Thread: Quantum Darwinism

Thought it was interesting. Need to read it a few more times to wrap my head around it. Superposition, environment, replicating, best fit.... could use some help.


https://www.sciencealert.com/quantum-darwinism-sounds-mind-breaking-but-this-theory-is-passing-tests/amp

I think it's kind of a "nothing" article. Throwing "Darwinism" into the name is unnecessary to start with.

Decoherence is (as I understand it) when the "superposition" state becomes the final state that we observe and I think that's just because in the real world the environment will always cause this.

The quantum world is small enough that there will always be outside interference. If you see a small "wave" in a puddle of water and the only way that you can "see" is to touch a small straw to the water's edge then you will always be effecting (disturbing) that wave. The only way for a devise to "see" is to use light. If the thing being observed is smaller than that light wave, the light wave will cause decoherence.

I'm no expert however.

Yes I thought it looked interesting too.Would be nice to get some feedback as to whether there is any "beef" in it.

(I am not sure whether the bit about observer vs environment was worth saying . I thought that was obvious but I am nothing like an expert or even well informed.)

Couple of books you could check.

Life on the edge (Jim Al Khalili).
The quantum secret of life (Mendick).

Originally Posted by geordief

Yes I thought it looked interesting too.Would be nice to get some feedback as to whether there is any "beef" in it.

(I am not sure whether the bit about observer vs environment was worth saying . I thought that was obvious but I am nothing like an expert or even well informed.)

Agree. It is standard to speak of de coherence being due to interaction of the system rather than observation. I don’t see what Darwin brings to the party.