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Surprisingly complex waves reveal the brain's inner workings

253 points · 98 comments · ibobev

  1. brcmthrowaway · · focus · HN ↗
    Is there any evidence the brain is a quantum device?
    1. lolakutty · · focus · HN ↗
      It could be and more. Nature is not constrained by what human beings know at any point in time.
    2. dvt · · focus · HN ↗
      Penrose and Hameroff have been arguing this for decades (see Orch OR[1]). Their arguments are interesting, but certainly not open and shut.

      [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Orchestrated_objective_reduction" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Orchestrated_objective_reducti...

      1. jibalt · · focus · HN ↗
        They are widely considered by neuroscientists to be shut. P&amp;H keep showing up at the [Towards a] Science of Consciousness conferences which long ago devolved into a gathering of crackpots, but no one else takes them seriously.
    3. jibalt · · focus · HN ↗
      No, all the evidence is to the contrary.
    4. mrguyorama · · focus · HN ↗
      What does that even mean to you?

      The brain is a quantum device in that it&#x27;s full of stuff and all stuff is somewhat &quot;quantum&quot;.

      Are you asking whether quantum mechanics is required for the human brain? We don&#x27;t really have any way to know right now. We just don&#x27;t understand the brain well enough to make any sort of conclusion about that.

      My bet is that consciousness will be computable, mostly because I expect it will be radically less &quot;magical&quot; than everyone wanted it to be: I believe that we are mostly a story we tell ourselves and most of your lived experience is basically a &quot;Simulate other hairless apes&quot; network that got too big for its britches. I think we will quantify the portion of the brain that does the actual work of &quot;Consciousness&quot; and it will be a sadly small portion.

      I think that means consciousness could be classical, but that doesn&#x27;t preclude a consciousness that is dependent on some quantum phenomenon from also existing.

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