Begin forwarded message:
> From: Andrei Khrennikov <Andrei.Khrennikov@vxu.se>
> Date: June 26, 2006 5:44:26 AM PDT
> To: Richard Emery <rmemery@earthlink.net>
> Subject: Reply to Richard Emery: QI and Life
>
> Dear Richard,
>
> As I pointed in my previous Emails, one should not identify the
> mathematical formalism of QM (as well as QI) with its one special
> application, namely, to the description of probabilities (and hence
> information) for so called quantum systems. The formalism is
> essentially very general. It could be applied in particular in biology
> and genetics. But it should not be a reductionist application. One
> need
> not try reduce biological processes to dynamics of quantum systems
> (electrons, neutrons, photons, ... composing a biological system).
>
> My point of view (which was developed in details in my
> book:Information dynamics with applications to psychology, cognitive
> and social sciences and anomalous phenomena, Kluwer, Fundamental
> series in Physics) is that the mathematical formalism of QM (namely
> calculus of probabilities described by vectors and density matrices in
> the complex Hilbert space) could be used everywhere we want to
> represent information in the probabilistic framework by neglecting by
> huge amounts of information (which we are not able to get) about
> systems.
>
> I called such representations not quantum (by reserving the latter
> terminology for quantum systems), but quantum-like.
>
> I do not think that such a thing as quantum biology or genetics could
> be created, but quantum-like biological or genetic models might be
> created and they could be useful.
>
> I would like to make comparasion with the problem of applications of
> QM to decription of cognition. There was published a lot of paper
> about QUANTUM cognition (e.g., Roger Penrose connected it with quantum
> gravity). I do not think that there is some reality behind such
> speculations. There is the huge gap between quantum and neuronal
> scales!!! But we can speak about quantum-like cognition. In this
> approach we do not try to reduce cognitive processes to real quantum
> processes. But we say: cognition is a probabilistic representation of
> neuronal information. THis is a probabilistic projection of the
> detreministic world of billions of neurons to our feelings and
> sensations which are nothing else but probabilistic images extracted
> from the deterministic neuronal world. Since there is projection of
> information, one could apply quantum like models: in my book there is
> an algorithm for representing statistical data by complex probability
> amplitudes. After this one can work in quantum mathematical formalism.
>
> All the best, Andrei
>
>
>
>> Dear FISers,
>>
>> As a biologist, whose quantum-theory knowledge comes mostly from
>> popular sources, I have enjoyed this discussion about what is or
>> isn\'t quantum and why a Planck length matters. Obviously there are
>>
>> pitfalls for anyone who ventures carelessly into the Land of Little
>>
>> Pieces. But I am not really sure where to step if I try to make some
>>
>> sense out of QM or QT in a biological context. So far as I can tell
>>
>> they have no relevance to any biological species, save one, and
>> furthermore they don\'t apply to either genetics or evolution.
>>
>> What still confuses me, however, concerns the applicable meaning of
>>
>> quantum information, if there is such a thing, how it is propagated
>>
>> through physical systems, including biological systems, and whether
>>
>> or not genetic information is related at all to any other kind of
>> quantum information that occupies non-biological space and time.
>>
>> Should I assume then that biological systems are simply out-of-range
>>
>> for useful applications of QT or QM?
>>
>> Always with appreciation, Richard
>> _______________________________________________
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>> fis@listas.unizar.es
>> http://webmail.unizar.es/mailman/listinfo/fis
>>
>
>
>
> With Best Regards,
>
> Andrei Khrennikov
>
> Director of International Center for Mathematical Modeling in Physics,
> Engineering, Economy and Cognitive Sc.,
> University of Vaxjo, Sweden
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Received on Mon Jun 26 16:26:08 2006
