Nonlocality and morphogenesis

Date: Fri, 8 Dec 1995 15:45:51 -0800
From: Rhett Savage <rhett@nonlocal.com>
Reply to: quantum-d@teleport.com
To: quantum-d@teleport.com
Subject: QUANTUM-D: Nonlocality and morphogenesis

What is the relationship between quantum nonseparability, coherence, 
and spacial order? Do coherent processes play any physical role at 
cosmological scales? 

Sometimes one meets the idea that quantum nonlocality can assist 
in accounting for the isotropy of the expanding universe. For example, 
in a footnote on page 153 of "Reality and Empathy" by Alex Comfort:

  "Cosmology is another prime candidate for interconnectedness.
  In an expanding universe, the farthest objects rapidly pass
  beyond each other's signal horizons... It becomes extremely 
  hard to devise initial conditions which must result by simple
  sequence in the state that we now observe: if on the other
  hand the matter accumulations in the universe are fundamentally
  non-separate, in the EPR sense, the universe evolves as an 
  ensemble, and coordination by influences with a velocity > c
  is unnecessary."

Is this a reasonable line of thought...? A cosmologist i once asked 
about this insisted that it completely failed to solve the horizon
isotropy problem because in his view one would still end up with
patches of the universe, albeit possibly coherent patches, which
would become separated - he thought i misunderstood how bad the 
horizon problem is, while i wondered if he was fully accounting 
for a coherent state which encompassed the universe.

In general, how does nonlocality manifest as coherent order?
A superfluid state is characterized by a high degree of order
which is inscribed on a nonlocal many-body state. By this i 
am saying that nonlocal coherence does generate qualitative
phenomena! (While we debate the formal proofs of nonlocalty, 
there's no arguing with a superfluid state.)

What of the whole universe? What qualitative aspects might 
arise in the context of global nonlocality...? 

Some will say that the hot universe has not been the place 
for quantum coherence to manifest - i bet that this turns 
out to vastly underestimate the ontological niches where 
coherence can thrive, but i am at a loss to estimate this
kind of effect analytically or quantitatively... It may be 
that underlying coherence washes out in the large scale; 
in another mood i imagine that the world is woven equally 
of warp and weft, and that coherence is a co-equal partner 
in shaping the universe. (Surely we all have such moods?)

Among other things, i am asking this: how much spacial order 
can we buy with coherence?

From consideration of coherent states we know that nonlocal 
order certainly does arise in physical systems (despite proofs 
against nonlocal 'signalling'). 

What are the limits of this? 

Could nonlocal resonance cause a structure or pattern in one place 
to be mirrored in another place? (We might call that "stimulated 
morphogenesis.") Or do existing proofs show that this is impossible?

Rhett