Who is in the know? We or space-time?
Metaphysics? Many scientists fear that hypotheses about the quantum nature of mind and memory belong to this well-known unscientific area. On the other hand, what, if not science, is the search for a physical, albeit quantum, basis for consciousness, instead of a search for supernatural explanations?
1. Microtubules - Visualization
To quote from the December issue of New Scientist, Arizona anesthetist Stuart Hameroff has been saying for years that microtubules - fibrous structures with a diameter of 20-27 nm, formed as a result of polymerization of the tubulin protein and acting as a cytoskeleton that forms a cell, including a nerve cell (1) - exist in Quantum "superpositions"which allows them to have two different forms at the same time. Each of these forms is associated with a certain amount of information, kubitem, in this case storing twice as much data as it would seem from the classical understanding of this system. If we add to this the phenomenon qubit entanglement, i.e. interactions of particles not in close proximity, shows model of the functioning of the brain as a quantum computerdescribed by the famous physicist Roger Penrose. Hameroff also collaborated with him, thus explaining the extraordinary speed, flexibility and versatility of the brain.
2. Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose
Planck's world of measurements
According to supporters of the theory of quantum mind, the problem of consciousness is connected with the structure of space-time on the Planck scale. For the first time this was pointed out by the above-mentioned scientists - Penrose and Hameroff (90) in their works at the beginning of the 2nd century. According to them, if we want to accept the quantum theory of consciousness, then we must choose the space in which quantum processes take place. It can be a brain - from the point of view of quantum theory, a four-dimensional space-time that has its own internal structure on an unimaginably small scale, of the order of 10-35 meters. (Planck length). At such distances, space-time resembles a sponge, the bubbles of which have a volume
10-105 m3 (an atom spatially consists of almost one hundred percent quantum vacuum). According to modern knowledge, such a vacuum guarantees the stability of the atoms. If consciousness is also based on the quantum vacuum, it can influence the properties of matter.
The presence of microtubules in the Penrose-Hameroff hypothesis modifies space-time locally. She "knows" that we are, and can influence us by changing the quantum states in microtubules. From this, exotic conclusions can be drawn. For example, such that all changes in the structure of matter in our part of space-time, produced by consciousness, without any delay in time, can theoretically be recorded in any part of space-time, for example, in another galaxy.
Hameroff appears in many press interviews. panpsychism theorybased on the assumption that there is a certain type of awareness in everything around you. This is an old view restored in the XNUMXth century by Spinoza. Another derived concept is panprotopsychizm - Philosopher David Chalmers introduced. He coined it as the name for the concept that there is an "ambiguous" being, potentially conscious, but only becoming truly conscious when it is activated or divided. For example, when protoconscious entities are activated or accessed by the brain, they become conscious and enrich neural processes with experience. According to Hameroff, panprotopsychic entities may one day be described in terms of physics fundamental to the universe (3).
Small and large collapses
Roger Penrose, in turn, based on the theory of Kurt Gödel, proves that some actions performed by the mind are incalculable. Indicates that you can't explain human thought algorithmically, and to explain that incomputability, you have to look at the collapse of the quantum wave function and quantum gravity. A few years ago, Penrose wondered if there could be a quantum superposition of charged or discharged neurons. He thought that the neuron could be on par with the quantum computer in the brain. Bits in a classical computer are always "on" or "off", "zero" or "one". On the other hand, quantum computers work with qubits that can simultaneously be in a superposition of "zero" and "one".
Penrose believes that mass is equivalent to the curvature of spacetime. It is enough to imagine space-time in a simplified form as a two-dimensional sheet of paper. All three spatial dimensions are compressed on the x-axis, while time is plotted on the y-axis. A mass in one position is a page curved in one direction, and a mass in another position is curved in the other direction. The bottom line is that a mass, position, or state corresponds to a certain curvature in the fundamental geometry of space-time that characterizes the universe on a very small scale. Thus, some mass in superposition means curvature in two or more directions at the same time, which is equivalent to a bubble, bulge, or separation in space-time geometry. According to the many-world theory, when this happens, a whole new universe can come into being—the pages of space-time diverge and unfold individually.
Penrose agrees to some extent with this vision. However, he is convinced that the bubble is unstable, that is, it collapses into one or another world after a given time, which is in some relation to the scale of separation or the size of the space-time of the bubble. Therefore, there is no need to accept many worlds, but only small areas in which our universe is torn apart. Using the uncertainty principle, the physicist found that a large separation will collapse quickly, and a small one slowly. So a small molecule, such as an atom, can remain in superposition for a very long time, say 10 million years. But a large creature like a one-kilogram cat can only stay in superposition for 10-37 seconds, so we don't often see cats in superposition.
We know that brain processes last from tens to hundreds of milliseconds. For example, with oscillations with a frequency of 40 Hz, their duration, i.e., the interval, is 25 milliseconds. The alpha rhythm on an electroencephalogram is 100 milliseconds. This time scale requires mass nanograms in superposition. In the case of microtubules in superposition, 120 billion tubulins would be required, i.e. their number is 20 XNUMX. neurons, which is the appropriate number of neurons for psychic events.
Scientists describe what hypothetically could happen in the course of a conscious event. Quantum computing takes place in tubulins and leads to collapse according to the reduction model of Roger Penrose. Each collapse forms the basis of a new pattern of tubulin configurations, which in turn determine how tubulins control cellular functions at synapses, etc. But any collapse of this type also reorganizes the fundamental geometry of space-time and opens access to or activation of the entities embedded at this level.
Penrose and Hameroff named their model composed objective reduction (Orch-OR-) because there is a feedback loop between biology and the "harmony" or "composition" of quantum fluctuations. In their opinion, there are alternative isolation and communication phases defined by states of gelation within the cytoplasm surrounding the microtubules, occurring approximately every 25 milliseconds. The sequence of these "conscious events" leads to the formation of our stream of consciousness. We experience it as a continuity, just as a film seems to be continuous, although it remains a series of separate frames.
Or maybe even lower
However, physicists were skeptical about quantum brain hypotheses. Even under laboratory cryogenic conditions, maintaining the coherence of quantum states for longer than fractions of a second is a big problem. What about warm and moist brain tissue?
Hameroff believes that in order to avoid decoherence due to environmental influences, quantum superposition must remain isolated. It seems more likely that isolation could occur inside the cell in the cytoplasmwhere, for example, the already mentioned gelation around microtubules can protect them. In addition, microtubules are much smaller than neurons and are structurally connected like a crystal. The size scale is important because it is assumed that a small particle, such as an electron, can be in two places at the same time. The bigger something gets, the harder it is in the lab to get it to work in two places at the same time.
However, according to Matthew Fisher of the University of California at Santa Barbara, quoted in the same December New Scientist article, we have a chance to solve the coherence problem only if we go down to the level atomic spins. In particular, this means the spin in the atomic nuclei of phosphorus, found in the molecules of chemical compounds important for the functioning of the brain. Fisher identified certain chemical reactions in the brain that theoretically produce phosphate ions in entangled states. Roger Penrose himself found these observations promising, although he still favors the microtubule hypothesis.
4. Artificial intelligence - vision
Hypotheses about the quantum basis of consciousness have interesting implications for the prospects for the development of artificial intelligence. In their opinion, we have no chance of building a truly conscious AI (4) based on classical, silicon and transistor technology. Only quantum computers - not the current or even the next generation - will open the way to a "real", or conscious, synthetic brain.
