How Quantum is Life?

Voting Deadline: December 1, 2025 at 10AM US EST

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Abstract

My marathon swimming son1, Jon Erikson, passed away in July 2014 and his death has prompted me to ponder some serious realities of Panpsychism 2-4. This is suggested as the real "mysterious connection" in the essay question. "Feelings" guide the many achievements of physicists, mathematicians, and yes, even swimmers. A relaxed feel of water is required to swim, or even to float. Whence came force and energy to swim? Activities of water and a swimmer are dual, the former being quite massive and stable, and the latter less so in motion. An inscribed sphere in a regular tetrahedron is similar as a quantitative model. Assuming such dualities as mass and it's energy, such relationships may be written; I. Regular tetrahedron, as energy ⇔ Inscribed sphere, as mass (as photon/electron; swimmer/water; shell/nucleus; people/government..) Left and right sides of (I) are expressed as their respective geometrical area- to-volume ratios. Symbolically, (A/V)T = (A/V)i.s, where A, V, T, and "i.s" represent area, volume, tetrahedron, and sphere. Geometric manipulation converts both A/V's to a dimensionless linked Surface-to-Content ratio, S/C. The sphere/tetrahedron (I) duality serves as a model guide to balance other dualities as system/environment effects. In making such dualities, Dr. Tykodi's "thermo- staedic" for steady-rate systems 6-8, and my thesis 5, Thermodynamics of the Steady State, of some 56 years ago are helpful for dynamic definitions, i.e. at steady-rates. Several S/C ratios, differences, and/or percent, A/(A+V), are tabulated. These values are properties of nature for links to be evaluated and tested as defining panpsychism.
Ted Erikson
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