Sunday 25 November 2007

Quantum Evolution

There is an idea (I think called the Anthropological Principle) that suggests there is more than just historical events up for grabs when we 'collapse the wave function'. We might even decide the laws of physics, or the course of the natural development of life! Might this mean that we can be other than human on a future or previous incarnation? This might amount to a kind of 'sideways' evolution by which evolution progresses between Everett universes as well as in chronological time.

That would fit in with an eastern religion (Hinduism?) which says that you can descend down to an insect, or rise to a more advanced being on each incarnation. Perhaps in another Everett universe, humanity (and therefore I) would have evolved to creatures more resembling of Angels? This would fit in with Christian/Jewish/Islamic beliefs, if my limited understanding of these religions is correct.

Perhaps the ancients knew about quantum physics all along! Of course, they described these ideas in three dimensional terms (e.g. Heaven being 'up', hell 'down') but I don't think their understanding was any less for that!

2 comments:

Anthony Peake said...
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Anthony Peake said...

Interesting observation.
The Cosmological Anthropic Principle was suggested by John Barrow and Frank Tipler. It proposes that the universe itself is somewhow hard-wired for the evolution of intelligent life. They argue had there even been the slightest difference in the conditions immedeately after the big bang (and then many other subsequent, and compounding, chance events) life, and therefore conscious beings would not have evolved. Conscious beings equals 'observers' with regard to the 'Copenhagen Interpretation' so, in effect, the universe brings about conscious observers which it needs in order to exist. This is an interesting variation on 'Bootstraps Theory'.

Of course if Everett was right (see next Posting) then there have been trillions of evolving universes and as such it is axiomatic that we, as conscious observers, live in a universe in which the chance events conspired to bring about our own existence. Great stuff isn't it!!!

Carenza, this means to me, that your observation is perfectly reasonable. I guess the ultimate problem is can it be possible for the 'laws of physics' to be different in any of the alternative universes or are these laws multi-universal?