In conjunction with { Notes from Q&J: Concepts }

Please feel free to answer if you’re able/knowledgeable about any of the below.

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26
The interaction between classical chaotic indeterminacy and quantum indeterminacy:
—› is it still “poorly studied”? (since 1994)
—› investigate the relationship between these

27
Is it true that it’s “useful to regard chaos as a mechanism that can amplify to macroscopic levels the indeterminacy inherent in quantum mechanics”? (from studies of Todd Brun)

{ Answer from memeengine } for 26-27, May 15 2012

Classic indeterminacy is simply when things are too chaotic to predict, like a pinball machine. Pinball isn’t mysterious, but physicists have honest trouble predicting how things will progress because there are so many factors. Quantum indeterminacy IS mysterious. It doesn’t just say we don’t know where the ball will be, but rather that the ball will not even have a definite position! (until measured, when it suddenly will)

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OS:

In short, the two types of indeterminacy are very different — the classical stems from a huge number of variables, the quantum from immeasurability, the reasons for which we don’t quite understand yet — so it’s not right to say that the former is just a magnification of the latter.

But, question remains: in understanding that the universe is both quantum and classical, what’s the relationship between these scales, between the indeterminacies? Is there any value in supposing that some quantum effects translate into the more coarsely-grained, classical system?

+ What are some good resources to look into, about this?

34
Universe’s Complexity:
Is it possible that the universe is more complex than what we’re able to experience, because we are on the receiving end of a “compressed” version — perhaps like a hologram?

36
Infinite Networks:
If there are infinity points in a network, and each point is directly connected to every other point, is the number of connections between them > infinity?
Is this even a useful question?

{ Answer from memeengine }, May 15 2012

“Mathematicians do use different “infinities” which can be more or less than one another, though the two you describe would be the same, ie the number of connections is the same type of infinity as the number of nodes. The “lowest” infinity is “countable”. The integers are countable, the fractions… anything you can order in a discrete and exhaustive list. A greater infinity is “the continuum”. Examples include the real #s, number of locations between any two points”

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Sources to learn more?

Related/Interesting:

{ Continuum Hypotheses }
{ Cardinality }
{ Integers vs Real Numbers }

40
In terms of Goldbach’s Conjecture, is “undecidable” == “infinite”?

95
{ Zipf Law & Mandelbrot Generalization }
How/Why does this work?

97
Benoit Mandelbrot, Zipf’s Law, & Fractals:
“…in some firelds, especially in the physical sciences, quite convincing explanations [of the power laws] have developed. For instance, the phenomenon of chaos in nonlinear dynamics is closely associated with fractals and power laws, in ways that are quite well understood.”
—› How? Look into this.

112
The Unified Structure of the Sciences / “Reductionism”
Although all of the sciences can be said to “feed into” one another, from the most “macroscopic” or “general” levels to the most fundamental, more information is required to transition from a more fundamental level to one less so, for reduction to be complete. I.E. when transitioning from physics to chemistry or from chem. to biology, additional information (besides the Laws of Physics) is required to have chemistry, and further info still to get to biology.

—› What contributes to the gaps between levels, where it isn’t possible to transition — to reduce — as smoothly? “More information” is needed — what kinds of information? Is problematic reduction partly due to randomness or chaos?

119-120
How do “yin” & “yang” conditions across levels of science produce life as we know it?
“One of the great challenges of contemporary science is to trace the mix of simplicity and complexity, regularity and randomness, order and disorder up the ladder from elementary particle physics and cosmology to the realm of complex adaptive systems.”

—› “…what role is played by the unified theory of elementary particles, the initial condition of the universe, the indeterminacies of quantum mechanics, and the vagaries of classical chaos in producing the patterns of regularity and randomness in the universe within which complex adaptive systems have been able to evolve”?

126
“In his old age, Einstein published a set of equations that claimed to accomplish [the task of unifying general-relativistic gravitation with Maxwell’s electromagnetism], but unfortunately their appeal was purely mathematical — they did not describe plausible physical interactions of gravitation and electromagnetism.”

—› Curious about these equations: what are they? Source?

140
Quantum State of the Universe:
“The universe as a whole may be in a pure quantum state.”
—› is it?

150-151
Nearly Classical Behavior
See also, essay: { Quasiclassical Coarse Graining and Thermodynamic Entropy }
Gell-Mann & Hartle, 2007

—› What, exactly, is the “quasiclassical realm”? What is meant by this, simply?

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To Be Continued…

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