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Quantum Mechanics and the Origin of Life

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 September 2017

Paul Davies
Paul Davies*
Affiliation:
Australian Centre for Astrobiology, Macquarie University, NSW 2109 Australia

Abstract

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The race to build a quantum computer has led to a radical re-evaluation of the concept of information. In this paper I conjecture that life, defined as an information processing and replicating system, may be exploiting the considerable efficiency advantages offered by quantum computation, and that quantum information processing may dramatically shorten the odds for life originating from a random chemical soup. The plausibility of this conjecture rests, however, on life somehow circumventing the decoherence effects of the environment. I offer some speculations on ways in which this might happen.

Type
Origins and Evolution of Life
Information
Symposium - International Astronomical Union , Volume 213: Bioastronomy 2002: Life Among the stars , 2004 , pp. 237 - 244
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 2004 

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