Thanks,
Curtis

Deborah Sobwick wrote:

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> Consciousness and quantum gravity
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> . . . we consider that consciousness occurs if an appropriately
> organized system is able to develop and maintain quantum coherent
> superposition until a specific "objective" criterion (a threshold
> related to quantum gravity) is reached; the coherent system then
> self-reduces (objective reduction: OR). We contend that this type
> of objective self-collapse introduces non-computability, an
> essential feature of consciousness which distinguishes our minds
> from classical computers. Each OR is taken as an instantaneous
> event-the climax of a self-organizing process in fundamental
> spacetime¡ªand a candidate for a conscious Whitehead "occasion of
> experience." How could an OR process occur in the brain, be
> coupled to neural activities, and account for other features of
> consciousness? We nominate a quantum computational OR process with
> the requisite characteristics to be occurring in cytoskeletal
> microtubules within the brain's neurons.
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> In this model, quantum-superposed states develop in microtubule
> subunit proteins ("tubulins") within certain brain neurons, remain
> coherent, and recruit more superposed tubulins until a
> mass-time-energy threshold (related to quantum gravity) is
> reached. At that point, self-collapse, or objective reduction
> (OR), abruptly occurs. We equate the pre-reduction, coherent
> superposition ("quantum computing") phase with pre-conscious
> processes, and each instantaneous (and non-computable) OR, or
> self-collapse, with a discrete conscious event. Sequences of OR
> events give rise to a "stream" of consciousness.
> Microtubule-associated proteins can "tune" the quantum
> oscillations of the coherent superposed states; the OR is thus
> self-organized, or "orchestrated" ("Orch OR"). Each Orch OR event
> selects (non-computably) microtubule subunit states which regulate
> synaptic/neural functions using classical signaling.
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> The quantum gravity threshold for self-collapse is relevant to
> consciousness, according to our arguments, because macroscopic
> superposed quantum states each have their own spacetime
> geometries.l-2 These geometries are also superposed, and in some
> way "separated," but when sufficiently separated, the
> superposition of spacetime geometries becomes significantly
> unstable and reduces to a single universe state. Quantum gravity
> determines the limits of the instability; we contend that the
> actual choice of state made by Nature is noncomputable. Thus each
> Orch OR event is a self-selection of spacetime geometry, coupled
> to the brain through microtubules and other biomolecules.
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> If conscious experience is intimately connected with the very
> physics underlying spacetime structure, then Orch OR in
> microtubules indeed provides us with a completely new and uniquely
> promising perspective on the difficult problems of consciousness.
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> ¡ªStuart Hameroff, Consciousness, the brain, and spacetime
> geometry
> <http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/penrose-hameroff/cajal.pdf>
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