Quantum Physics, Possibility

Another article citing research about the different ways we think: basically, we direct our awareness towards 'context' or 'detail' or in a deeper sense, towards the feminine-wave (collective-possibilities, at-once, connections), and masculine-particle (detail, actuality, logic, serial analysis) dimensions to life.

Quantum mechanics is now revealing the reality of the tangibility of possibilities ... they're becoming visibly "real".

For nearly a century we've had the foundation principle of quantum mechanics - Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. In broad terms it's a principle that defines the limits to what we can know about quantum "stuff"1. The "limited knowledge" interpretation is a testimony to a culture that is deeply rooted in a fixed, mechanical world-view of life. The particle is assumed to be "just there" ... a physical thing with definite, and definable qualities.2

But recent experiments which show that plants naturally use quantum superpositioning3 and quantum entanglement reveal how the old mechanical world-view is outdated.

The stuff of which we are made is buzzing with superpositions of possibilities ... and that includes the stuff with which we think.

• 1. Technically, 'stuff' is a good handle which discourages being too fixed in our thinking regarding stuff that defies description. See "Quantum powered questions"
• 2. Our inability to fully understand (measure, describe or predict) a particle's characteristics has been blamed on the inherent inability to "see" ever more finer particles (as the stuff we use to see with 'disturbs' the very stuff we're trying to see - effectively "leaving us in the dark").
• 3. See earlier post, how "quantum mechanical probability laws can prevail over the classical laws of kinetics in this complex biological system, even at normal temperatures. The energy can thereby flow efficiently by -- counter intuitively -- traversing several alternative paths through the antenna proteins simultaneously."

Big Think interview with David Albert, Professor of Philosophy, Columbia University. (Full transcript of interview available at bigthink.com).

Within the context of this website (focused on productive-creativity) Albert outlines the fundamental issue with quantum mechanics ... that even though it is by far the most successful physical theory in history, it remains alien and 'counter-intuitive' to our everyday experiences. Therein lies the gem within this article ... that creativity cannot be reduced to easy explanations of brain neurophysiology (as our brains are composed of said quantum stuff that defies easy definition and understanding).