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Things get weirder .... Could we create quantum creatures in the lab? Quantum weirdness could soon invade the living world, if a scheme to give a flu virus a strange double life comes off. In quantum theory, a single object can be doing two different things at once. This so-called "superposition" is a delicate state, destroyed by any contact with the outside world. read more....http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17792-could-we-create-quantum-creatures-in-the-lab.html
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Superpositioning a virus? Has anybody read "The Stand" novel by Stephen King? It think that superpositioning a virus is exactly how to make a virus that our immune system will have no way to defend against. The whole world dies, and the programmers have to reboot the system. Might be a good TV movie of the week.
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stendec! welcome back to the forum and the rest of the cool thinkers.
interesting idea. kind of puts a whole new spin on "multitasking"
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Thanks Jim,
I'll try to make regular contributions again.
JDLaw,
I've not read 'The Stand', but it sounds interesting, and I hadn't considered the implications of such a virus spreading at all.
Would a superpositioned virus become 'entangled' with others nearby, and make them also superpositioned? Is a virus 'too big' to remain stable - because even particles don't remain entangled unless they are kept in extreme 'sterile' conditions.
If researchers do manage to superposition / entangle large 'microscopic' structures, can they do the same for 'macroscopic' ones too?
Could we create 'superpositioned antiviral drugs' that might eradicate all forms of a particularly nasty virus like HIV, that tends to mutate a lot?
Or could we 'superposition' groups of cancer cells and somehow render them harmless?
And, going a little further, what might happen if an entire organism - like a human being - were superpositioned?
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