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The Zeno Effect is a new (to me) quantum physics effect that re-enchants the ancient Zeno Paradox.  Zeno, the greek mathematician, suggested that an arrow in flight could only be seen at a single position at each moment in time.  The lack of observable motion in the instant meant that it was not moving at all.

The fabulously brilliant computer nerd (before electronic computers), Alan Turning, demonstrated that a quantum system could be observed with sufficient frequency to freeze the evolving quantum system into a stationary state (even though it is an evolving system).  The Quantum Zeno Effect has been proposed as the method by which an advance brain can freeze-frame its state for analysis of the present moment.  Here is a section from the Wikipedia article on the Quantum Zeno Effect:

Significance to cognitive science

The quantum Zeno effect (with its own controversies related to measurement) is becoming a central concept in the exploration of controversial and unproven theories of quantum mind consciousness within the discipline of congitive science.  In his book, “Mindful Universe” (2007), Henry Stapp claims that the quantum Zeno effect is the main method by which the mind holds a superposition of the state of the brain in the attention. He advances that this phenomenon is the principal method by which the conscious will effects change, a possible solution to the mind-body dichotomy. Stapp and co-workers do not claim finality of their theory, but only:

The new framework, unlike its classic-physics-based predecessor, is erected directly upon, and is compatible with, the prevailing principles of physics.

Needless to say, such conjectures have their opponents, serving perhaps to create more furor, rather than less, for example, see Bourget. A summary of the situation is provided by Davies:

There have been many claims that quantum mechanics plays a key role in the origin and/or operation of biological organisms, beyond merely providing the basis for the shapes and sizes of biological molecules and their chemical affinities.…The case for quantum biology remains one of “not proven.” There are many suggestive experiments and lines of argument indicating that some biological functions operate close to, or within, the quantum regime, but as yet no clear-cut example has been presented of non-trivial quantum effects at work in a key biological process.

While this last objection may no longer be valid, the significance of the Zeno effect in determining the rate of quantum decoherence in biological systems remains unknown.

Here is the full article:    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeno_effect

Think about it for a moment.

My grades are in, so I have officially changed hats from teacher to stay-at-home Dad.  (I might add that being a parent of young kids has only deepened my view about the teleological striving in human nature).  This post and video are totally unrelated to philosophy, but I think the new Toyota “swagger wagon” ads are funny takes on those of us who find ourselves tooling around town in minivans (a few of the other ads are linked at the end of the video):

So look for me ‘rolling hard through the streets and the cul-de-sacs’ in my Toyota minivan this summer with my two (soon to be three) future Philosopher Queens in tow, and know that I’ll still be rocking Thomas Aquinas along with Thomas the Train.

Here’s a passage from the memoirs of Robert Paul Wolff:

For the first time in my life, I had assigned a casebook, which is to say a collection of snippets from the great philosophers, instead of assigning entire works, such as Plato Dialogues. I soldiered on, “covering” the material, until I got to a selection by Hume containing his classic critique of causal inference. This was relatively late in the semester, and I was bored out of my mind. I can say with absolute confidence that I was not doing a good job of teaching. At the end of the next class after we had done Hume, a young man came up to talk to me. He said he had been troubled by Hume. I was astonished. I had done everything in my power to drain the last vestige of power from Hume’s words. I asked him how he had handled this distress. “I spoke to my priest,” he said, “but he could not help me, so he told me to call the office of the Archdiocese.” “What did they say?” I asked, expecting to be given some version of the party line. “A Monsignor answered. When I told him what Hume said, He answered, ‘Well, some people say that, but we don’t,’ and he hung up the phone.”

I was genuinely humbled. Despite my best efforts to guarantee that no student would walk away from my class with an original thought, David Hume had reached his hand across two centuries, grabbed that student by the scruff of the neck, and had given him a shaking that bid fair to shake him loose from a lifetime of unthinking obedience to received truth. It was the greatest testimony I have ever personally witnessed to the power of a liberal education .

One endeavor you may wish to take up is an organized assault upon the great books. Over on this website is a 10-year plan for working through many great works. You can probably polish off the first three years or so this summer, if you work at it.

An added plea: if you decide to do this, and you are on or near campus, please keep requesting the relevant volumes from the “Great Books of the Western World” series edited by Mortimer Adler. All of these volumes are currently being held in the automated-retrieval system at the USU library (the “BARN”), and the best way to get these volumes shelved in the public stacks is to keep requesting them. It’s easy: just look up the work from the online catalog, and click the “request” button, and the book will be waiting for you at the circulation desk. The great books really don’t belong in a barn!

… is available. I’ve put extra copies in the envelope on my office door, Main 208. Looks like a very good collection of essays by undergraduates in philosophy.