Abstract
We present a view of the evolving reality based on our understanding of the recently discovered (in the time scale of human evolution) quantum laws, how they manifest at the different organizational levels of inert matter, living organisms and cultural artifacts, and what they possibly imply regarding the nature of the stuff the world is made of. What emerges is a pancognitivist framework in which the notion of quantumness enterlace with multiple aspects of our world, including the appearance of the complex life forms on the surface of our planet.
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Notes
- 1.
More precisely, in a Darwinian process, evolution occurs because selection affects the distribution of the randomly generated heritable variation across generations. This doesnt mean, however, that the variation in the biological world is always assumed by biologists to be perfectly random. We now know that there are many processes (assortative mating, biased mutation, etc.) that can cause variation to be non-random, but in many cases it is nevertheless considered to be “random enough” for a Darwinian model to apply.
- 2.
When using the term selection in relation to a process of actualization of an outcome, it should be understood in its more common sense of choosing one of several possibilities, and not in the specific sense of a natural selection, i.e., referring to processes where environmental factors can affect the distribution of randomly generated heritable variation across generations.
- 3.
Forms of change that are not explained by natural selection are also considered nowadays by biologists, like in evolutionary developmental biology or epigenetics. However, our focus in the present essay, also for the sake of simplicity, is on the central mechanism of Darwinian’s natural selection.
- 4.
Micro-systems are not necessarily spatial systems, as we will explain later in the article. In other words: micro is not necessarily small.
- 5.
In a SternGerlach experiment the spin entities are sent through an inhomogeneous magnetic field, to observe their deflection, as revealed by observing the distribution of their impacts on a detector screen.
- 6.
Bell’s inequalities express certain constraints that must hold when measurements are performed on composite systems, if one assumes that the components are experimentally separated, i.e., that they cannot influence each other, when measurements are performed on them.
- 7.
Kolmogorov’s axioms, named after the Russian mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov, are three assumptions providing a precise mathematical formalization of (classical) probability theory.
- 8.
“Wave-packet” is just another term for “quantum state,” employed when the latter is expressed as a function of the position coordinates.
- 9.
Just to give an example, the wave-packet of (the center of mass of) a hydrogen atom, initially localized in a sphere of Bohr radius (approximately half of an angstrom), will typically spread to distances of tens of kilometers in a matter of one second.
- 10.
Note that our narrative remains consistent with the fact that a walnut, when in a cracked bad state, can pass through the round hole, whereas a walnut in a cracked well state will generally not.
- 11.
It has for example been observed that after a forced right turn spermatozoa have an increased probability to turn left, when confronted with a left or right choice (Brugger et al. 2002).
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Acknowledgements
We are grateful to Liane Gabora for her constructive comments that helped improving the manuscript. We are also thankful to Nelson Abreu, for providing the stimulus and motivation to write this article.
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Aerts, D., Sassoli de Bianchi, M. (2018). Quantum Perspectives on Evolution. In: Wuppuluri, S., Doria, F. (eds) The Map and the Territory. The Frontiers Collection. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72478-2_31
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