ourlivinguniverse Posted January 5 Report Share Posted January 5 (edited) Does food occur in quanta? Combining Darwin’s evolution theory with quantum mechanics may seem a little far-fetched. But hear me out. Food in nature is generally quantised – a fruit, a clump of grass on the savannah, a rabbit, a deer, etc. When there is limited competition, then this is irrelevant. But when competition is severe by self-same organisms all trying to eat the same thing, this may have a significant influence on their evolution. Consider this scenario. 100 monkeys arrive at a tree containing 90 fruits. When competing, 90 monkeys eat and 10 do without. Those who go hungry will be severely weakened and may perish before they can get their next meal at another fruit tree. But if a few monkeys learn to share, then they each get, say, 9/10ths of a fruit each and can survive another day. On a one-off occasion, this may have little impact. But if population pressure is such that food is consistently scarce, then this might be the first step in the emergence of cooperation – as a means to smooth the supply of food which comes in quanta … Link removed. Edited January 5 by Moontanman Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Moontanman Posted January 7 Report Share Posted January 7 On 1/5/2024 at 3:17 PM, ourlivinguniverse said: Does food occur in quanta? Combining Darwin’s evolution theory with quantum mechanics may seem a little far-fetched. But hear me out. Food in nature is generally quantised – a fruit, a clump of grass on the savannah, a rabbit, a deer, etc. When there is limited competition, then this is irrelevant. But when competition is severe by self-same organisms all trying to eat the same thing, this may have a significant influence on their evolution. Consider this scenario. 100 monkeys arrive at a tree containing 90 fruits. When competing, 90 monkeys eat and 10 do without. Those who go hungry will be severely weakened and may perish before they can get their next meal at another fruit tree. But if a few monkeys learn to share, then they each get, say, 9/10ths of a fruit each and can survive another day. On a one-off occasion, this may have little impact. But if population pressure is such that food is consistently scarce, then this might be the first step in the emergence of cooperation – as a means to smooth the supply of food which comes in quanta … Link removed. I am not sure your idea of quanta has any connection with quantum mechanics in the context of food. Please elaborate on this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vmedvil Posted January 15 Report Share Posted January 15 (edited) On 1/5/2024 at 3:17 PM, ourlivinguniverse said: Does food occur in quanta? Combining Darwin’s evolution theory with quantum mechanics may seem a little far-fetched. But hear me out. Food in nature is generally quantised – a fruit, a clump of grass on the savannah, a rabbit, a deer, etc. When there is limited competition, then this is irrelevant. But when competition is severe by self-same organisms all trying to eat the same thing, this may have a significant influence on their evolution. Consider this scenario. 100 monkeys arrive at a tree containing 90 fruits. When competing, 90 monkeys eat and 10 do without. Those who go hungry will be severely weakened and may perish before they can get their next meal at another fruit tree. But if a few monkeys learn to share, then they each get, say, 9/10ths of a fruit each and can survive another day. On a one-off occasion, this may have little impact. But if population pressure is such that food is consistently scarce, then this might be the first step in the emergence of cooperation – as a means to smooth the supply of food which comes in quanta … Link removed. I think that this is far-fetched that quantum mechanics has anything to do with evolution. Evolution is changes in DNA caused from natural selection, I don't exactly understand how the two could be related on the quantum level and cause cooperation. Maybe probability has something to do with the situation however nothing takes place on the quantum level that is happening in this situation thus quantum mechanics has nothing to do with it and the food does not actually come in quanta exactly, quanta are the smallest unit that are quantized in quantum mechanics I think you have a fundamental misunderstanding of what these terms mean and what exactly you are talking about. Now the quanta of a food source would be a single cell, I think and not a single fruit however I do not think any of this is happening due to the effects of quantum mechanics all traditional physics on the macroscopic and chemical level. "A quantum (plural: quanta) is the smallest discrete unit of a phenomenon. For example, a quantum of light is a photon, and a quantum of electricity is an electron. Quantum comes from Latin, meaning "an amount" or "how much?" If something is quantifiable, then it can be measured." This I will say is highly inventive and overall, an odd idea, keep working on this idea and maybe it will start to make more sense physically and you may actually be able to quantize evolution which would be revolutionary in biology and genetics. I would love just to input an equation or physical principal and it calculate the exact evolution of a species that would be the greatest discovery in the last 200 years in biology next to DNA. Edited January 15 by Vmedvil Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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