Quantum consciousness
Table of Contents
Introduction: what does quantum physics add to our understanding to consciousness?
Bluntly, not much, yet.
It appears to me that it is likely that quantum consciousness concepts may been around for hundreds, if not thousands, of years.
Many scientists [held, ?hold?] a conviction that quantum mechanics will be essential to understanding consciousness. But perhaps question is much more powerful when turned around: "What does our consciousness tell us about quantum mechanics, physicists, and ourselves?".
Historical thinking about quantum [neurophysiology, consciousness]
As quantum mechanics was only invented in 1901 by Max Planc, then that necessarily limits the timeframe for discussing quantum consciousness. Right?
Ancient philosophy: Much has been made of the the ancient Greek "?D.. philosopher, school of thought??" who posited an atomic theory of matter. I've never heard that they might have had a "quantum conciousness" concept, but that wouldn't surprise me either. Did they really stop at the question of matter, and not consider the same approach to [mind, consciousness, spirit? Did so many others, who followed their thoughts down through the ages, also stop there? If so, I would find that to be very strange.
Quantum physics: concept origins in the late 1700s with Boskovitch?: If I remember correctly, when asked if his concepts arose from those of Boskovitch 200 years earlier, Max Planc once stated that he wasn't aware of Boskovitch [reference ???]. But ?Neils Bohr or De Broglie? clearly stated that he, and other [friend, associate]s of Max Planc, had always assumed that Planc had based quantum mechanics on Boskovitch's concepts. As for Boskovitch himself, in my very limited reading I have not seen anything to indicate whether he thought of quantum consciousness or related concepts. On the other hand, he did at least one project for the Pope, and might have liked to keep his head on his shoulders, and his favour in court. I would have done something like that, difficult as it is to keep my mouth shut.
Early era of [General Relativity, Quantum Mechanics]: I would be greatly surprised if there wasn't some thinking about quantum consciousness at least back to the "modern inception" of quantum mechanics by Max Planc in 1901. Schrodinger seems to have gone at least partially in that direction by 1944 (see Historical thinking about quantum [neurophysiology, consciousness]). But as with the ancient Greeks, I would be surprised if others in the quantum mechanics community weren't thinking of mind in addition to matter in the early 1900s. To me, this would not be a solid assumption to make even if the lack of documentation is glaring.
Pribram 1993 quantum fields and consciousness proceedings provides references back to 1960, and Jibu, Yasue comment that :
- "... Pribram is an outstanding brain scientist who claimed the emergence of incorporating quantum theoretical method of investigation into brain science about ten years after Schrodinger's deep insight into the brain science "What if life?". He coined the notion of neural holography and called the attention of physicists to the issues (Pribram 1960, 1971, 1991). ..."
- p125h0.20 Jibu, Yasue - early conceptual pioneers (NobelLaureat: Schrodinger 1944; Pribram 1960; Ricciardi, Umezawa 1967, NobelLaureat: Eccles 1986)
- Scrodinger, E 1944 "What is Life?" Cambridge University Press, Cambridge UK
- Howells questions about 1993 conference proceedings
Quantum [concept, approach, context]s
Quantum concepts
- field theories
- entanglement
- quantum devices [dot, ...
- quantum computing :
- random number generators
- encryption
- database searches
- secure communications (5-15km in 2010?)
Quantum approaches to applications
- universal function approximators :
- can fit data arbitrarily well, but don't prove the theories, including quantum mechanics
- although this point is sometimes recognized, it isn't widely appreciated
- quasi-quantum methods (classical approximations)
- often used as "sledge-hammer" numerical solutions
Quantum contexts for consciousness
- absolute - that quantum [devece, field]s are the basis
- quantum mechanics is a fundamental physics principle defining behavior of [electomagnetics, matter]
- electromagnetic theory basis of cojsciousness is also considered, not so much in this conference
- pragmatic utility of quantum field mathematics for neural networks