What does Quantum Mechanics tell us about universe what can it tell us about human consciousness and the brain

Question

I welcome all scientific explanations.Thanks!!

I have no knowledge whats so ever on QM. Any information in regards to space and time, the structure of the atom and its features, and what this tells us about the universe would be a good place to start I guess.

Many thanks for your help

Answer 1

. If you’re familiar with the double slit experiment. When electron is shot through a double slit. The electron acts like a particle when one slit is open, but acts like a wave when the second slit is open. This mystified physicist since an electron is a particle it not supposes to act like wave. Scientist are smart so they decided to take a peek by placing a machine to see which slit the electron really went through. But when the electron is observed it acted like a good particle and went through just one slit. This is amazing by simply observing we collapsed the wave function. This is a very significant discovery, because it tells us that matter can exist in two places at once. If I don’t observe lets say a ball it could be their or their. There is infinite possibility.

Another significant discovery of Quantum physics is entanglement. Certain crystal split subatomic particle. When the original subatomic particle splits into particle, the resulting subatomic particle is considered entangled. Entangled subatomic particles no matter how far they are let’s say billion light years they instantaneously communicate.

Answer 2

QM tells us that the universe is not 'deterministic' as was thought. In other words, a given action does NOT always cause the same reaction. It depends on how it is 'observed'. If you try to explain this by comparing it to everyday experience, it just doesn't work because QM doesn't happen at the scale of everyday life.

About atoms, QM tells us that atoms are not made up of little balls spinning around each other. It is much weirder than that. The electron doesn't orbit the nucleus like a satellite orbiting the earth. If you measure it's position over and over, you can measure the AVERAGE position, and find that it is ON AVERAGE in a place it would be if it were orbiting, but that doesn't say it is moving in an orbit. It is VERY VERY strange.

QM also says that we cannot measure anything precisely (at atomic scale). The more precise you try to make the measurement, the more the thing you're measuring "jiggles around" so that it becomes unmeasurable.

About human consciousness and the brain - probably nothing.

Answer 3

Many things! for a start your universe, unless there was a particular relationship between all the fundamental constants, you would not be here to examine it!
then there is the phenomena of 'enmeshment' - the relationship between the observer and a phenomenon. The phenomenon is best thought of as ultimately indeterminable until the observation occurs which 'forces' it to 'metamorphose' into a particular state.
As to the brain,it seems a simple 2-state memory and computational device is insufficient to explain 'consciousness'.
Quantum memory and quantum gates exist in a multiplicity of possible states if they could be constructed. Their potential power and speed would far outstrip conventional computers. The problem is to 'disentangle' the information so that it can be read and transmitted. This I believe has been achieved to some limited extent,(on a banal level this would be like preparing two particles with anti-parallel spin and then instantly decoding the other particle with a measurement on the other) although the exact fabrication of 'quantum computers' is subject to speculation. So, if consciousness can be modelled/simulated, looks like this is the best shot!

Answer 4

QM tells us a lot about the universe. Do think you could focus your question a little more?

As for consciousness, that's not really a physics question so much as a biology question. Studies of the brain are learning more and more about what physical processes contribute to the phenomenon of consciousness. QM plays a role just like it does in every physical and chemical reaction. I don't know what kind of an answer you're looking for here?

Answer 5

Applications of QM to neuroscience is limited to the physical and chemical processes, as currently understood, that are explained by quantum theory, namely molecular orbital theory and the behavior of atoms and molecules on a submicroscopic scale.

Attempts to model consciousness and nervous systems using QM is strictly by analogy, as the scale of the systems involved are far outside the capability of the Schreodinger or Dirac formalism to explain. Uncertainty principle, wave-particle duality, and the like are fundamentally applicable only to physical systems at the atomic and subatomic scale, and not to psychology or anatomy.

Answer 6

I think you should be asking Stephen Hawkings about this one. you certainly lost me.