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An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

technologyreview.com

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Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#11

Post by xenadu02 »

Iv wrote: post #8
quotemstr wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your argument doesn't stand up to cursory examination. There are all sorts of tricks of physics that evolution never found out how to use. Natural systems don't use the (macroscopic) wheel either, but that works great. Refrigeration works great, but nature doesn't use that either. Complex life has barely been around 540 million years ago. Why would you suppose evolution would have had time to explore the entire space…

Actually, rolling things, from seeds to eggs, including whole shrimps is a locomotion technique used by nature since a long time. The axle is something it does not use, and I would argue does not need. In all natural terrains, legs are a superior option. The physical principles behind refrigeration are witnessed in several places in nature.

Use of the vast majority of the radio spectrum is not used by any form of life that we know of.

Being able to communicate non-visibly without giving away our position audibly would be a huge advantage (until your predators/competitors figured it out).

Life isn't generally suitable to the use of really high energies like X-rays because it damages cells. It isn't suitable for low energies because it is difficult to create an individual receiving/broadcasting element at such a small scale.

There absolutely are physical phenomena that life does not take advantage of.

Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#12

Post by changoplatanero »

xenadu02 wrote: post #11
Iv wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, rolling things, from seeds to eggs, including whole shrimps is a locomotion technique used by nature since a long time. The axle is something it does not use, and I would argue does not need. In all natural terrains, legs are a superior option. The physical principles behind refrigeration are witnessed in several places in nature.

Use of the vast majority of the radio spectrum is not used by any form of life that we know of. Being able to communicate non-visibly without giving away our position audibly would be a huge advantage (until your predators/competitors figured it out). Life isn't generally suitable to the use of really high energies like X-rays because it damages cells. It isn't suitable for low energies because it is difficult to cre…

lasers would be another one, right? Is there any lifeform that can make a laser?

Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#13

Post by zahreeley »

nicwilson wrote: post #6

Hmm, there are several things I find strange about this article. There are 22 proteinogenic amino acids (admittedly two are rare, selenocysteine and pyrrolysine, but with rarity comes importance when they do occur). The search for the correct amino acid is not class balanced, e.g. the aromatics are much less common. The tRNAs are also not equally distributed, neither in the codon-anticodon pairing, the aromatics are…

appreciate the author man. No crib

Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#14

Post by Iv »

xenadu02 wrote: post #11
Iv wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, rolling things, from seeds to eggs, including whole shrimps is a locomotion technique used by nature since a long time. The axle is something it does not use, and I would argue does not need. In all natural terrains, legs are a superior option. The physical principles behind refrigeration are witnessed in several places in nature.

Use of the vast majority of the radio spectrum is not used by any form of life that we know of. Being able to communicate non-visibly without giving away our position audibly would be a huge advantage (until your predators/competitors figured it out). Life isn't generally suitable to the use of really high energies like X-rays because it damages cells. It isn't suitable for low energies because it is difficult to cre…

Well, if we exclude all the visual spectrum, which is the most useful part of the RF spectrum for animals: transparent to water and atmosphere, reflects well on a lot of surfaces, has kilometers of range if there is line-of-sight, wavelength of a size making it possible to have lens and sensor cells small enough to fit an animal.

But yes, the idea is that if there were a physical principle that would be super useful to animals yet not witnessed in nature, that is something that needs to be explained. There are reasons for evolution to miss a solution.

In the case of quantum computing, I could not really see it: the effects happen at a scale where evolution operates, and could easily be integrated, e.g. in nerve cells to create a workable signal. I thought reasonable to make it an element to feed my skepticism, though not a ultimately strong argument to deny any possibility of quantum computing.

Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#15

Post by Iv »

changoplatanero wrote: post #12
xenadu02 wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Use of the vast majority of the radio spectrum is not used by any form of life that we know of. Being able to communicate non-visibly without giving away our position audibly would be a huge advantage (until your predators/competitors figured it out). Life isn't generally suitable to the use of really high energies like X-rays because it damages cells. It isn't suitable for low energies because it is difficult to cre…

lasers would be another one, right? Is there any lifeform that can make a laser?

Is there any lifeform that needs it? With light sensors that basically give us line-of-sight range, I don't see which problem organic lasers would solve.

Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#16

Post by mrmonkeyman »

Iv wrote: post #15
changoplatanero wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lasers would be another one, right? Is there any lifeform that can make a laser?

Is there any lifeform that needs it? With light sensors that basically give us line-of-sight range, I don't see which problem organic lasers would solve.

Point is, that nature doesn't even try them.

Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#17

Post by ben_w »

Iv wrote: post #15
changoplatanero wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

lasers would be another one, right? Is there any lifeform that can make a laser?

Is there any lifeform that needs it? With light sensors that basically give us line-of-sight range, I don't see which problem organic lasers would solve.

The ability to dazzle an attacker or prey seems useful when one is hunting the other.

Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#18

Post by SolarNet »

teraflop wrote: post #5
Iv wrote: post #4

A reason why I allow myself some skepticism on the feasibility of quantum computing is that if it were possible, I would have expected evolution to have used it somehow. If it turns out that protein folding really use a quantum computation, I'll move quantum computers from the "too good to be true" category to the "probably revolutionary stuff that I will see in my lifetime" alongside with nuclear fusion and strong A…

> if it were possible, I would have expected evolution to have used it somehow. That seems reasonable as long as you're consistent in applying the same skepticism to other inventions, such as the internal combustion engine and the wheel.

Fossil fuels are primarily biological in origin. Certainly we extract the energy in a much different way, but that energy capacity is there biologically (slow burn, turns out high speeds aren't actually that useful in nature).

As for wheels, hip joints are a more efficient design of a rotatory system (multiple degrees of freedom). Wheels are much too simple a design to see much use in nature.

Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#19

Post by SolarNet »

xenadu02 wrote: post #11
Iv wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually, rolling things, from seeds to eggs, including whole shrimps is a locomotion technique used by nature since a long time. The axle is something it does not use, and I would argue does not need. In all natural terrains, legs are a superior option. The physical principles behind refrigeration are witnessed in several places in nature.

Use of the vast majority of the radio spectrum is not used by any form of life that we know of. Being able to communicate non-visibly without giving away our position audibly would be a huge advantage (until your predators/competitors figured it out). Life isn't generally suitable to the use of really high energies like X-rays because it damages cells. It isn't suitable for low energies because it is difficult to cre…

There are sea bacteria that "communicate" in the giga-hertz frequency. But the general point being that large portions of the range are used, like the visible spectrum and the thermal spectrum.

x-rays aren't a unique physical phenomena, just a wave length of electromagnetic waves, which is a physical phenomena that life makes excessive use of (photosynthesis, vision).

Re: An important quantum algorithm may be a property of nature

#20

Post by e2le »

Iv wrote: post #4

A reason why I allow myself some skepticism on the feasibility of quantum computing is that if it were possible, I would have expected evolution to have used it somehow. If it turns out that protein folding really use a quantum computation, I'll move quantum computers from the "too good to be true" category to the "probably revolutionary stuff that I will see in my lifetime" alongside with nuclear fusion and strong A…

How do you know it doesn't use it?
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