- #1
Tievka
- 1
- 0
First off, apologies. I'm not as advanced as most on this forum and hope that my (less than ideal) pairing of physics with science-fiction will not sound completely stupid.
Nevertheless, I came here to find a community who actually knows about the physical sciences so I can correct any information in an effort to perhaps make it somewhat believable within its actual concepts/theories.
(I'm trying to go for 'realistic fiction,' but practically all my knowledge of physics is gathered from Nova's 'Elegant Universe', so please correct anything that is wrong...however, I tried my best to understand it.) (:
My story's twist/concept:
Do you think that there could be enough electrical activity within an atom, proton, neutron, electron, quark, string, etc. to support some form of consciousness?
What 'I hope is somewhat correct' within the confines of realistic fiction pertaining to physics:
Delving into the quantum level, things become extremely chaotic...so is it plausible that the medley of blindingly jumbled 'this versus that' charges on the quantum level could be the makings of something conscious (which would account for it's patterns being so unpredictable at a smaller scale (yet able to form stable matter at a larger level)?
If you want to get a bigger picture for the story I'm trying to tell:
Basically, my character dies and as her brain shuts down, outer parts lose oxygen first (because they are farther away from the carotid artery which provides oxygen). Furthermore, memories located within these outer neurons are somehow transferred (by electrical signal? Although I don't think dendrites/axons can't really do this) to neighboring neurons located inwards (which causes her to 'see her life flash before her eyes'). Until her consciousness regresses into a single atom in the center of her brain, then the electrical signals which compose her consciousness fall intro the smaller, yet still equally complex, electrical activity of protons/neutrons, quarks, quantum particles, strings, etc.
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**Nothing to do with the question above, but I thought I would share to ask if I might be accurate on this as well**
'Fun fact' (more likely estimate...) taken from Nova's 'Elegant Universe':
"If an atom were the size of our solar system, a string would be the size of a tree."
However, from what I learned...are these two problems I found with this statement valid?
- Strings are thought to make up quarks, electrons, photons, etc. but exactly 'what percentage' of their internal space is composed of strings is not known.
- Using only the generalized term of 'tree' is a faulty estimate as trees can come in many different sizes (depending on their species/age,) so not knowing 'what size' of tree counts as a string or not is another inaccuracy.
Nevertheless, here are some figures I came up with to get a visual idea (accurate or not):
- There are several hundred billion to a few trillion trees on Earth (Most conservative estimate at ~400 billion; whereas the highest estimate was at ~5 trillion.)
- They cover ~30% of Earth's surface area covered by land.
- Earth's total surface area is covered by ~30% land ~70% water.
- The sun's surface area is ~11,990 times that of earth's.
- The actual size of the solar system is currently under an acrimonious debate, so I couldn't find any stable figures...Nevertheless, (even though we don't know what percentage of space strings occupy in a quark/electron/photon/etc.) You can clearly fit A LOT of trees/strings into the solar system/an atom.
*Also, am I right when I'm hesitant to mix strings up with the nature of the highly active quantum particles mentioned in the main question?
Even though strings are on the quantum level (and are treated as quantum particles), they operate with relatively more stability than the other quantum particles. So they are not as chaotic, but each exude 'vibrational modes' which are somewhat uniform within the particle they are encompassed by and thus make up. Also string 'theory' is just that, 'a theory', albeit a very convincing and popular one.
If you read, I hope you can please excuse me again for not posting something fully legitimate for these forums, and I'm looking forward to correcting/understanding things further. (:
Nevertheless, I came here to find a community who actually knows about the physical sciences so I can correct any information in an effort to perhaps make it somewhat believable within its actual concepts/theories.
(I'm trying to go for 'realistic fiction,' but practically all my knowledge of physics is gathered from Nova's 'Elegant Universe', so please correct anything that is wrong...however, I tried my best to understand it.) (:
My story's twist/concept:
Do you think that there could be enough electrical activity within an atom, proton, neutron, electron, quark, string, etc. to support some form of consciousness?
What 'I hope is somewhat correct' within the confines of realistic fiction pertaining to physics:
Delving into the quantum level, things become extremely chaotic...so is it plausible that the medley of blindingly jumbled 'this versus that' charges on the quantum level could be the makings of something conscious (which would account for it's patterns being so unpredictable at a smaller scale (yet able to form stable matter at a larger level)?
If you want to get a bigger picture for the story I'm trying to tell:
Basically, my character dies and as her brain shuts down, outer parts lose oxygen first (because they are farther away from the carotid artery which provides oxygen). Furthermore, memories located within these outer neurons are somehow transferred (by electrical signal? Although I don't think dendrites/axons can't really do this) to neighboring neurons located inwards (which causes her to 'see her life flash before her eyes'). Until her consciousness regresses into a single atom in the center of her brain, then the electrical signals which compose her consciousness fall intro the smaller, yet still equally complex, electrical activity of protons/neutrons, quarks, quantum particles, strings, etc.
----------
**Nothing to do with the question above, but I thought I would share to ask if I might be accurate on this as well**
'Fun fact' (more likely estimate...) taken from Nova's 'Elegant Universe':
"If an atom were the size of our solar system, a string would be the size of a tree."
However, from what I learned...are these two problems I found with this statement valid?
- Strings are thought to make up quarks, electrons, photons, etc. but exactly 'what percentage' of their internal space is composed of strings is not known.
- Using only the generalized term of 'tree' is a faulty estimate as trees can come in many different sizes (depending on their species/age,) so not knowing 'what size' of tree counts as a string or not is another inaccuracy.
Nevertheless, here are some figures I came up with to get a visual idea (accurate or not):
- There are several hundred billion to a few trillion trees on Earth (Most conservative estimate at ~400 billion; whereas the highest estimate was at ~5 trillion.)
- They cover ~30% of Earth's surface area covered by land.
- Earth's total surface area is covered by ~30% land ~70% water.
- The sun's surface area is ~11,990 times that of earth's.
- The actual size of the solar system is currently under an acrimonious debate, so I couldn't find any stable figures...Nevertheless, (even though we don't know what percentage of space strings occupy in a quark/electron/photon/etc.) You can clearly fit A LOT of trees/strings into the solar system/an atom.
*Also, am I right when I'm hesitant to mix strings up with the nature of the highly active quantum particles mentioned in the main question?
Even though strings are on the quantum level (and are treated as quantum particles), they operate with relatively more stability than the other quantum particles. So they are not as chaotic, but each exude 'vibrational modes' which are somewhat uniform within the particle they are encompassed by and thus make up. Also string 'theory' is just that, 'a theory', albeit a very convincing and popular one.
If you read, I hope you can please excuse me again for not posting something fully legitimate for these forums, and I'm looking forward to correcting/understanding things further. (: