4 ms·

Quantum minds: Why we think like quarks

10 points by soitgoes 15y ago

swombat 15y ago
A lot of interesting ideas there, but I think one of the main thrusts of the article is poorly substantiated. The author discusses an "interference term" as being a characteristic of quantum mechanics (which is not exactly right, but nevermind), and then proceeds to describe this so-called "Hilbert-space search" as a natural consequence of that. But actually, the "Hilbert-space search" is just a search algorithm with a bit of semantic fuzzing. There's nothing "quantum mechanical" about it... A bit of a shame that an otherwise enjoyable and interesting article was spoiled by a poor central argument, but there is nothing in there that directly links quantum mechanics to psychology, other than "ooh, it's weird and unintuitive".
- bootload 15y ago
  "... This is not to say that the human brain or consciousness have anything to do with quantum physics, only that the mathematical language of quantum theory happens to match the description of human decision-making. ..." Read further. The writer is simply highlighting another scientific approach, "quantum logic" instead of or in conjunction with "classical logic", that could be used to model human behaviour. 'Quantum logic may be more suitable to making decisions that work well enough, even if they're not logically faultless' It is also possibly an observable biological phenomena. [0],[1] [0] Aerts, D., Gabora, L., Sozzo, S. and Veloz, T. (2011). Quantum structure in cognition: Fundamentals and applications. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Quantum, Nano and Micro Technologies, ICQNM. , "Experiments in cognitive science and decision theory show that the ways in which people combine concepts and make decisions cannot be described by classical logic and probability theory. .... Inspired by a mathematical formalism that generalizes quantum mechanics the authors have constructed a contextual framework for both concept representation and decision making, together with quantum models that are in strong alignment with experimental data. The results can be interpreted by assuming the existence in human thought of a double-layered structure, a 'classical logical thought' and a 'quantum conceptual thought'" http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.3344 http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.3344 & http://arxiv.org/pdf/1104.3344v1 http://arxiv.org/pdf/1104.3344v1 [1] Bruza, Peter D., Widdows, Dominic, & Woods, John (2009) A quantum logic of down below. "It is known that there exist mathematical models from the cognitive science of cognition down below that have certain formal similarities to quantum mechanics." ~ http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18551/ http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18551/

10 points by soitgoes 15y ago

A lot of interesting ideas there, but I think one of the main thrusts of the article is poorly substantiated. The author discusses an "interference term" as being a characteristic of quantum mechanics (which is not exactly right, but nevermind), and then proceeds to describe this so-called "Hilbert-space search" as a natural consequence of that. But actually, the "Hilbert-space search" is just a search algorithm with a bit of semantic fuzzing. There's nothing "quantum mechanical" about it... A bit of a shame that an otherwise enjoyable and interesting article was spoiled by a poor central argument, but there is nothing in there that directly links quantum mechanics to psychology, other than "ooh, it's weird and unintuitive".

bootload 15y ago
"... This is not to say that the human brain or consciousness have anything to do with quantum physics, only that the mathematical language of quantum theory happens to match the description of human decision-making. ..." Read further. The writer is simply highlighting another scientific approach, "quantum logic" instead of or in conjunction with "classical logic", that could be used to model human behaviour. 'Quantum logic may be more suitable to making decisions that work well enough, even if they're not logically faultless' It is also possibly an observable biological phenomena. [0],[1] [0] Aerts, D., Gabora, L., Sozzo, S. and Veloz, T. (2011). Quantum structure in cognition: Fundamentals and applications. Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Quantum, Nano and Micro Technologies, ICQNM. , "Experiments in cognitive science and decision theory show that the ways in which people combine concepts and make decisions cannot be described by classical logic and probability theory. .... Inspired by a mathematical formalism that generalizes quantum mechanics the authors have constructed a contextual framework for both concept representation and decision making, together with quantum models that are in strong alignment with experimental data. The results can be interpreted by assuming the existence in human thought of a double-layered structure, a 'classical logical thought' and a 'quantum conceptual thought'" http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.3344 http://arxiv.org/abs/1104.3344 & http://arxiv.org/pdf/1104.3344v1 http://arxiv.org/pdf/1104.3344v1 [1] Bruza, Peter D., Widdows, Dominic, & Woods, John (2009) A quantum logic of down below. "It is known that there exist mathematical models from the cognitive science of cognition down below that have certain formal similarities to quantum mechanics." ~ http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18551/ http://eprints.qut.edu.au/18551/