I am a member of the IPI (Information Physics Institute) established by Dr. Melvin Vopson at the University of Portsmouth at:
Information Physics Institute
https://www.Informationphysicsinstitute.org/
to explore the fundamental nature of Information in our Universe.
I have showcased several of Dr. Melvin Vopson's breakthrough hypotheses with
How Much Does Your Software Weigh? - the Equivalence of Mass, Energy and Information and The Application of the Second Law of Information Dynamics to Software and Bioinformatics.
But in this softwarephysics post, I would like to showcase Professor Andrei Khrennikov's Social Laser Hypothesis that was recently presented in an IPI lecture at:
Modeling Social Lasing by Using the Mathematical Formalism of Quantum Theory
https://youtu.be/xQop26MEmSg&t=1s
All of the IPI Lectures are available at:
IPI Lectures
https://www.informationphysicsinstitute.org/resources/ipi-lectures
Andrei Khrennikov is a Russian physicist and philosopher of science heavily steeped in the very heavy mathematics of quantum theory. He has made significant contributions to the field of quantum foundations and quantum information theory. He is known for his work on the interpretation of quantum mechanics and the development of contextual probabilistic models. He has published over 300 papers and authored/edited several books in his fields of research. He is now a professor at the Linnaeus University in Sweden:
Andrei Khrennikov
https://lnu.se/en/staff/andrei.khrennikov/
At the Linnaeus University, Andrei Khrennikov heads the International Center for Mathematical Modelling in Physics, Engineering, Economics and Cognitive Science. The center researches quantum theory from an interdisciplinary perspective.
International Center for Mathematical Modeling
https://lnu.se/en/research/research-groups/international-center-for-mathematical-modeling/
The Social Laser Hypothesis
One of Andrei Khrennikov's notable ideas is the "Social Laser Hypothesis". The Social Laser Hypothesis is based on an analogy between the behavior of a physical laser and the behavior of social systems composed of human beings such as complete societies or even small groups of people. Andrei Khrennikov suggests that just as a physical laser emits coherent light due to the collective behavior of the individual atoms and photons found in a physical laser, social systems can also exhibit coherent behavior due to the collective actions of individuals and the memes they absorb and emit. In this view, memes are quantized chunks of social information. The quantized memes of social information are called s-photons and the quantized members of a society are individual human beings that he calls s-atoms. According to the Social Laser Hypothesis, the behavior of a social system can be described using quantum-like formalism, similar to how quantum mechanics describes the behavior of physical systems. Andrei Khrennikov argues that the mathematics of quantum mechanics, such as complex probability amplitudes and wave-particle duality, can be applied to model and understand the dynamics of social systems. The Social Laser Hypothesis suggests that social phenomena, such as decision-making processes, opinion formation, and cultural evolution, can be explained using the principles of quantum mechanics. He asserts that quantum-like effects, such as interference and entanglement, may play a role in shaping social dynamics and interactions.
The basic idea of Andrei Khrennikov's Social Laser is that under certain conditions, populations of interacting individuals can self-organize into coherent states, similar to how photons become coherent in a laser. This can then lead to amplification effects and emergent behaviors. Khrennikov believes that factors like propaganda, ideology, charismatic leaders, fads, traditions, etc. can play the role of a "pump mechanism" that excites individuals into a coherent state of thinking or behavior. When a critical mass or threshold is reached, it can then trigger sudden, rapid and widespread adoption of opinions, behaviors, political movements, etc. similar to how lasers emit coherent light. Overall, Andrei Khrennikov's Social Laser Hypothesis offers an alternative perspective on understanding social systems through the lens of quantum mechanics. While it has sparked interesting discussions and research, its acceptance and validity within the scientific community are still subjects of ongoing investigation and debate. In summary, Andrei Khrennikov's Social Laser Hypothesis proposes that social systems can exhibit laser-like behavior and coherence if certain pumping and excitation thresholds are reached among interacting individuals. It is a unique theoretical perspective on modeling social dynamics based on a novel application of quantum and laser concepts to social dynamics. Andrei Khrennikov has developed and published many mathematical models based on this hypothesis. An easily accessible paper published by The Royal Society on the Social Laser is available at:
‘Social Laser’: action amplification by stimulated emission of social energy
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsta.2015.0094
How a Laser Works
Lasers operate by using the LASER principle (Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation). This means that a laser is a device that can amplify light by using the stimulated emission of photons from atoms to create a beam of light that is coherent, meaning that all of the photons in the beam have the same wavelength, phase, and direction of travel.
A laser has three main components:
1. Gain Medium: This is a material that can be excited to produce light. Common gain media include solids such as ruby and neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet (Nd:YAG), liquids such as dye lasers, and gases such as helium-neon lasers.
2. Pumping Source: This is a source of energy that is used to excite the Gain Medium. Common pumping sources include electrical discharges, flashlamps, and other lasers.
3. Optical Resonator Cavity: This consists of two mirrors that are placed at opposite ends of the Gain Medium. The mirrors reflect the light photons back and forth through the Gain Medium, which amplifies them when excited atoms are stimulated by photons to emit a second photon with the very same wavelength, phase, and direction of travel.
If a photon of the right energy hits an excited atom, it can cause the atom to release another photon of the same energy. This is called stimulated emission. The two photons then travel in the same direction and with the same wavelength. As the photons travel back and forth through the Gain Medium, they cause more and more atoms to emit photons by stimulated emission. This process exponentially amplifies the light beam. One of the mirrors in the optical resonator cavity is partially transmissive, meaning that it allows some of the light photons to pass through. This is where the final laser beam emerges from.
Figure 1 – The Social Laser works very much like a physical laser.
Figure 1 above explains this in greater detail. In Figure 1c we see an atom with an electron that can be in one of two states - a ground state with energy "g" and an excited state with a higher energy of "e". On the far left of Figure 1c, we see two radiationless processes that can arise from the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle. The electron can spontaneously rise from the ground state "g" to the excited state "e" for a very short time before it returns to the ground state "g". A more interesting quantum process occurs when the electron absorbs a photon with an energy equal to the difference of the two-electron energy levels:
Absorbed Photon Energy pE = e - g
An atom in the excited "e" state can remain so for some time because it has absorbed some real energy from the photon but eventually, it will return to the ground state in one of two ways. With spontaneous emission, the excited atom will randomly emit a photon with the same energy pE of the absorbed photon but in a random direction and with a random phase. With stimulated emission, the excited atom once again interacts with a photon of pE but this time it emits another photon of energy pE in the same direction and with the same phase as the incoming stimulating photon. This can produce a chain reaction in the Gain Medium where 1 photon becomes 2, 4, 8, 16, 32 ... that all have the same energy pE, direction and phase. The job of the Pumping Source is to lift as many atoms in the Gain Medium as possible from the ground state "g" to the excited state "e" so that an exponential chain reaction of stimulated photons can arise in the Gain Medium as photons created by quantum stimulation of the Gain Medium atoms bounce back and forth between the two mirrors of the Optical Resonator Cavity.
How the Social Laser Works
Andrei Khrennikov's Social Laser works in a similar manner. In his Social Laser model, individual human beings are social atoms or s-atoms. These s-atoms can be in one of two states - a "g" ground state or an "e" excited state. We have all seen people in both a ground "g" political state and an excited "e" political state. Andrei Khrennikov explains that usually, most people are in a ground "g" political state just going about their usual business. This is particularly true when a society is smoothly humming along. But when problems arise in a society, people get politically excited and more active. The mass media of a society then discovers a market of human s-atoms just waiting to be excited from a "g" ground state to an "e" excited state. The mass media outlets then begin to pump quantized political memes that Andrei Khrennikov calls s-photons into this Gain Medium of human s-atoms. Because of confirmation bias, only the quantized political s-photon memes with a finely-tuned pE that closely matches what the human s-atoms want to hear are absorbed by the human s-atoms. The other political s-photons pass harmlessly through the Gain Medium without interacting with any of the human s-atoms. But as shown in Figure 1b above, these human s-atoms are now interconnected into social networks running on social media software like
Facebook, YouTube, WhatsApp, Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, Reddit, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Snapchat. Social media software now allows these social networks of human s-atoms to emit and absorb their own quantized memes of political s-photons in a stimulated amplified manner. If one human s-atom absorbs a political s-photon meme from mass media and gets pumped up to an excited "e" state it can then emit a huge number of similar political s-photon memes into its social media platforms of choice, and like a physical laser, this can lead to a very powerful coherent beam of social energy being released by the Social Laser.
The United States of America as a Case Study
Like most societies, the United States of America has always had two populations of political thought - the Liberals and the Conservatives. Conservatives like to keep things the way they are, usually because they have a large vested interest in the status quo. Liberals, on the other hand, like to change things for what they perceive as the better. This goes all the way back to the founding of the country. The Conservatives were the Tories who wanted to remain a part of the British Empire and enjoy the benefits of such. The Liberals wanted to break with the British Empire to form their own country based on the radical ideas of the 18th-century Enlightenment that proposed that self-rule of people by a democratic republic was a possibility. Unfortunately, the United States is now going through a very turbulent time with the Conservatives being overwhelmed by the Fascist Alt-Right MAGA movement that they accidentally unleashed while trying to preserve the power of the rich and the powerful. Thus, the United States in the 2020s is much like Germany in the 1920s with the rise of the Fascist Alt-Right Nazi movement that threatened the concept of a democratic German republic. The few remaining Conservatives in the United States of America are now desperately trying to contain the Fascist Alt-Right MAGA movement they created in a similar manner as the Conservatives of the German Weimar Republic. I truly wish them the best of luck.
So currently in the United States of America, we have two populations of human s-atoms in our Gain Medium of social networks - the Liberals and the Fascist Alt-Right MAGA population of s-atoms. Thanks to confirmation bias, both populations are finely tuned to different quantized s-photons of political memes pumped into the Gain Medium by cable network news outlets and other sources. Both the excited Liberal and MAGA human s-atoms can then emit huge numbers of political s-photon memes via social media software that can unleash huge amounts of social energy in a coherent manner.
The Insurrection of 2021 in the United States of America was a prime example of political meme amplification by the Social Laser Hypothesis.
Figure 2 – During the Insurrection of 2021 the Capital Building of the United States of America was breached for the first time by domestic insurrectionists.
Figure 3 – The 2021 insurrectionists desecrated many symbols of American democracy.
Figure 4 – The QAnon Shaman and other insurrectionists managed to reach the floor of the Senate Chamber.
Figure 5 – The Social Laser can amplify political memes to a level of political madness.
Figure 6 – I shudder to think of what President Eisenhower would think of us now.
Having been born in 1951, President Dwight D. Eisenhower represents my very first memory of the dignity of the Office of the American Presidency and I shudder to think of what he would think of us now.
Comments are welcome at
scj333@sbcglobal.net
To see all posts on softwarephysics in reverse order go to:
https://softwarephysics.blogspot.com/
Regards,
Steve Johnston
2 comments:
Thank you so detailed and clear presentation! You presented and illustrated the social laser hypothesis better than myself.
I got a few questions about solaser which may be of some interest:
>>I am now wondering about resonance.
Different atoms will react to different wavelengths of energy, or qualities of information.
Is there a fundamental wavelength which will engender resonance in any atom in the >>medium?
Let us again compare with physics. To start lasing, it is important to have a homogeneous gain medium, i.e., the set of atoms having the same energy structure, in the case of two level atoms, they practically all should have the same energy gap, E=E1-E0, if a gain medium has impurities this makes lasing less effective. In the same way we can guess (and my "theory of social laser" is still merely a hypothesis) that social medium which is good for lasing should be homogeneous w.r.t. the energy gap. The guys who have some concrete gap E would not react to communications carrying energy quanta E' where E' prime differs essentially from E. Of course, even in physics theory operate with Gaussian distributions (around E vs. E'), less dispersion - better gain medium.
As part of social engineering, it is important to make fine turning to match energy gap in a social gain medium and in social energy pumping.
In contrast to physics, where the energy spectrum of an atom is rigidly determined, it seems that for human beings we can assume some degree of plasticity for the energy structure of a social atom, it can be modified via social engineering, the gap E can become larger or smaller.
>>I am also wondering, Could individual atoms act as modulators or moderators, altering the energy in the system, absorbing it and remitting it in a changed form rather than just >>amplifying it by emitting the same wavelength or quality of information?
Good question. In social laser model, such behavior is disturbing for social lasing, it would disturb the coherence of the laser beam. Of course, within the social gain medium can be found individual s-atoms having the energy gap >> than E of the majority and they can spontaneously emit s-photons, but it seems that such individual photons can't change the energy structure of the whole gain medium (for the moment we proceed with the discussion under assumption of the energy plasticity). At the same time an individual atoms in a gain medium in the state of population inversion may initiate the cascade process in the direction different from so to say planned for stimulated emission.
>>The emergent beam will be amplified by atoms emitting more of the same energy, but >>could it also be attenuated and even negated by emitting the energy in a changed way.
>>A defence👍😀
I understand the idea, but I think that its proper formulation is not in terms of energy, but direction of emission, or in social terms may be it is better to speak about polarization of the emitted beam, in principle one can stimulate by efforts of a few s-atoms a new beam I_new in the same media with a different polarization than the basis beam I_basic, if it would be possible to stimulate I_new via social networks, than it can neutralize I_basic.
>>I suppose it does all come back down to consciousness being the processor of >>information and the actor upon the sense made from that processing, with the meta >>effect (the beam from the bottle) being determined by connectivity.
Here I would disagree. It seems that consciousness is not so much involved in processing of information in social lasing. Consciousness preassume the logic analysis of information, Boolean analysis. But in this case lasing would not be initiated. I think that lasing correspond to unconscious, quantum-like, processing of information, operation with labels and meme...
Thank you for your stimulating questions,
yours, andrei
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