Warp wrote:
>   I'm sure if you asked a physicist specialized in quantum mechanics he
> would say that life would probably not be possible without the wild
> uncertainties of quantum phenomena (such as particles physically being
> at multiple locations at the same time).

I imagine that life based on DNA and chemistry and such wouldn't work 
the same way. I was talking more about if (say) the universe worked the 
way you thought it should, or there really were demons and spirits that 
could make fundamental changes to how the world works, etc.


(BTW, you don't get particles being physically present at multiple 
locations. If you actually measure where they are, they're only in one 
place.)

>   Yet, even the counter-intuitive quantum phenomena can be subject to
> mathematical formulation.

Only statistically speaking, tho. Nobody has figured out what causes it 
to have the properties they have, even tho (surprisingly enough) it's 
the only way you can get a mathematically consistent treatment. In a bit 
more detail, QED is based on probabilities. The only probabilities that 
work are 1-dimensional probabilities (i.e., real numbers, and = 
multiply, or = add), and 2-dimensional probabilities (i.e., complex 
numbers as probabilities). I believe it's been mathematically proven 
that you can't have something with the properties of "probability" that 
has more than 2 dimensions. QED has two-dimensional probabilities for 
events, and when you average enough of them you get one-dimensional 
probabilities for events.

-- 
   Darren New / San Diego, CA, USA (PST)
     "That's pretty. Where's that?"
          "It's the Age of Channelwood."
     "We should go there on vacation some time."

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