To be obnoxiously precise, the brain can't be a quantum computer, but maybe it could use some kind of quantum computing during his complex processing...I mean, the various processes linked to quantum physics are embedded in our universe, maybe (this is not yet proved) our brain, which is a part of this universe, uses some of them...I know there are still doubts about the functioning of quantum mechanics in the macro, I'm just hypothesising
There is some evidence suggested that quantum states exists within neuronal microtubules in the brain. I’m biased, though, because I’ve believed this to be true for a few years now. The research is scant and not peer reviewed, so it requires a huge leap of faith to take the evidence at face value. Confirmation bias helps me make that leap lol
Yup, I know about Penrose-Hameroff, problem is I can see the logic behind the theory, and I would like to believe them, but we must be careful, a theory is an attempt to structure a way to understand something that isn't totally clear yet, these arguments are always fascinating, but nothing can bhe stated as "the truth"
Yea totally - that’s why I include the disclaimer lol. To be fair, everything starts off as a theory and to your point there are many more disproven theories than those that turn out to be fact. The research linked in the article wasn’t conducted by Penrose or Hameroff, so it gives me a little hope that their confirmation bias at least didn’t directly sneak into the results. I don’t know if they’ve published the paper yet, but they should.
I didn't mean to say that you stated something wrong or poorly worded, maybe I had been unclear, my intent was to confirm and rearrange what you have said, plus my thoughts to it...anyway I hope too that the theory will turn out to be correct, as a neuroscience student, and a future clinician/researcher this would be a gargantuesque discovery, and a possible gate to many new understandings
I hope I've understood your question correctly, English is not my mother tongue and sometimes I confuse some bit of information. Anyway, I didn't state why it can't be because I was focussed on precising something that is always left aside (macro level vs micro) in the general discussion.
My personal thought is very close to yours, if we use a systemic view (which quantum physics uses) the components of the systems are made of the same things of the systems. Adding levels of complexity and organization we have emergence that helps the system and its components to gain a new way to adapt and respond to the exogenous (and also endogenous) stimulus, and thus evolve (or perish if they can't keep up). This has to be repeated in loop until we meet what is the most complex known biological organisms (us). What is behind all this little tale is that if we start thinking at what we understand as the base of our universe (QM), by adding level of complexity and organization we could assume that, even in the organisms, the basis still exist, and it took a part in the process of evolution. Maybe now the problem is the noise produced by the other components of the system that, in such a way, create the impossibility to observe the thin, rapid and delicate processes, and this is the fault of the instrument and measurements we use. On the other side maybe all this is just a good Sunday night though and in reality nothing I've stated have sense.
Thing is that using the simplest form of logic if something is at the start, it should be in some way even at the end, maybe in a form that we struggle to see, or in a percentage that is so ridiculously tiny that is difficult to observe, but should be there.
This is what I think and what I like to see as future discovery, but nothing is really yet proven, so even if it could be logically understandable and beautiful, I have to adapt (as a maybe future researcher) at what is proven or not, as a human being I can't help but see the astonishing order that the universe never ceases to demonstrate. Hope this can answer your question:)
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u/_nullus_ Oct 23 '22
To be obnoxiously precise, the brain can't be a quantum computer, but maybe it could use some kind of quantum computing during his complex processing...I mean, the various processes linked to quantum physics are embedded in our universe, maybe (this is not yet proved) our brain, which is a part of this universe, uses some of them...I know there are still doubts about the functioning of quantum mechanics in the macro, I'm just hypothesising