[extropy-chat] NEF tensor (was Psychogenic Fields)

[Anders Sandberg]

The Avantguardian wrote:
> I agree. It is truly bizarre that you can get such
> macroscopic quantum behavior out of cells. I would not
> believe in high temperature quantum coherence in
> living organisms if I hadn't seen the photomicrographs
> and published work of Mae-Wan Ho et. al. It's almost
> as if cells were some kind of crazy aqueous mixture of
> high-temperature bose-einstein condensates.

Hmm, checking out a bit about that character leaves me with a distinctly
bad taste in the mouth. Rave reviews from new age and deep ecology
magazines, very little science on homepage but a lot of science activism
against biotech and nanotech (including the claim that nanomachines can't
work because of quantum fuzziness, which we know to be wrong).

The only Pubmed citation was about energy production and has three self
citations (to what appears to be a popular science book!) in the
*abstract*.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?CMD=search&DB=pubmed
(ah, there are more citations, I was wrong. But much of the other sounds
equally suspicious: acupuncture is explained through interaction with the
"continuum of liquid crystalline collagen fibers that make up the bulk of
the connective tissues" forming a body-soul).

This sounds like typical cosmythology intended to keep people happy about
their existing beliefs.

So far there is no generally accepted macroscopic quantum effects in
biology. There is indeed no shortage of people claiming there are, but
just like quantum superpositions their claims tend to evaporate when
people do an independent analysis.

-- 
Anders Sandberg,
Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics
Philosophy Faculty of Oxford University