Another, no less crucial, question relates to apparent arbitrariness of selection process. All "parts" of a superposition constitute potential collapse events and, therefore, can, in principle, be measured. Why is only one event measured in any given measurement? How is it "selected" to be collapse event? Why does it retain a privileged status versus measurement apparatus or act?

It seems that preferred states have to do with inexorable process of increase in overall amount of order in Universe. If other states were to have been selected, order would have diminished. The proof is again in pudding: order does increase all time – therefore, measurable collapse events and pointer states tend to increase order. There is a process of negative, order-orientated, selection: collapse events and states which tend to increase entropy are filtered out and statistically "avoided". They are measured less.

There seems to be a guiding principle (that of statistical increase of order in Universe). This guiding principle cannot be communicated to quantum systems with each and every measurement because such communication would have to be superluminal. The only logical conclusion is that all information relevant to decrease of entropy and to increase of order in Universe is stored in each and every part of Universe, no matter how minuscule and how fundamental.

It is safe to assume that, very much like in living organisms, all relevant information regarding preferred (order-favoring) quantum states is stored in a kind of Physical DNA (PDNA). The unfolding of this PDNA takes place in physical world, during interactions between physical systems (one of which is measurement apparatus).

The Biological DNA contains all information about living organism and is replicated trillions of times over, stored in basic units of organism, cell. What reason is there to assume that nature deviated from this (very pragmatic) principle in other realms of existence? Why not repeat this winning design in quarks?

The Biological variant of DNA requires a biochemical context (environment) to translate itself into an organism – an environment made up of amino acids, etc. The PDNA probably also requires some type of context: physical world as revealed through act of measurement.

The information stored in physical particle is structural because order has to do with structure. Very much like a fractal (or a hologram), every particle reflects whole Universe accurately and same laws of nature apply to both. Consider startling similarities between formalisms and laws that pertain to subatomic particles and black holes.

Moreover, distinction between functional (operational) and structural information is superfluous and artificial. There is a magnitude bias here: being creatures of macrocosm, form and function look to us distinct. But if we accept that "function" is merely what we call an increase in order then distinction is cancelled because only way to measure increase in order is structurally. We measure functioning (=the increase in order) using structural methods (the alignment or arrangement of instruments).

Still, information contained in each particle should encompass, at least, relevant (close, non-negligible and non-cancelable) parts of Universe. This is a tremendous amount of data. How is it stored in tiny corpuscles?

Either utilizing methods and processes which we are far even from guessing – or else relevant information is infinitesimally (almost vanishingly) small.

The extent of necessary information contained in each and every physical particle could be somehow linked to (even equal to) number of possible quantum states, to superposition itself, or to collapse event. It may well be that whole Universe can be adequately encompassed in an unbelievably minute, negligibly tiny, amount of data which is incorporated in those quantum supercomputers that today, for lack of better understanding, we call "particles".

Technical Note

Our Universe can be mathematically described as a "matched" or PLL filter whose properties let through collapsed outcomes of wave functions (when measured) - or "signal". The rest of superposition (or other "Universes" in a Multiverse) can be represented as "noise". Our Universe, therefore, enhances signal-to-noise ratio through acts of measurement (a generalization of anthropic principle).

References

Ollivier H., Poulin D. & Zurek W. H. Phys. Rev. Lett., 93. 220401 (2004). Zurek W. H. Arxiv, Preprint http://www.arxiv.org/abs/quant-ph/0105127 (2004).

It has never been case that piston engines are inefficient and they could serve us very well into Twenty Second Century as soon as we deep six their liquid, slow burn fuel systems. The reasons Charles Pogue never realized tremendous power potential of his fast burn, 200 mile per gallon Ford sedan, was likely two things. The hot gasoline vapor made with exhaust system heat and inappropriate spark timing for an engine that required spark to come about eighty crank degrees later than timing it had as a slow burn factory engine. Combustion performance enthusiasts world over, know coldest, densest air/fuel mixture makes best power. These people can also understand that making peak cylinder pressures when piston is near top of power stroke, only tries to push crankshaft out of engine, onto ground - wasted energy like standing on bicycle pedal at very top.

What we want is cold vapor fuel which is much more easily created than Charles’ exhaust heated fuel. The secret is vaporizing power of vacuum. Success in cold vaporizing has been demonstrated by radio frequency vaporizing chambers. But piston engine operates on a vacuum system. In days of carburetors, vacuum drew in air to engine’s cylinders and metered fuel fairly accurately by means of that same vacuum and simple mechanical adjustments to fuel flow.

Modern electronic fuel injection is perhaps most expensive incremental improvement to slow burn technology in Twentieth Century. It served multiple purposes. It exchanged a good, simple system, with a slightly better complex system. Computer controls took auto repair out of realm of backyard mechanics and restricted it to $50 - 70 per hour service centers - a great big bonus for auto service industry and a big expense to do -it -yourselfer.

I am no combustion engineer, nor do I wish to become one. I can only say I intuitively expect two horsepower per cubic inch displacement on any four stroke spark engine modified for cold vapor fuel, using an appropriately sized carburetor as would be done on a slow burn engine.

I further expect that a performance modification that would increase power of a slow burn engine by fifty percent, will increase power of a fast burn engine by sixty to one hundred per cent. All common power boosting practices work on fast burn engines better than slow burn. Compression ratios are not critical as octane of pure vapor is up around 110. A 12 to one compression ratio would be about 9 to 1 at 45 degrees after top dead center, when spark would occur at full power. While misfire can occur as often as 3 - 4 cycles per hundred on a new V-8 engine, misfires would be very rare with fast burn engines due to lower compression at ignition and evenness of a lean air/vapor mixture. The fast burn engine may be supercharged with a draw through carburetor producing vacuum to operate a fresh air bubbler at bottom of fuel tank. If a richer vapor is desired in bubbler, a racing fuel cell can be used, packed with fuel cell foam, greatly increasing surface area exposed to liquid fuel, vacuum will readily vaporize. Large metal fuel tanks should be reinforced top and bottom by epoxying bar stock or angle stock, so they do not collapse under vacuum.

Lastly, I would like to mention that fast burn technology is a multi fuel system. With a little experimenting and fine tuning of mixture and spark, a fast burn engine can burn gasoline, alcohol, diesel, kerosene, vegetable oil, propane and liquefied natural gas. The fuel with greatest latent energy per pound will deliver best performance and least powerful fuel will deliver very adequate performance. If you are anxious to try a fast burn conversion, please read my Fast Burn Conversion essay for tips and details for a safe conversion. Here‘s to big, clean, cheap power for new age!