:51:08 GMT, you write:
<<<<<<<<<
Yikes. I hope the inhabitants of 12/3 don't treat us poor denizens of a mere 3/1 as inferior (shades of
_Flatland_, of course). On the flip side, they couldn't exactly squish us underfoot, as we're more than flat
to them already. ;-)
>>>>>>>>>
From their perspective, we are non-local structure in the quantum noise, difficult to detect, near impossible to affect.
In classical mechanics the universe naturally appears to have 6+1 dimensions. We experience the three spatial dimensions as primary, but in truth they stand on equal footing to the momentum dimensions. Canonical transformations can invert their roles.
In QM the hydrogen atom lives in an infinite dimensional state space. We see a probability distribution in 3 dimensions, but there may be alternate views.
Robert
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