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> how the classical world arises from quantum laws seem particularly boneheaded What classical world do you refer to? Newtonian physics? That's well understood
by niels_olson 10y ago
> how the classical world arises from quantum laws seem particularly boneheaded
What classical world do you refer to? Newtonian physics? That's well understood, the general area of study is called thermal physics.
Are you talking about how the brain works? The biologists understand the meso-scale structures and the microscale structures, and the wiring. What they lack is a certified, detailed diagram, which is admittedly hard, but it's hard like understanding the wiring diagram of an ARM chip is hard.
- mathgenius 10y ago> That's well understood, the general area of study is called thermal physics. I don't agree at all. Thermal (classical) physics may be consistent with quantum physics but this does not at all show how a classical world arises from the quantum.
- niels_olson 10y agoNot thermodynamics, thermal physics. You very literally start from quantum states and work you're way up to large collections about which you make estimates which are highly consistent with the real world. Perhaps "statistical mechanics" is a better term.
- mannykannot 10y agoI suspect that a detailed diagram of a brain would not be understandable at this point, though it would probably be a big help in getting there. While all of biology is nominally reducible to physics, that is not how to understand it.