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Comment by amelius | Hacker News Reader

Maxwell's equations are linear, so probably not complicated enough to support the idea that they can generate human-like actions before they interact with matter.

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They're linear coupled PDE s are they not? which allow for a significantly wider range of behaviours that linear ODEs?

As far as I understand, there is no 'closed form solution' for the initial value problem of Maxwell's equations, despite them being linear?

So I'm not sure it's correct to say that "linearity ~ simplicity" in PDE theory. My understanding is the correct analog of "linear" in PDEs is "elliptic" [which is more akin to 'operator with full spectrum'], which Maxwell's equations are not?

With infinite possibilities -attempts possible, with enough time, isn't it probable to happen? Why couldn't intelligence exist energetically before it manifests via a physical path?

That is only true in vacuum you get non-linear effects from (among other things) the medium and cell-membranes.

Isn't the Schrodinger equation also linear in a certain sense? In that, the derivative of the wave function with respect to time is the result of applying a linear operator to the wave function.

my point being that, if the Schrodinger equation is a correct description of physics, and what is needed is just the right hilbert space and the right hamiltonian, then all of physics would be linear in a certain sense, and so the fact that a particular thing is linear, wouldn't prevent that thing from doing what humans do (unless humans are an exception to ordinary physics, which, maybe, but if so I don't expect that we'll see proof of it any time soon).

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