#26 - Heisenberg’s Uncertainty in Biology and Human Knowledge

In episode 26 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle discusses Heisenberg’s uncertainty principle: the idea that every quantum bit comprises a bit of information and a bit of entropy such that knowledge of one dimension reduced knowledge of the other. We can think of each qubit has having two perpendicular axes: zero/one and plus/minus. The state of the qubit represents a point moving around on these axes. When you measure a qubit in the zero/one dimension, then it ends up getting reduced to a zero or one. From that state, the plus/minus dimension is now equal probability. By knowing about one dimension, we induce entropy in the other. You can only make one measurement at a time, so it is impossible to know whether the system is zero/one and plus/minus at the same time. In practice, physical systems, like an atom, will exhibit uncertainty between their position and momentum. This is more than just our knowledge of the system. When you know the momentum, the position is maximally smeared out across all possible options. This changes what the future of the system will look like. Biology might be leveraging measurement to change the future of physical systems like ions. In an ion channel, the center of the ion channel is so small that the ion gets spatially measured when passing through the channel. This has a dramatic effect on the momentum of the ion which could facilitate the transport of the ion to other receptor proteins. In addition, the uncertainty principle might be relevant to understanding human cognition, in that our knowledge of certain properties might coexist within an uncertainty relationship like that of position and momentum. By learning about one property, we reduce our knowledge of the other property. This is quite the divergence from classical models of human cognition. Finally, a speculation on how the uncertainty principle might be reflective of some deeper uncertainty in ascertaining existential truth. Carl Jung suggested that we can only ever reach a half truth, and that the core of reality is brimming with paradoxes. The more you get closer to some truth, the further you are from its complimentary opposite, which is also true. This form of cosmic censorship through paradox could be the ultimate expression of the uncertainty principle. Join me on this exciting delve into the mysteries of human consciousness through the lens of quantum mechanics.