A sudden idea — the quantum nature of consciousness

A sudden idea — the quantum nature of consciousness

When the book was finished, Penrose said that working on it never helped him understand the way the mysterious brain worked, but since he had written a lot of beautiful things, he would have to publish the outcome.

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Roughly speaking, we do not understand consciousness because there are no scientific methods describing physics, or rather its part, that has no calculations or mathematical algorithms.

For example, mathematical thinking and therefore all mental activity of a living being cannot be described by a pure computer model of the mind. No computational terms can help explain the mind. Thought processes do not follow mathematical concepts, nor are they governed by mathematical algorithms.

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According to Penrose, the physical picture of the world has a significant white spot, and namely, a bridge is missing between the microscopic — one might even say submicroscopic or quantum — level and the so-called macroworld. This missing bridge is the very thing needed to understand consciousness.

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In particular, Penrose believes that no computational terms can help explain the manifestations of conscious activity. For the record, it is a Nobel Prize winner in physics routinely dealing with mathematical theories, terms, and calculations who claims there are no calculations whatsoever in conscious activity.

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A part of the brain called the cerebellum may indeed resemble a computer in some way. But the brain has a lot more than just the cerebellum.

Roger Penrose, Nobel Prize winner in physics, refers to the quantum nature of consciousness. In his book The Emperor's New Mind, he laid the foundations for his approach that presupposes the quantum nature of consciousness.

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