Quantum Consciousness Theory Discussed in House Oversight Document

50 Are the Androids Dreaming Yet? The Unconventional View Roger Penrose, Professor of Mathematics at Oxford University, holds a completely different view. He thinks brains operate in a non-algorithmic manner and provides a sketch of the possible mechanism in two books - The Emperors New Mind and Shadows of the Mind. He suggests tubulin molecules, which form the skeleton of our neurons, exploit quantum- gravitational effects to calculate non-computable functions. The scientific community was initially highly skeptical that quantum effects could survive the warm, wet environment of biological systems, but in January of 2014, Edward O'Reilly and others at UCL discovered plants use quantum effects to improve the efficiency of photosynthesis. No prize has yet been awarded for this discovery but it must be a contender for a Nobel Prize at some point. Recently Travis Craddock, now of the Nova Institute in Florida, has submitted a paper showing a very similar geometry of proteins exists within tubulin microtubules in the brain. He believes this is evidence quantum effects may exist there as well. A simple quantum effect in the brain could merely reduce the resistance of the wiring in the brain to help conserve power and avoid overheating. We recognize this is a major problem in building small, powerful conventional computers. Roger Penrose suggests an altogether more radical idea. He proposes our brains are quantum gravity computers capable of calculating non-computable functions. We don’t yet have a theory for quantum gravity so his idea is at the cutting edge of physics — read highly controversial. He raises a deep mathematical question. If the Universe is deterministic and effectively equivalent to a computation, how does ‘creative’ knowledge emerge within it? Lots of knowledge can be manufactured by simply mechanically rearranging data. That’s what happens when I watch a DVD or play a computer game, but, at some point in the past, a director or a programmer had to put in the creative effort to make the movie or write the computer program. How did that happen? Was it baked into the fabric of the Universe at the moment of the Big Bang? Is what we take for a Universe really nothing more complex than putting a DVD in the slot and hitting play? One last piece of trivia links Hofstadter with Penrose: Roger Penrose and his father invented the Penrose Steps, inspiring the never- ending staircase in the Escher prints featured in Hofstadter’s book. For movie buffs, the Penrose steps appear in the film Inception, starring Leonardo DiCaprio. The fact we get pleasure from these trivial links tells me something is going on in our brains that is not so mechanical. HOUSE_OVERSIGHT_015740