Ken Nelson

 
Quantum dice

Biological Darwinism, loosely defined as random mutation and survival of the fittest mutation, seems largely accepted in Science and common culture. I’ll not comment on if it should be accepted, or what it means regarding a “higher” force.

Let’s assume, for discussion, that biology works this way.  The question physicists address now is  “does everything follow Darwin”?   And does it link quantum randomness with the order we see in our universe?

For it to be so there would have to be a selection process – something picking winners. For biology, death and reproduction does that. What is  a winner in quantum affairs?   Researchers claim something called “scarring” is the quantum selection force:

Scarring has something to do with quantum waveform interference patterns but, rather than try and foist what that means on you, just understand that quantum scars (see image) appear to have the ability to “reproduce”—in terms of information/pattern—in relation to their environment, something demonstrated in recent weeks in the computing structure known as a “quantum dot.”

In other words, some states can copy themselves, others can’t. Still others can copy themselves really well, others not so well. The universe gradually moved towards the classical physical state we see around us.

This is sort of interesting, in a metaphysical sort of way.  More pragmatically, research in this area could help progress in quantum computing, which desperately needs a push.