Chasing (Quantum) Rabbits

I don't have a movie this month, but I need a break (more or less) from other activities. My last entry tagged "chasing rabbits" from 2021 if I'm not wrong, was linked to the first part of "Dune" back then, without much connection to the movie though. Now, I didn't have time to see the second part of "Dune" so we can skip that completely. What made me spent some time during last month was a bit of research on a subject that I wouldn't have touched unless I really had to, but it's not the first time it happens to get on my agenda something unconvenient...

I'll prefer staying more cryptic on the background of all this, but who catched some of my previous entries tagged the same as the current might remember that I was speculating around time travel, unexpected randomness in life, and others (or maybe I remember it wrong, because I'm not in the mood, and I don't have the time either, to re-read my own ramblings). The point is that what follows fits with the same "category".

This time I'm gonna stick to an enumeration of short ideas, probably with a very weak basis, but which connect somehow between them, as much as to produce some questions. So, let's start, with apologies in advance for where I'm completely off-track (that's why we have links to external sources).

We can say informally about a particla in a reference system observed from a quantum physics perspective that it's in coherence at the moment when it's simultaneously in multiple states in isolation (aka in a superposition), and when it decoheres it "chooses" one of these states following the contact with the external environment (getting basically into a typical mechanical physics reference system).
Links: What is Quantum Coherence? + the Wikipedia entry.

There is something called the Penrose/Hameroff model aka Orchestrated Object Reduction (or in brief Orch Or), which again, informally, states that the conscious thinking might be influenced by a physiological process taking place at the level of some microparticles in the brain = micro tubules, following their passing with a certain frequency, from quantum coherence to a decoherence state (= losing their superposition). By extension, we could speculate that the subconscious activity is linked with the period when these particles are in coherence (in superposition).
Links: Orch OR and the Quantum Biology of Consciousness + the Wikipedia entry.

Caveat: As many theories in the realm of quantum physics Orch Or is .. a theory. There are even practical experiments contradicting it, but these also bring up the idea that the model could be extended to something plausible.
Link: Quantum theory of consciousness put in doubt by underground experiment

In a semi-obscure journal, more than 10 years ago, there was another theory based on Orch Or, which in brief says that within the brain of a schizophrenic the physiological processes of micro tubules activity might be altered, more precisely the switches from coherence (superposition) to decoherence (a single state) do not produce quick enough, or at the frequency they're supposed to normally, the consequence being the altered behaviour = basically the delirious state, which again speculating, might originate from the person's subconscious. The journal might be semi-obscure, but it's not the only publication which somehow heads into this direction.
Links: Quantum Logic of the Unconscious and Schizophrenia + altceva prin zona Understanding Schizophrenia as a Disorder of Consciousness: Biological Correlates and Translational Implications from Quantum Theory Perspectives.

Up to this point we can say we have known facts. Actually now we start speculating (much more)...
In somebody's subconscious we don't know what can we find, that's why it is called a subconscious. But typically, what someone who's diagnosed with the above condition says in a delirious state is, or seems outside the reality that all of us know. Now, there's a question - why in a quantum coherence of some micro tubules in subconscious, the brain produces something that's not in its known realm of reality, but outside of it?

In a completely different direction we have something called the Everett-Wheeler model or Everett-DeWitt or Many-Worlds-Interpretation (MWI), which in brief, tells us that from a quantum perspective, anything that might decohere to a certain state it actually generates a new reality, and consequently a new distinct temporal line with its own evolution, and practically... we don't actually have a loss of superposition to a certain state - we have a continuous superposition, but the realities are somehow distinct and do not interact.
Links: Many-Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics + the Wikipedia entry.

Now, wrapping (well, time is limited in this reality), we can ask two questions:
the light one - how does time flow in each distinct reality? (there are probably hypotheses for this but I didn't have time to look)
the hard one - if Orch Or and MWI wouldn't be just theories, and somehow we could have a possible intersection between these models, meaning not being completely incompatible, could someone with deranged micro tubules get somehow access in a subconscious state to a different image of other realities? (from where could extract firm beliefs about stuff that does not exist in the current reality)

To note that what's above is sheer speculation, and the undersigned with all responsibility does not have any firm belief about their validity. I have a background as researcher, but it's not in quantum physics, and the linked resources were barely skimmed, not read in detail, so I don't have any claim that what's above has much soundness in it (by the way, if there's any error on any interpretation of some reference, please send corrections). Besides that, sometimes is dangeorus to speculate over sensible matters.

Still... even though I finished writing this entry on April 1st, I dated it when I started it = on March 31st ;)

14 - Dune (less) & Chasing Rabbits (more)

I took a break from blogging a month or so ago, and the motivation from my last entry is still valid. However... I never left a year from the "origins" of this without an anniversary entry, so I told myself I could force a short one. The problem is that I don't have a movie subject for year 14.

Normally, for this kind of entry, I would've looked for some production that I could recommend with all my heart (not that I could find that every year until now). So, it crossed my mind to write about "Dune" - Villeneuve version 2021, but I'm not in the right mood for that, and I can't really recommend it with all my heart. One phrase is enough: as visual experience (ignoring the 3D) and audio one too is superb and it really deserves watching it, and fortunately that covers well the less positive trends you can sense in Hollywood lately, although these might still be visible to somebody who's not at the first experience with the "Dune" universe, but I'm really not in the mood to talk about that. Done, subject checked. What about the rabbits...

Since my first year of blogging (the Romanian version) I've had a series of entries tagged as "chasing rabbits", where I allowed myself some off-topic writing once per year. And, as a series, I usually had a connection between the current entry and the previous. There's been a while since I wrote one, and I almost forgot about these. But not completely. So, I did something that really dislike, to read my old blog posts, just to see where I left my "chase". In the last one from 2017 (didn't have the patience to move even more back than that) I was rambling about my time machine obsession. Surprisingly, even though I was more naive back than, my thoughts about this didn't fundamentally change. Maybe just that the random stuff in life is not always so random. The idea to fix the issue by moving back still stands, but because we don't have yet a more concrete solution for time travel maybe we can use the "classic" simulation = reset the context now and restart. In other words sometimes you can try to be the rabbit, if you want to catch the rabbit. Eh, cheap philosophy :)...

Chasing Rabbits ... 2017 ... or whatever year edition

I don't remember if I wrote or not a "Chasing Rabbits" entry last year. What I recall is that I wrote one in 2015, in the same hotel near Otopeni airport where I'm now, also having a flight scheduled next early morning and few hours to sleep, but not having much sleep... I don't know what I wrote back then, but I know that this time I'll try something maybe a bit more concise than in the previous.

Fact: some (apparently random) stuff happening in life can be really stupid and maybe unfair.
Idea: fix that.
Tool: time machine.

We can go on forever talking about "playing God" or "messing with the karma". I said concise - and to be concise... karma has its way to get stuff balanced. So, if "the fact" + "the idea" are not fair enough when they're put to work... karma will hit back... at least that's what I think will happen. Now, let's chase the main rabbit = "the tool" ...

I could start rambling about the few tiny bits of physics that I know, but I would probably stop not too far, and no matter how quick that might be I would probably put out still enough bollocks to make this entry really stupid. So, instead of "how to build it", let's try approaching it from the other side. For the sake of argument: let's suppose that tha "the time machine" already exists (that's why is a time machine, right? should abstract away the time around it). Just that I didn't hear anybody reporting any "Terminator" coming from the future through a magic electricity bubble. So, if it exists, its mechanism is probably a bit more... discreet.

There are some options here - depends on how rich is your imagination :) ... But let's just take one: let's put an equal sign between "time travel" and "send a message". In this context "time travel to the future" is something trivial, and enough well developed: from a letter, to an e-mail, and so on. There's still the question about the past. How could you do it at least at a minimal level. 1 bit. An electrical impulse generated at time t that can be interpreted at t-1. If you solve this, as limited as it might be as expressiveness/efficiency, there would be enough to have the "time travel to the past" part = there's "the time machine".

How can you do it?... Don't know :) If I would, life might have been more fair - at least in my eyes. What I know is that I wasn't really in the mood for movies this week, but yesterday at some hour and x minutes, browsing the TV channels I stumbled on "Deja Vu" and a line said by Denzel referring some hour and the ... same x minutes. Now, browsing again some TV channels I stumble upon "Timecop", probably Van Damme's movie that left me the strongest impression when I was a kid. Coincidences can be funny :)... Anyway, what I also know, is that's enough food for thought until the next rabbit chase, whatever year edition might that be...

Chasing Rabbits 2015 Edition

At this time of year (actually already gone) I was doing a preview of the following Winter-Spring season. Obviously I don't have time for this. But I've noticed that's been a looong time since I've had a philosophical entry on the issue of chasing rabbits ... (did I write about this in English? I don't even remember ...)

As I'm getting older, I'm also getting more convinced that the optimistic idea of my youth of running after more rabbits to catch at least one is awfully exhausting. I'm thinking if it isn't maybe more comfortable to become a vegetarian and stop running after anything ... Where's the thrill then, you would say? No adrenaline ... Wrong.

Slowly, as time goes by, I tend to conclude that life offers you so many and diverse problems, that you could definitely consider a peaceful gardener career. You'll have anyway rodents in your yard to chase for, so many maybe that you won't even have time to gather the carrots crop. Now, well ... that rabbit that you want, might be or not be there ...

I'm writing somewhere in transit, in a hotel room, trying to decide between half a Stilnox or an enhanced Ibuprofen for my back pains. Target: to sleep three hours until my next connecting flight. So maybe I'll better stop here, otherwise I'll only have two left ..

... & don't worry, that movie preview entry will come ;) If I could play with my time as in the shot took below where you can count the blades of a turboprop's propeller while it's in full ascension speed ... That would be something. Unfortunately it's not that easy ...

Chasing Rabbits 101 .. (?)

As a final entry for the year, I was planning to write a post about "Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy ?". A sort of animated documentary directed by Michel Gondry, which covers a series of discussions with Noam Chomsky (check out Wikipedia if the name doesn't sound familiar). But somewhere at the half of it I got sleepy. Overall, it's an interesting amalgam of ideas, but too chaotic to follow carefully if your brain didn't have enough rest before. I have to admit though that the 2nd half was slightly more coherent. In particular, the string of short (more or less) philosophic sequences includes some notable opinions on the human learning process, and also one of the most rational or logical argumentation on the need for religion I've heard by now. But even so, this doesn't change my disappointment that what I've seen is pretty far from what I intended to have as "catchy final entry for 2013". Therefore ..

I'm doing something that I .. let's say discreetly avoided before. Which is to try catching up with a series of "off-topic" entries on my "native" .ro blog version, series that started somewhere in 2007 and continued at the "impressive" rate of one/year. Even so, I'm not in the proper mood now to search, translate, adapt, and so on and so forth, for all the posts. In short, it's about rabbits :) More exactly it started with an old saying, that I don't know where did originate, but in Romanian goes something like: "Who runs after two rabbits doesn't catch any of them." Well, let's just say that I totally, completely, and strongly disagree with that. And through those entries that I wrote during the years I tried (usually at very late hours when my mind gets in a sort of "lucid drunkenness" state of spirit) to develop various chase tactics, hunting grounds analysis, etc, that would prove "the theorem" wrong. Now ... I'm not considering my crazy random ramblings as an equivalent subject to a Noam Chomsky interview, but I'm really too lazy at the moment to get into details with the thing in the first paragraph. Actually I'm quite lazy for any long entry, so I'll try to wrap up my "rabbits" thing quickly ;) ...

Let's say that I strongly believe that there are ways, maybe very complicated, to somehow steer the running rabbits towards the same destination. Consequently, and ideally, at some point you'll chase "one" and not two. Or another way to look at it, you'll chase two (or more) rabbit-halves that complete each other. But, that's the simple version to state a potential solution which includes that "very complicated" part :) You can gradually add up to the equation lots of stuff. For instance there's the time to get them running on the same path. Time which might be so long that you can compare it with a pyramid construction. And pyramids are nice, but you know what's the final purpose of that building, don't you ? :) So .. although a beautiful achievement for posterity, the whole thing might get ironically grim in respect to you ;) And actually, constructing the pyramid = getting the rabbits on the common path, is unfortunately not exactly the same with finally catching them. So, how do you build a pyramid and catch the rabbits at the same time ? Well, typically you can find pyramids in the desert (especially this kind, since they're very often more a mirage .. a Fata Morgana, than an actual pyramid). Ergo, the hunting ground might be a desert. It might look easier to hunt rabbits in a desert, but it's actually not. No water, wind storms erasing tracks, you can get lost .. So what to do ? Well, the rabbits probably try instinctively anyway to run out of the desert (they also need water). So the desert must have an end. How to get there ? Let's think a bit out of the box. Shrink the desert surface. How ? Stop the global warming :D

Is that all ? Well, no :) Obviously it's not that easy to stop the global warming :P What's above is a summary of some of my ramblings written years ago (at least a couple that I had the patience to quickly re-read now), just to give an idea of "the topic". What's new this year ? Well, I got to the point where I'm thinking that I might after all need an introductory manual to "learn the basics" .. despite my previous five years "advanced expertise" accumulated on "hunting techniques". That's because I'm either getting old (and well .. the rabbits are forever young), or I have some major flaws in my "strategic planning" that keep the "hunter - rabbits" distance constant (not to destroy completely my morale now and say that's increasing). Well .. maybe there's the external factor = the fate. But to discuss about this, and how much of the "global warming" is caused by kismet would require another entry ;) So I'll stop for the moment with a question mark. I'm too tired now to try an answer to that (plus the doctor told me to stop drinking and I didn't chew enough poppy pretzels to get the opium concentration in blood sufficiently high to trigger an inspiration boost). I'm still not tired enough though to give up on the idea that the rabbits can be "modeled" somehow such that somewhere, sometime, to get an acceptable convergence and catch more than one.

I'll end this with a short film I remembered about which says more than many words ( it's a movie blog after all :) ) .. + a warm "Happy New Year !" and a wish for a .. let's say nicer 2014 than the (still) current year ;)



PS 1 : I've been gradually trying on my .ro blog version to switch my "chasing rabbits" annual entry to a "let me tell you a story" entry. Unsuccessful by now because I didn't have time to catch the story "rabbit", but I'm slowly progressing. And it's not the 1st time anyway, but I didn't write any since 2009 so it's been a while. Who knows, maybe next year ;)

PS 2 : For who's interested in the Chomsky talks from "Is the Man Who Is Tall Happy ?", that's the trailer. Enjoy!