[Haskell-cafe] Re: Wikipedia on first-class object

[jerzy.karczmarczuk at info.unicaen.fr]

Bulat Ziganshin writes: 

> Hello Peter..., you wrote: 
> 
>> But since it seems that plants use some kind of quantum coherence 
>> just to do photosynthesis...
>> would not be surprised that our human brain also uses some clever 
>> (quantum?) tricks to achieve what it does, tricks which might not be 
>> simulated by a regular computer, no matter how fast it runs.
> 
> why it can't be simulated in computers? these effects are described in
> mathematics languages using formulas which can be executed on computer 
> 
> moreover, quantum effects are not dedicated to plants and animals.
> they can be used in computers like any other physical effects

I suggest that you read something on 'quantum computing'. And some other
stuff as well, so that you don't use such formulations as "formulas which
can be executed on computer". Computers don't execute formulae!
A mathematical formula may be non-constructive, or very difficult/impossible
to algorithmize. 

Concerning quanta, the simulation of quantum processes on classical archi-
tectures may be and usually is extremely inefficient. So inefficient that
your "simulation" loses sense. No classical system can compute, say,
a Fourier transform in constant (in fact, infinitely small) time, quantum
system do it (in a sense) constantly. 

Quantum behaviour is not "an effect", but conditions our understanding of
*measurement*. We don't really know what is "quantum information". So,
please, don't trivialize an awfully complicated problem. 

Jerzy Karczmarczuk