Wow, pretty intelligent bunch of dudes you are. And here I thought you're all a bunch of washed up daytraders... But then who said brains and daytrading are mutually exclusive properties. Eh? Now I'm really confused...
Hmm .... Well if you really want to know about these topics then you can head to any university library and start studying. Like most topics your understanding of Quantum Mechanics can be at different levels/stages. Once you spend some time looking into these things you will begin to see connections between "information", quantum mechanics, computing, many body calculations and things commonly referred to as Chaos or Chaotic systems. From there you can start to think about the nature of cognition etc. and how it relates to all of this..... You can read Wolframs book which he markets as a simple text accessible to anyone: My opinion is that you will only have a superficial understanding of the topics mentioned without quite a bit of background - the ideas are valuable (although not unique to Wolfram ) and the text weaves the topics together in a useful way.
"The true nature of things we will never known" Albert Einstein. After Einstein's death, they examined his brain and found that in the location where the crea- tive processes start, he had an abnormal high concentration of a certain substance. Don't ask me which substance, can't remember that directly. Like my former professor of Quantum Mechanics said ; "We will never be able to solve the riddle of life completely because we are part of the riddle...."
That's definitely an intriguing area, haven't gone in depth with it though because evidence suggests the plateau comes fairly quickly once the key natural elements of nutrition, exercise and rest are maximized. After a certain point conditional improvements become so incremental they may be tough to notice, like going from an 1100 MHZ pentium to a 1400 MHZ. I also suspect the dedicated development of the structure is equal to or even more important than the gray matter itself. (This is one reason why raw intelligence measurements are pretty much useless in the real world.) I would rather be an average joe with deep knowledge of analytical techniques and problem solving skills than a raw genius with no clear sense of training and direction. A 125 lb skinny guy skilled in martial arts can out fight a 250 lb musclehead who is not, that kind of thing. I've found hackeysack breaks to be a fun way to loosen up and work on hand eye (foot eye?) coordination skills during the trading day...can't call myself a daytrader though.
I'm familiar with Wolfram's general premise, that most highly complex phenomena spawn from a handful of basic interactions more elegantly simple than we would ever intuitively suspect. This seems pretty much in line with the reductionist nature of scientific discovery and the search for a grand unification theory. Does he offer any compelling angles or insights into complexity theory that have not been covered previously?
Darkhorse: Your Wildcat'ing model sounds like serendipity. Penrose's book does go into detail about how the Ca-Na channels along nerve fibers move a neural signals along. I've read there is some new work on "non-localâ effects in rapid chemical reactions. Basically it's about quantum entanglement of the electrons from one process to another. Great Stuff.
Hey, darkhorse, great thread! I too like wildcatting for interesting new ideas. You might enjoy "Latticework" by Robert Hagstrom. Its a fun romp through a bunch of different disciplines with lots of fodder for new mental models related to the markets. Although the book claims to be related to "investing", I've found that anything that help me think about the financial markets in a new way is a good thing. Keep on pumping ions, -Traden4Alpha
i think some people here would be interested in a thread i started yesterday in the chit chat area. my post includes a link to a site with an eye opening animation. check it out: http://www.elitetrader.com/vb/showthread.php?threadid=7995
I would say that he does offer novel insights, though there are some who claim that his work amounts to a dressed-up re-hash of settled theory. From the perspective of an amateur, I'd just say that the book is neat 1) very well-produced, great to look at if too fat for the average coffee table; 2) extremely ambitious, and he's NOT a crackpot: regardless of how you feel about his actual success, just the attempt at a "new kind of science," with a virtually encyclopedic scope, makes for a rather grand authorial show; 3) intellectual stimulating, but not overwhelmingly difficult by any means. Heck, I may even fork over soon for the software package, and maybe a Mathematica t-shirt or mug or something, too, while I'm at it: Taking a look at that site I linked you earlier, I found it interesting that Hameroff referred to Wolfram in describing how his microtubular consciousness qubits might act. Whether it all adds up to the revolution that Wolfram, Hameroff, Penrose, and the others seem to be aiming for is way beyond my own ability to judge - but I still find it a lot of fun to think about.