Hostname: page-component-cc8bf7c57-n7qbj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-12T05:49:38.444Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Quantum Mechanics and the Origin of Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2017

Paul Davies
Paul Davies*
Affiliation:
Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Macquarie University, NSW 2109 Australia

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The race to build a quantum computer has led to a radical re-evaluation of the concept of information. In this paper I conjecture that life, defined as an information processing and replicating system, may be exploiting the considerable efficiency advantages offered by quantum computation, and that quantum information processing may dramatically shorten the odds for life originating from a random chemical soup. The plausibility of this conjecture rests, however, on life somehow circumventing the decoherence effects of the environment. I offer some speculations on ways in which this might happen.

Type
Origins and Evolution of Life
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 213: Bioastronomy 2002: Life Among the stars , 2004 , pp. 237 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004 

References

Bell, N. F., Sawyer, R. F., & Volkas, R. R. 2002, Phys. Rev. A, Entanglement and quantal coherence: a study of two limiting cases of rapid system-bath interactions CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cech, T. 1986, Scientific American 255, No. 5, RNA as an enzyme, 64 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chaitin, G. 1990, Information, Randomness & Incompleteness: Papers on Algorithmic Information Theory, second edition (Singapore: World Scientific Press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davies, P. 1998, The Fifth Miracle: The Search for the Origin of Life (London: Penguin)Google Scholar
De Duve, C. 1995, Vital Dust, (New York: Basic Books)Google Scholar
Farhi, E. & Gutmann, S. 1998, Phys. Rev. A58, Quantum computation and decision trees, 915 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Grover, L. 1999, The Sciences, July/August edition, Quantum computing, 24 Google Scholar
Hameroff, S. R. 1998, Phil. Trans. Royal Soc. (London) A356, Quantum computation in brain microtubules? The Penrose-Hameroff “Orch OR” model of consciousness, 1869 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Itano, W. M. Heinzen, D. J., Bollinger, J. J. & Weinland, D. J. 1990, Phys. Rev. A41, Quantum Zeno effect, 2295 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Küppers, B. O. 1985, Molecular Theory of Evolution, (Berlin: Springer-Verlag)Google Scholar
McFadden, J. 2000, Quantum Evolution, (London: HarperCollins)Google Scholar
Mershin, A., Nanopoulos, D. V. & Skoulakis, E. M. C. 2000, LANL preprint quant-ph, Quantum brain?, 0007088n Google Scholar
Milburn, G. 1998, The Feynman Processor, (Reading, Mass.: Perseus Books)Google Scholar
Miller, S. L. 1953, Science 117, 528 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patel, A. 2001, Pramana 56, 367 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Penrose, R. 1994, Shadows of the Mind, (Oxford: Oxford University Press)Google Scholar
Schrödinger, E. 1944, What is Life?, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Shapiro, R. 1986, Origins: A Skeptic's Guide to the Creation of Life on Earth (New York: Summit Books)Google Scholar
Tegmark, M. 2000, Phys. Rev. E 61, 4194 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yockey, H. 1992, Information Theory and Molecular Biology, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press)Google Scholar
Zurek, W. H. 1991, Physics Today, 44, 36 CrossRefGoogle Scholar