Roger Penrose - Consciousness and the Universe: Quantum Physics, Evolution, Brain & Mind

Consciousness and the Universe

Quantum Physics, Evolution,

Brain & Mind

Editors

Sir Roger Penrose

University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom

Stuart Hameroff, M.D.

University of Arizona, Arizona,

Subhash Kak, Ph.D.

Oklahoma State University, Oklahoma

Consciousness and the Universe

Quantum Physics, Evolution,

Brain & Mind

Copyright 2009, 2010, 2011, 2017, Cosmology Science Publishers, Cosmology.com

Published by: Cosmology Science Publishers, Cambridge, MA

All rights reserved. This book is protected by copyright. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, including photocopying, or utilized in any information storage and retrieval system without permission of the copyright owner.

The publisher has sought to obtain permission from the copyright owners of all materials reproduced. If any copyright owner has been overlooked please contact: Cosmology Science Publishers at Editor@Cosmology.com, so that permission can be formally obtained.

Editor-in-Chief, Rudolf E. Schild, Ph.D., Center for Astrophysics, Harvard-Smithsonian, Cambridge, MA

Consciousness and the Universe

Quantum Physics, Evolution, Brain and Mind

ISBN: 978-1-938024-30-6

1-938024-30-3

1. Consciousness, 2. Cosmology 3. Quantum Physics, 4. Evolution,

5. Neuroscience, 6. Universe, 7. Brain, 8. Mind

Acknowledgments: All of the chapters in this book have been peer reviewed.

Contents

1. Consciousness in the Universe: Neuroscience, Quantum Space-Time Geometry and Orch OR Theory

Roger Penrose, PhD, OM, FRS,
and Stuart Hameroff, MD

Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor, Mathematical Institute, Emeritus Fellow, Wadham College, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Professor, Anesthesiology and Psychology, Director, Center for Consciousness Studies, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona, USA

Abstract

The nature of consciousness, its occurrence in the brain, and its ultimate place in the universe are unknown. We proposed in the mid 1990s that consciousness depends on biologically orchestrated quantum computations in collections of microtubules within brain neurons, that these quantum computations correlate with and regulate neuronal activity, and that the continuous Schrdinger evolution of each quantum computation terminates in accordance with the specific DisiPenrose (DP) scheme of objective reduction of the quantum state (OR). This orchestrated OR activity (Orch OR) is taken to result in a moment of conscious awareness and/or choice. This particular (DP) form of OR is taken to be a quantum-gravity process related to the fundamentals of spacetime geometry, so Orch OR suggests a connection between brain biomolecular processes and fine-scale structure of the universe. Here we review and update Orch OR in light of criticisms and developments in quantum biology, neuroscience, physics and cosmology. We conclude that consciousness plays an intrinsic role in the universe.

KEY WORDS: Consciousness, microtubules, OR, Orch OR, quantum computation, quantum gravity

1. Introduction: Consciousness, Brain and Evolution

Consciousness implies awareness: subjective experience of internal and external phenomenal worlds. Consciousness is central also to understanding, meaning and volitional choice with the experience of free will. Our views of reality, of the universe, of ourselves depend on consciousness. Consciousness defines our existence.

Three general possibilities regarding the origin and place of consciousness in the universe have been commonly expressed.

(A) Consciousness is not an independent quality but arose as a natural evolutionary consequence of the biological adaptation of brains and nervous systems. The most popular scientific view is that consciousness emerged as a property of complex biological computation during the course of evolution. Opinions vary as to when, where and how consciousness appeared, e.g. only recently in humans, or earlier in lower organisms. Consciousness as evolutionary adaptation is commonly assumed to be epiphenomenal (i.e. a secondary effect without independent influence), though it is frequently argued to confer beneficial advantages to conscious species (Dennett, 1991; 1995; Wegner, 2002).

(B) Consciousness is a quality that has always been in the universe. Spiritual and religious approaches assume consciousness has been in the universe all along, e.g. as the ground of being, creator or component of an omnipresent God. Panpsychists attribute consciousness to all matter. Idealists contend consciousness is all that exists, the material world an illusion (Kant, 1781).

(C) Precursors of consciousness have always been in the universe; biology evolved a mechanism to convert conscious precursors to actual consciousness. This is the view implied by Whitehead (1929; 1933) and taken in the Penrose-Hameroff theory of orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR). Precursors of consciousness, presumably with proto-experiential qualities, are proposed to exist as the potential ingredients of actual consciousness, the physical basis of these proto-conscious elements not necessarily being part of our current theories of the laws of the universe (Penrose and Hameroff, 1995; Hameroff and Penrose, 1996a; 1996b).

2. Ideas for how consciousness arises from brain action

How does the brain produce consciousness? An enormous amount of detailed knowledge about brain function has accrued; however the mechanism by which the brain produces consciousness remains mysterious (Koch, 2004). The prevalent scientific view is that consciousness somehow emerges from complex computation among simple neurons which each receive and integrate synaptic inputs to a threshold for bit-like firing. The brain as a network of 10 integrate-and-fire neurons computing by bit-like firing and variable-strength chemical synapses is the standard model for computer simulations of brain function, e.g. in the field of artificial intelligence (AI).

The brain-as-computer view can account for non-conscious cognitive functions including much of our mental processing and control of behavior. Such non-conscious cognitive processes are deemed zombie modes, auto-pilot, or easy problems. The hard problem (Chalmers, 1996) is the question of how cognitive processes are accompanied or driven by phenomenal conscious experience and subjective feelings, referred to by philosophers as qualia. Other issues also suggest the brain-as-computer view may be incomplete, and that other approaches are required. The conventional brain-as-computer view fails to account for:

The hard problem Distinctions between conscious and non-conscious processes are not addressed; consciousness is assumed to emerge at a critical level (neither specified nor testable) of computational complexity mediating otherwise non-conscious processes.

Non-computable thought and understanding, e.g. as shown by Gdels theorem (Penrose, 1989; 1994).

Binding and synchrony, the problem of how disparate neuronal activities are bound into unified conscious experience, and how neuronal synchrony, e.g. gamma synchrony EEG (30 to 90 Hz), the best measurable correlate of consciousness does not derive from neuronal firings.

Causal efficacy of consciousness and any semblance of free will. Because measurable brain activity corresponding to a stimulus often occurs after weve responded (seemingly consciously) to that stimulus, the brain-as-computer view depicts consciousness as epiphenomenal illusion (Dennett, 1991; 1995; Wegner, 2002).

Cognitive behaviors of single cell organisms. Protozoans like Paramecium can swim, find food and mates, learn, remember and have sex, all without synaptic computation (Sherrington, 1957).

In the 1980s Penrose and Hameroff (separately) began to address these issues, each against the grain of mainstream views.