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About Me

Documentary filmmaker. Human issues. specialization: HIV/Aids/Science & technology journalism/rural medical practice. Other passions: Aviation (real and virtual), 2 wheeled transport and travel, travel generally, GUTs and Quantum cosmology, brain plasticity, the divergency of the creative impulse, health and fitness the way of the artist...and friends...TED! blog: budgie.co.nr.

Location:
South Africa, Durban
Gender:
Male
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  • A comment on Conversation: Refuting a quantum mechanics theory

    Jun 8 2011: In dealing with the quantum world we need to get rid of our instinct for determinism, This is rooted in the physics of Newton and large objects and, yes, does provide a solid basis for scientific prediction and analysis at our macro level of experience. However, when we get down to quantum levels of reality we are dealing with probability of outcome rather than cause and affect. Like in any bell curved statistical framework, there is a centrally weighted probability that manifests strongest and in cases of observable world phenomena, will be the result effectively 100% of the time, due to destructive interference of the less likely possibilities. At a quantum level however, it is impossible to predict the outcome of any event. There is no cause and affect equation, only probabilities. Each time a quantum event occurs, a different result may come. the very early universe was determined by quantum size events, hence, given the same initial conditions an infinite number of outcomes are not only possible, but probably all exist simultaneously. This is what Aaron OÇonnell is illustrating in his TED talk. Any good primer on quantum mechanics will explain these notions.
    If we bow to a totally deterministic model then we must accept that there can only be an illusion of free will. OÇonnell's experiment is a vital peek at the most fundamental questions about the relationships between the brain, consciousness, free will and the 'bleed through' that may occur between a micro quantum world and the macro one we live in.
    The double slit experiment and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle underlie this thinking.

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