Welcome to Neurals series on speculative science.
When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right.
When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
Its understandable if youre not falling out of your chair right now.
On the surface, this feels like duh news.
Its fairly common knowledge that migratory birds navigate using the Earths magnetic field.
It’s free, every week, in your inbox.
But, if you think about it, its difficult to imaginehowthey do it.
Try as hard as we may, we simply cannotfeelmagnetism in the same way birds can.
Quantum superposition is the uncertainty inherent when a particle exists in multiple physical states simultaneously.
Physicists like to describe this concept using a spinning coin.
But quantum mechanics are a bit more complex than that.
It sounds nerdy, but its actually really cool in actuality.
This allows the bird to measurehow muchmagnetism its feeling.
The reason this works is because of superposition and entanglement.
Smell-o-vision
Think about it like your sense of smell.
Despite the fact the birds use a protein in their eye, they dont really see the magnetism.
Their brains perceive thesignal.
So imagine theres a special sensor in your nose thats only looking for a specific scent.
One thats pretty muchalwaysthere.
The robins ability to sense magnetism likely works in a similar fashion.
They may very well have a ground-truth tether to the motion of the planet itself.
Their magnetic sense gives them a physicalsensationbased on their literal geolocation.
And thats pretty amazing!
It means these birds brains have built-in GPS.
What if humans could gain access to this incredible quantum sensory mechanism?
But, its not something we can just unlock through meditation or pharmaceuticals.
Clearly, birdsevolvedthe ability to sense the Earths magnetism.
And not every bird can do it.
We apparently lack the necessary chemical and neural components for natural magnetic sensory development.
But we also lack talons and wings.
And that hasnt stopped us from killing things or flying.
In other words, there are potential technological solutions to our lack of magnetic perception.
From a speculative science point of view, the problem can be reduced to two fairly simple concepts.
Engineers wanted
Luckily weve already got all the conceptual technology we need to make this work.
We can even fantasize about a future where miniaturizedquantum computers are inserted into our brainsto facilitate even smoother translation.
Im not saying this could happen in our lifetimes.But Im not saying it couldnt.
I can think of worse reasons to shove a chip in my head.
