CONNECTING OUR EYES, BRAIN, AND BODY CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFERENCE
Incredibly Fast Decision-Making In Sports — How Do Athletes Do It?
Part Two: A quick review of Quantum Mechanics as it relates to sports performance
In the first part of this series, we reviewed why and how vision and decision-making in sports likely take place at the unconscious level. This is likely the case due to the very short periods of time athletes have to make decisions — far too short for a conscious process to take place.
In this section, we’ll review quantum mechanics in general as well as the key scientific principles we will be using to explain how the visual system and our brain may use these principles for optimal function. This section is a bit dense in terms of theory — but please stick with it and with slow and careful reading, it should open a new world of thought.
Quantum Mechanics Explained
Quantum mechanics is the science of the very small. It studies the behavior of particles such as electrons, protons, and neutrons, which make up the building blocks of matter, as well as the behavior of light on the atomic level. These particles behave in ways that can be very different from our everyday experiences. The quantum world is governed by a few strange and counter-intuitive laws, such as the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle and wave-particle duality. These principles defy our intuitive understanding of the world and force us to think in new and exciting ways.
In quantum mechanics, the idea that matter and energy can exist as both particles and waves is a basic principle. This means that an electron, for example, can also exist as a wave that can spread out over large distances and interact with other particles and energy in surprising ways.
This behavior allows quantum systems to exhibit strange and perhaps hard-to-comprehend phenomena such as “entanglement” and “superposition” — which are unheard of in the classical world. These strange behaviors, though, are being used to develop advanced technologies such as quantum computers that operate at speeds that were unimaginable only a few decades ago. They also may help explain how our own brains work and how athletes are able to make fast and accurate decisions while competing.
Quantum Uncertainty
One of the central areas of quantum mechanics, which is relevant to sports performance, is the concept of quantum uncertainty.
Quantum uncertainty describes the idea that the behavior of particles is fundamentally unpredictable. This uncertainty arises as a result of Heisenberg’s famous Uncertainty Principle, which says that it is impossible to know both the exact position and speed of a particle at the same time.
This uncertainty is one of the most counter-intuitive and disturbing aspects of quantum mechanics. It is a fundamental limit that governs particles’ behavior on the microscopic scale, and its implications are far-reaching. The effect of the Uncertainty Principle can be felt on the macroscopic level as well, from cryptography to the behavior of complex systems. Quantum uncertainty is an essential part of understanding how the world works on the subatomic level.
Quantum Entanglement
Additionally, the concept of “entanglement” likely plays an important role in how we see and how the brain makes decisions.
Quantum entanglement is one of the most intriguing and potentially useful phenomena in quantum mechanics. In fact, even Albert Einstein was unable to explain this phenomenon calling it a “spooky action at a distance”. It is the strange link that allows two quantum particles, such as electrons and photons, to be connected such that their properties remain intertwined in a way that defies our everyday experience and thought. This entanglement means that measuring the state of one particle instantaneously influences the state of the other particle, even if they are not physically connected and are separated by a great distance. Entangled particles can remain linked even when they are millions of miles apart.
Quantum entanglement has been the subject of numerous theoretical studies and experiments and is thought by some to be essential for quantum computing and communication. Entanglement could be used to form the basis of quantum networks and possibly brain networks, where quantum information is distributed among different locations.
Schrödinger’s Cat and Superposition
These concepts were famously described by Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger in 1935. In his famous thought experiment, he created a scenario in which a cat is placed in a sealed box with a flask containing a deadly substance. The flask is opened, releasing the substance, with a 50/50 chance of killing the cat. Schrödinger argued that, according to the principles of quantum mechanics, the cat is both alive and dead until the box is opened.
The experiment is a way of illustrating the “superposition” of states in quantum mechanics. This means that before the box is opened, the cat’s state is neither fully alive nor dead, but a mix of both. This goes against the common-sense view that individual objects can only exist in a single state (alive or dead) at any given time. The experiment also shows the importance of observation, since the cat’s fate is not determined until the box is opened, and not by the cat itself. This implies that the observer affects the outcome of the experiment.
Simply consider a sporting event. Before the competition, either side can win and either side can lose. It is only the measurement of the event (the final score) that determines who won and who lost. Similarly in the cat experiment, before the box is opened, the cat is either alive or dead or actually BOTH alive and dead (the concept of superposition) — only when the box is opened, and its condition is recognized, is the determination made and the definitive state of the cat becomes known.
Nice job, you made it to the end of this heavy-duty scientific review!
In the final portion of this review (part 3), you’ll see how our brain is able to apply the principles of quantum mechanics and perhaps work faster than a supercomputer to make the incredibly fast and accurate decisions needed to win in sports.
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