Posted: 01 Oct 2015 09:35 PM PDT
A pair of scientists —
Dr. Yin of Bejing’s Tsinghua University and Dr. Li of
Indiana’s Perdue University — have proposed what they
believe to be a plausible method of observing a living
organism in two places at once. (source) According to Dr. Li:
Although it has attracted enormous interest,
no quantum superposition state of an organism has
been realized. So we propose a straightforward
approach to put a microbe into a superposition of
two spatial states, that is, the microbe will be at
two different positions at the same time … It will
be the first experiment to put an organism into a
quantum superposition state.
(source)
While this type of
speculation is usually, and automatically, chucked
into the ‘fairy tale’ bin, the possibility of one
solid piece of matter (anything that has mass)
existing in multiple places at once is quite real and
has, at the subatomic microscopic (quantum) level,
already been demonstrated.
The scientists are
suggesting that an experiment conducted at the
University of Colorado a couple of years ago could be
modified by placing a living organism into a superposition state. A
superposition state is when a piece of matter, like an
electron, exists as multiple “probabilities” at one
time. It’s basically a piece of matter at the
subatomic level existing in multiple places at one
time (also known as a wave), until it is observed or
measured — when that happens it collapses into one
state. We know this to be true. You can view a visual
demonstration of this quantum “weirdness” here, or read more in an article we
wrote about it here. That experiment has been used
dozens of times to examine the role of consciousness
and its effects on our physical material world. (source) Phys.org reports:
The team suggests the way to make it work
would involve cooling a common bacterium down to
approximately 10mK to prevent chemical activity from
taking place and energy from being exchanged with
the environment, then causing the microbe to adhere
to the membrane using natural forces. That should be
enough, they theorize, to allow for the bacterium to
be put into a superposition state along with the
oscillating membrane. (source)
So, superposition
is indeed possible on the quantum scale, but these are
still physical objects that are existing in multiple
states or ‘places’ at one time, so why is it not
possible to put a larger living organism into a
superposition state? Discover
Magazine elaborates:
The maddening part of that problem is that the
ability of particles to exist in two places at once
is not a mere theoretical abstraction. It is a very
real aspect of how the subatomic world works, and it
has been experimentally confirmed many times over.
(source)
Why these same quantum
mechanical laws have not been observed on the
macroscopic level is yet to be understood,
but physicists are working on the problem. For
example, in 2012 physicists David Wineland and Serge
Haroche received the Nobel Prize in physics for
demonstrating how “quantum weirdness” could not only
exist at the subatomic micro-world level, but also
show itself in the macro-world. At one time,
superposition was only thought to exist in the
inaccessible quantum world, but not anymore. We know
it’s possible, we just haven’t figured out how. We
do, however, seem to be getting closer to
finding out. (
source
) (
source
)
If matter can be
observed at the smallest possible levels acting in
weird ways (like superposition), it’s logical to
assume that larger physical objects could do the
same.
It
kind of makes you wonder, are there multiple
dimensions? Are there parallel worlds and parallel
versions of us existing in other, multiple realities?
Are we one representation of a larger superposition of
ourselves existing as multiple potentials? Is earth
one representation, one part of a wave that is
existing in multiple states?
Always interesting to
ponder.
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