Does quantum uncertainty prevent nanotechnology from working?
Mike Gene, "a controversial and respected voice in the debate on Intelligent Design"*, notes in The Design Matrix that the machinery inside the cells of our bodies show sthat quantum physics does not rule out nanotechnology, as skeptics have sometimes claimed:
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"Every proposed advance in technology is met with skepticism. Skeptics once claimed that nanotechnology was doomed to failure because such small machines are unworkable. The problem, they often cited, was quantum physics. In quantum physics, Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle states that particles cannot be located in any exact position for any length of time. Essentially, matter becomes too fuzzy at such small scales and machines can only function efficiently without fuzz. The nanotechnologistst responded that the skeptics' interpretation of the Uncertainty Principle was mistaken. More importantly, the nanotechnologists pointed to the existence of machines already at work inside the cell. They pointed out that since machines already exist inside the cell, the skeptic's argument is plainly refuted. " (p. 104)
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And he adds,
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In the words of Rita Colwell, the director of the National Science Foundation, 'Life is nanotechnology that works.' (P. 105)
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* from the book jacket. And no, I don't know who he is either, and if I did I wouldn't tell you. See the Expelled movie if you need to know why.
Also, today at Colliding Universes
Large Hadron Collider: And what if, $3 billion later, they don't find the God particle?
Design vs. chance: If extra-terrestrials designed a planet, could we know it was intelligently designed?
Can reincarnation save Schrodinger's cat?
Colliding Universes is my blog on issues in the origin of our universe.
Quantum uncertainty applies only to atomic and subatomic events. It has no application at the molecular level on which living systems operate. It has nothing to do with either ontogeny or phylogeny in which there is no evidence that chance has ever played any role whatsoever.
In my opinion there is no question that all of evolution resulted from a Plan which has now been completed. In other words -
"A past evolution is undeniable, a present evolution undemonstrable."
John A. Davison
I am not alone.
"I believe there is a Plan, and though in the slow course of evolution there have been ups and downs, and what look like mistakes, the plan has gone on; and we may feel sure that it cannot fail to reach its goal."
Robert Broom, Finding the Missing Link, page 101.
I believe the Plan was realized with the emergence of Homo sapiiens a mere 100,000 years ago. Today we are the terminal stages of the evolutionary sequence, a sequence which I believe can only end in extinction.
"La comedia e finita."
Pagliacci
quantum uncertainty
The moment one deals with molecules rather than atoms, quantum uncertainty loses all significance. There is nothing either uncertain or mystical about the chemical reactions that characterize the living state. Einstein never accepted quantum uncertainty even at the atomic and subatomic level, remaining a convinced determinist to his dying day -
"EVERYTHING is determined...by forces over which we have no control."
my emphasis.
So will I. So much for Free Will. It is a myth. We are each a victim of our determined or "prescribed" destiny. Some, in the lottery of life, have been luckier than others. The unlucky ones include Stephen Jay Gould, Ernst Mayr, Richard Dawkins, Paul Zachary Myers, Christopher Hitchens and atheist zealots generally, all of whom are congenitally deaf to what Einstein called the "music of the spheres." The Pythagoreans called it the "harmony of the spheres." Galileo was a Pythagorean as well and so am I. It is the only way to go. Trust me but of course you won't. That's OK too.
"A past evolution is undeniable, a present evolution undemonstrable."
John A. Davison