All life may be derived from quantum effects

reply to post by depth om

I was saying that people can become upset if they were to find out that the qualities of being human arise purely from the specific combinations and couplings of geometries.

I think *certain* people might become upset to learn that the "specific geometries" that 'give' the 'qualities of being human' are not so unique after all to humans.

Generally speaking, the brains of mammals have long been presumed to be more highly evolved and developed than the brains of other animals, in part based upon the distinctive structure of the mammalian forebrain and neocortex – a part of the brain's outer layer where complex cognitive functions are centered.

Specifically, the mammalian neocortex features layers of cells (lamination) connected by radially arrayed columns of other cells, forming functional modules characterized by neuronal types and specific connections. Early studies of homologous regions in nonmammalian brains had found no similar arrangement, leading to the presumption that neocortical cells and circuits in mammals were singular in nature.

For 40 years, [neuroscientist Harvey] Karten and colleagues have worked to upend this thinking. In the latest research, they used modern, sophisticated imaging technologies, including a highly sensitive tracer, to map a region of the chicken brain (part of the telencephalon) that is similar to the mammalian auditory cortex. Both regions handle listening duties. They discovered that the avian cortical region was also composed of laminated layers of cells linked by narrow, radial columns of different types of cells with extensive interconnections that form microcircuits that are virtually identical to those found in the mammalian cortex.

The findings indicate that laminar and columnar properties of the neocortex are not unique to mammals, and may in fact have evolved from cells and circuits in much more ancient vertebrates.

"The belief that cortical microcircuitry was a unique property of mammalian brains was largely based on the lack of apparent lamination in other species, and the widespread notion that non-mammalian vertebrates were not capable of performing complex cognitive and analytic processing of sensory information like that associated with the neocortex of mammals," said Karten.

"Animals like birds were viewed as lovely automata capable only of stereotyped activity."

But this kind of thinking presented a serious problem for neurobiologists trying to figure out the evolutionary origins of the mammalian cortex, he said. Namely, where did all of that complex circuitry come from and when did it first evolve?

Karten's research supplies the beginnings of an answer: From an ancestor common to both mammals and birds that dates back at least 300 million years.

Your brain is a lot like a Chickens brain.

Originally posted by sirnex
Many people get confused and turned around thinking that consciousness is something that exists of it's own accord. Consciousness is just another way to say self aware.

thank you for your reply!
i understand where you are coming from, now.

but i had to look some words up in the dictionary, for my own clarification.

and i think that perhaps consciousness is the same as aware, but not self-aware.

quoting from wiki for simplicity:

Self-awareness is the awareness of the self as separate from the thoughts that are occurring at any point in time. Without self awareness the self perceives and believes the thoughts that are occurring to be who the self is. Self awareness gives one the option or choice to choose thoughts being thought rather than simply thinking the thoughts that are stimulated from the accumulative events leading up to the circumstances of the moment.

consciousness is without the option or choice, at least to me.
not everything/everyone that is conscious is self-aware.
i say that from my experience as an RN.
an example would be someone with end-stage Alzheimer's disease - they are conscious but definitely not self-aware.

What we should be asking is why are we self aware rather than unaware. Why do we have intelligence rather than mindlessly mucking about? Why do we make use of language to describe the world around us and to convey abstract ideas?

good questions!

One mustn't get caught up in thinking of reality in simplistic terms.

although i prefer, usually, the simpler explanation, i guess you're right - it's not always the best way and certainly shouldn't become a habit!

reply to post by buni11687


Good find.

This is great and more and more people are looking into these areas and the evidence is starting to show the macroscopic objects exhibit a quantum nature like superposition and it's just a matter of scale. There isn't any hidden variable or magic link between the classical and quantum worlds. Macroscopic objects are quantum entangled states in a state of decoherence which blinds them.

The problem is many people are operating on a belief system and they stop thinking as soon as their belief system is challenged. I was reading a paper recently and the author made a good point. People may not like these things but that doesn't matter because the truth is the truth.

Quantum mechanics has been confirmed in experiment after experiment and technologies from quantum mechanics make up 30% of the GDP in this country. You watch a DVD because of quantum mechanics. You're on a computer because of quantum mechanics.

The most people can say is quantum mechanics is incomplete but this is just wishful thinking because they have faith in their belief system. So they think we will find some hidden variable or magic missing link between quantum-classical that will support their pre-existing belief.

I'm glad to see more and more scientist exploring these things instead of pie in the sky theories based on wishful thinking.

If the macroscopic world is based on quantum mechanics and it's just a matter of scale then we have to accept it no matter how weird some think it is because the truth is the truth.

Here's some more info on DNA and Quantum mechanics.

DNA has been found to have a bizarre ability to put itself together, even at a distance, when according to known science it shouldn't be able to. Explanation: None, at least not yet.

Scientists are reporting evidence that contrary to our current beliefs about what is possible, intact double-stranded DNA has the “amazing” ability to recognize similarities in other DNA strands from a distance. Somehow they are able to identify one another, and the tiny bits of genetic material tend to congregate with similar DNA. The recognition of similar sequences in DNA’s chemical subunits, occurs in a way unrecognized by science. There is no known reason why the DNA is able to combine the way it does, and from a current theoretical standpoint this feat should be chemically impossible.

Even so, the research published in ACS’ Journal of Physical Chemistry B, shows very clearly that homology recognition between sequences of several hundred nucleotides occurs without physical contact or presence of proteins. Double helixes of DNA can recognize matching molecules from a distance and then gather together, all seemingly without help from any other molecules or chemical signals.

In the study, scientists observed the behavior of fluorescently tagged DNA strands placed in water that contained no proteins or other material that could interfere with the experiment. Strands with identical nucleotide sequences were about twice as likely to gather together as DNA strands with different sequences. No one knows how individual DNA strands could possibly be communicating in this way, yet somehow they do. The “telepathic” effect is a source of wonder and amazement for scientists.

www.dailygalaxy.com...

Hypothesis: DNA utilizes quantum information and quantum computation for various functions. Superpositions of dipole states of base pairs consisting of purine (A,G) and pyrimidine (C,T) ring structures play the role of qubits, and quantum communication (coherence, entanglement, non-locality) occur in the “pi stack” region of the DNA molecule.

But as these dipole couplings are quantum mechanical they can exist in superposition of both possibilities. So quantum mechanically we can have:

www.quantumconsciousness.org...

DNA sequencing: Read with quantum mechanics

Thomas Thundat1

1. Thomas Thundat is at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, Tennessee 37831, USA.
e-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

Electron tunnelling can be used to selectively identify the basic constituents of DNA, indicating that the approach could be used to efficiently read a DNA sequence.

A wealth of genetic information, ranging from hereditary traits to predisposition to diseases, is coded in our DNA as a sequence of four bases — adenine, thymine, cytosine and guanine. However, it took the Human Genome Project 13 years and $3 billion to sequence the three billion bases of the human genome1.

www.nature.com...

DNA and quantum theory

Molecules are the basis of life. They can consider as a quantum system. So it is necessary to enter quantum mechanic in biological discussion. In this paper we consider the DNA molecules as a quantum system. We discussed about the relation between the heredity, biology and DNA and quantum systems. We also find a relation between the quantum information and some bio-process such as cell division, heredity, cloning. Finally we conclude that in cell division, DNA-replication and cloning all information in DNA are different.

www.computer.org...

As soon as a person mentions consciousness or oneness the materialist scream mysticism or paranormal. This is science and if a person wants to see God or oneness in things like entanglement and non-locality, then a materialist can't tell them how they should interpret and look at this evidence. It's silly for them to try and tell a person how they can interpret the evidence based on their own conscious.

This shows the desperation of the materialist and it shows an uncertainty in their own position.

Right now quantum mechanics is the best description of reality and if it leads to things like quantum computing and parallel universes then we have to accept it because the truth is the truth. If people feel threaten by some of these things things that's just too bad. We have to follow the evidence where it leads us.

[edit on 4-7-2010 by Matrix Rising]

I'm not surprised that the whole science works with quantum mechanics.
Look at the evidence coldy:
- Life at molecular level is very complex with nasty compolcaited formulaes/concepts to understand
- Life at planetary level seems to exhi bit the same level of complexity.

Neither are needed for us to understand for us to survive.

Then there is the "real" world mechanics which seems straight forward - it allows us to throw a spear and know where it will land [which is not quantum mechanics]. It allows dogs to catch frisbees. So why is this simple? Maybe it is NOT - our brain is simply acting as a filter to make it simple; in the same way is it can turn a fast dot into a TV program, I do think our brain is filtering all sorts of nasty complexity so we can make sense and consistency of this world.

What I know of quantum mechanics and consistency, they are diametrically opposite ; yet we cannot separate this frpom experiments because all rely on our brain world.

[edit on 12-7-2010 by templar knight]

Originally posted by unityemissions
I don't really know what to think of these kinds of things. I mean, what does this really mean anyways? How will our lives be any different? I understand that the world of the very small operates entirely different than our macro model, but so what? Perhaps there's something that others are gleaming here, but for me. . it doesn't really say much. I have no problem accepting the notion of entanglement. In fact, I've intuitively known of such a principal before even hearing it. It just makes sense to me that there's much more going on under the surface, and we're all interconnected, but still . . what does this actually do for us? Can we use this discovery to better ourselves in any way? I'm just askin.

It means that those with the highest resolution equipment may also have the highest capacity for evil. Looks like there are spindles that orient themselves like a gyroscope in our genes, on an atomic level. Who knows what else? Any way you look at it, it's a rout. That's why some followers of God are intelligently depending on help, for even the smallest, most taken for granted things, such as proper gene replication. Their next breath, things like that.

I once saw something in my eyes in the waking hours that reminded me of the opening scene in 'The Warriors', original cut. The wonder wheel is shown, and one must wonder.

It spun, shattered, flew apart like colored fluorescent bulbs, came back together time after time until I decided to focus on real life, the windshield of my car, the couple pretending to be making out in car next to me, in this empty lot.

If there's a quantum science involved, then pay it forward to God. They are playing with it, and God may be your best defense. I'm just sayin'...

lol, nice! hi, i'm ShadowIce. I'm new here. And I believe in most UFO stuff + quantum effects.

I've been researching aliens for over 9 years now.

reply to post by unityemissions

Let me start by saying that, in general, I agree with the sentiments expressed in your post.

please explain to me how the quantum level effects us, because as far as I can tell, it rarely if ever does.

Consider the processes by which mutations occur. A high-energy particle, whose generation in the fires of some unimaginably distant supernova was a quantum event, enters my body and plays hell with the molecular bonds inside the nucleus of one of my gametes in series of further quantum events. Consequentally my daughter is born with fins.

This is just a particularly vivid example of a more general rule: all chemical reactions are, at bottom, quantum events. The forging and breaking of molecular bonds, the transitions between states of matter--all are, fundamentally, quantum processes. The field of chemical physics is dedicated to understanding the quantum aspects of chemical reactions.

We are quantum beings.

I said I agreed with the sentiments of your post. I abhor ghosts in the machine. Nothing in quantum mechanics suggests the existence of disembodied Mind or its active power over matter.