Monday, August 4, 2008

Quantum Theory as Applied to Drunken Memory

Introduction
Quantum theory states that a quantum particle exists in all possible states until the time at which the particle is observed when the waveform of possible states collapses to the final state. I posit that the same is true for drunken memories. Memories a of a drunken romp exist in a dual state of there (true) and not there (false) until they are observed or accessed and collapse into a single state. I have devised a test to verify my hypothesis and ran it on a small test group to determine the feasibility of research on a larger group.

Test Procedure
Find a test subject. The subject must be willing to drink copious amounts of alcohol in the name of science. Next, find alcohol. Beer works well, especially when supplied in keg format. Start the test subject drinking and make observations. The more inebriated the test subject becomes, the more likely it is that conclusive observations will be made. Observations should include the general ability for the test subject to function and also the ability for the test subject to remember recent events. Be careful to not disturb the test results by forcing the test subject to try to memorize events. Repeat the test with multiple subjects or the same subject on a number of occasions and compare observations.

Test Results
Two tests were performed on the same test subject on two separate within a week of each other. During the first test, the test subject appeared to no longer remember recent events around midnight but remained reasonably functional until losing consciousness around two hours later. Proof of the test subject's ability to function is that the test subject was able to take a number of digital photographs after the test subject reportedly lost short term memory. The next morning, the test subject's recollection of events was that the test subject was standing in the middle of the living room of the test laboratory and then woke up on a couch in another laboratory approximately a block away from the test lab. I believe that this is confirmation of the hypothesis as the memories fail to collapse to true the moment they are meant to be stored, thus are never stored.

For the second test, the test subject was supplied with large amounts of alcohol but never lost memory functionality. At one point during the test, the test subject observed that since the test subject was making an observation, the memories should store and also the memories should be recalled easily at a later time. The test subject's self observation proved to be true as the test subject fully recalled the test.

Conclusion
An observation which collapses the memory dual-state may occur at a later time or the time that the memories are stored. Thus, if a drunk person is able to remember recent events (within a few minutes), the memory dual-state collapses and the memory is stored. A related result is that a person is able to act in a reasonably coherent manner without being able to recall a memory the next day if the dual-state waveform does not collapse to true with a high probability. A larger sample size test could better verify the hypothesis and may lead to further insights.
Further research could lead to determining the outcome probabilities of the dual-state collapse, for predicting the outcome; determining whether all memories behave in this dual-state manner; and, determining whether the brain makes use of probability waveforms in the storage, compression and recollection of memories.

No comments: