On a Possible Physical Metatheory of Consciousness

We show that modern quantum mechanics, and particularly the theory of decoherence, allows formulating a sort of a physical metatheory of consciousness. Particularly, the analysis of the necessary conditions for the occurrence of decoherence, along with the hypothesis that consciousness bears (more-or-less) well definable physical origin, leads to a wider physical picture naturally involving consciousness. This can be considered as a sort of a psycho-physical parallelism, but on very wide scales bearing some cosmological relevance.

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Realistic physical origin of the quantum observable operator algebra in the frame of the causal stochastic interpretation of quantum mechanics: The relativistic spin-zero case

Physical Review D ◽

10.1103/physrevd.32.1375 ◽

1985 ◽

Vol 32 (6) ◽

pp. 1375-1383 ◽

Cited By ~ 30

Author(s):

N. Cufaro-Petroni ◽

C. Dewdney ◽

P. Holland ◽

T. Kyprianidis ◽

J. P. Vigier

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Operator Algebra ◽

Interpretation Of Quantum Mechanics ◽

Physical Origin ◽

Quantum Observable ◽

Relativistic Spin

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A purification postulate for quantum mechanics with indefinite causal order

Quantum ◽

10.22331/q-2017-04-26-10 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 1 ◽

pp. 10 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

Mateus Araújo ◽

Adrien Feix ◽

Miguel Navascués ◽

Časlav Brukner

Keyword(s):

Quantum Mechanics ◽

Communication Complexity ◽

Quantum Communication ◽

Necessary Conditions ◽

Causal Order ◽

Standard Quantum ◽

Local Quantum ◽

Causal Structures

To study which are the most general causal structures which are compatible with local quantum mechanics, Oreshkov et al. introduced the notion of a process: a resource shared between some parties that allows for quantum communication between them without a predetermined causal order. These processes can be used to perform several tasks that are impossible in standard quantum mechanics: they allow for the violation of causal inequalities, and provide an advantage for computational and communication complexity. Nonetheless, no process that can be used to violate a causal inequality is known to be physically implementable. There is therefore considerable interest in determining which processes are physical and which are just mathematical artefacts of the framework. Here we make the first step in this direction, by proposing a purification postulate: processes are physical only if they are purifiable. We derive necessary conditions for a process to be purifiable, and show that several known processes do not satisfy them.

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Homochirality as the Signature of Extra-Terrestrial Life

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s0252921100015037 ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 161 ◽

pp. 505-510

Author(s):

Alexandra J. MacDermott ◽

Laurence D. Barron ◽

Andrè Brack ◽

Thomas Buhse ◽

John R. Cronin ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Amino Acids ◽

Protein Synthesis ◽

Optical Rotation ◽

Physical Origin ◽

Natural Choice ◽

Rosetta Mission ◽

Terrestrial Life ◽

Subsurface Layers ◽

Solar System Bodies ◽

Origin Of Homochirality

AbstractThe most characteristic hallmark of life is its homochirality: all biomolecules are usually of one hand, e.g. on Earth life uses only L-amino acids for protein synthesis and not their D mirror images. We therefore suggest that a search for extra-terrestrial life can be approached as a Search for Extra- Terrestrial Homochirality (SETH). The natural choice for a SETH instrument is optical rotation, and we describe a novel miniaturized space polarimeter, called the SETH Cigar, which could be used to detect optical rotation as the homochiral signature of life on other planets. Moving parts are avoided by replacing the normal rotating polarizer by multiple fixed polarizers at different angles as in the eye of the bee. We believe that homochirality may be found in the subsurface layers on Mars as a relic of extinct life, and on other solar system bodies as a sign of advanced pre-biotic chemistry. We discuss the chiral GC-MS planned for the Roland lander of the Rosetta mission to a comet and conclude with theories of the physical origin of homochirality.

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