Quantum Steps of the Mind: From Dopamine Sparks to Awareness
Human life often moves between short-lived pleasures and deeper, lasting growth. Modern neuroscience and ancient philosophy both suggest something striking: the mind does not grow in a smooth, endless stream but in steps — like the quantum leaps that Max Planck discovered in physics more than a century ago. Planck’s Quantum Revolution: The Staircase of Energy In 1900, Max Planck showed that energy is not continuous but released in discrete packets called quanta. This idea solved the problem known as the “ultraviolet catastrophe,” where classical physics wrongly predicted infinite energy at higher frequencies. Instead, energy moves like a staircase: electrons jump from one level to another, releasing or absorbing light along the way. Niels Bohr extended this view, explaining that electrons exist in fixed energy levels . Stability in the universe comes because nature works in steps, not in chaos. "Energy is not infinite in its flow — it comes in steps, and so does hum...
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