'A New Science of Heaven'
by Robert Temple
Chapter Two: Exploring the Nature of Plasma Clouds and their Energy
Excerpts have not been perfectly edited, and the greater context will be found by reading the book 📖.
“Because the Kordylewski Clouds and others like them are bombarded from without by charged particles, the particles inside them and the dust interact with great intensity and complexity, evolving, as we shall see later, highly complex patterns. Such a large charged dust cloud in space is known as a ‘dusty complex plasma’.
One of the things which distinguishes such an entity is that all the processes inside it cannot be described by physicists using simple linear equations. Everything taking place inside this kind of plasma operates in a manner described by non-linear equations.
“When something is linear, it means there is a direct and identifiable connection between cause and effect, so that one can predict behaviour. But when linearity breaks down, everything becomes unpredictable and immensely complex.
It is important to bear non-linearity in mind, because it is a feature of quantum mechanical super computers now in development, and analogy with these will play a part in arguments later in the book to show that these clouds may be highly intelligent.
“Quantum computers break their information down into a different kind of bit, now called ‘qubits’. (The ‘qu’ stands for ‘quantum’.) Because quantum theory is a bit weird, a qubit can have the values of 0 and 1 at the same time. Very much like ‘having our cake and eating it’. Some say that qubits can even have any value between 0 and 1.”
“One might say that the work being done today on quantum computers is an attempt to construct computing devices that can do ‘non-linear reasoning’. Direct causation is linear. But some circumstances allow all sorts of unpredictable outcomes and unexpected influences. Direct causes that might take place in an ideal world get interrupted and blocked, and things come at you from the left and the right and they change things. This, as we will see later, is the inescapable and fundamental non-linearity of dusty complex plasmas.”
[Note: "subatomic crystalline plasma" is my preferred term for "dusty complex plasma". - Gary]
by Robert Temple
Chapter Two: Exploring the Nature of Plasma Clouds and their Energy
Excerpts have not been perfectly edited, and the greater context will be found by reading the book 📖.
“Because the Kordylewski Clouds and others like them are bombarded from without by charged particles, the particles inside them and the dust interact with great intensity and complexity, evolving, as we shall see later, highly complex patterns. Such a large charged dust cloud in space is known as a ‘dusty complex plasma’.
One of the things which distinguishes such an entity is that all the processes inside it cannot be described by physicists using simple linear equations. Everything taking place inside this kind of plasma operates in a manner described by non-linear equations.
“When something is linear, it means there is a direct and identifiable connection between cause and effect, so that one can predict behaviour. But when linearity breaks down, everything becomes unpredictable and immensely complex.
It is important to bear non-linearity in mind, because it is a feature of quantum mechanical super computers now in development, and analogy with these will play a part in arguments later in the book to show that these clouds may be highly intelligent.
“Quantum computers break their information down into a different kind of bit, now called ‘qubits’. (The ‘qu’ stands for ‘quantum’.) Because quantum theory is a bit weird, a qubit can have the values of 0 and 1 at the same time. Very much like ‘having our cake and eating it’. Some say that qubits can even have any value between 0 and 1.”
“One might say that the work being done today on quantum computers is an attempt to construct computing devices that can do ‘non-linear reasoning’. Direct causation is linear. But some circumstances allow all sorts of unpredictable outcomes and unexpected influences. Direct causes that might take place in an ideal world get interrupted and blocked, and things come at you from the left and the right and they change things. This, as we will see later, is the inescapable and fundamental non-linearity of dusty complex plasmas.”
[Note: "subatomic crystalline plasma" is my preferred term for "dusty complex plasma". - Gary]