Mises and protein folding

re: Mises and protein folding

k-yoke — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:26:25 GMT

Interesting post - especially when I compare it to a portion of an article I read just this afternoon in the most recent edition of The Economist regarding future alternative fuel uses.

There is a battery scientist @ MIT named Gerbrand Ceder who is using "extremely sophisticated computer models" in something referred to as the "materials genome project". The initial purpose of the project is to sort through the some 30,000 known inorganic chemical compounds to determine which one(s) would be best suited for an electrode. (To be used in plug-in hybrid car batteries)

The article ends by stating, "the materials genome project obviously has much wider applications than battery electrodes, but that is where Dr. Ceder has started. His computer is now chewing its way through the chemical encyclopedia, looking for the likeliest candidates."

Similar thought process with a very practical application, given $4+ gasoline. Hopefully the age of supercomputers will allow increasingly rapid solutions to a host of societal issues.

re: Mises and protein folding

pimplucius — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 15:58:19 GMT

Wonderful post.

Atoms (except hydrogen) are similar to human beings because it is impossible to calculate their energies (their desires) since each atom is has more than one electron. Protein folding models are always very simplified, using classical mechanics instead of quantum mechanics. Even for much smaller molecules, quantum mechanics states that the energy cannot be calculated exactly. So I think Schrodinger and Mises had a lot in commmon.....

re: Mises and protein folding

Stephen — Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:13:49 GMT

No. Our actions would be determinable ahead of the time they occur iff we have perfect knowledge of all the factors influencing our will. However, since this is impossible, we can never have perfect knowledge of all of factors influencing our will. It is only in the sense that we don't know the causes of our will that we have free will.

Action presupposes causality, free will, and uncertainty. Mises addresses all of these issues in Human Action, and in greater depth in The Ultimate Foundations of Economic Science.

re: Mises and protein folding

scineram — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:06:47 GMT

Are these two not contradictory?

re: Mises and protein folding

Stephen — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 05:43:55 GMT

Two things.

First, our minds are a part of physical reality and must necessarily follow the same time invariant causal laws as everything else.

Secondly, a deterministic linear algebra model which describes human action is an impossibility. If we were to know the causes of our action we would already know how we would act in the future. In such a situation, we would cease to act because we would be unable to choose between alternative means. Since it is an undeniable fact that human's act, we must reject the possibility of causal determination of action.