{"id":1186,"date":"2019-01-21T15:28:48","date_gmt":"2019-01-21T15:28:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/?p=1186"},"modified":"2019-01-21T15:28:48","modified_gmt":"2019-01-21T15:28:48","slug":"quantum-brainstorms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/21\/quantum-brainstorms\/","title":{"rendered":"Quantum Brainstorms"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img width='110' height='110' border='0' hspace='5' align='right' src='\/~totl\/skywritings\/uploads\/schroedcat.serendipityThumb.jpg' alt='' \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.quantamagazine.org\/20161102-quantum-neuroscience\/\">Fisher&#8217;s hypothesis<\/a> (about quantum tunneling effects in biology) &#8211; probably false, but not absurd &#8211; concerns physiological functioning, as in photosynthesis. <\/p>\n<p>But it has absolutely nothing to do with consciousness (sentience). <\/p>\n<p>[And it certainly does not justify the pseudo-scientific lithium experiment with rats (an experiment that apparently even failed to replicate).]<\/p>\n<p>Quantum physics, one of the most powerful and successful theories in the history of science, still has its problems, even paradoxes. Just as cognitive neuroscience has its problem: its paradox is sentience.<\/p>\n<p>Churchill said (about Russia): &#8220;It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Concerning quantum mechanics and consciousness, I would say that we cannot resolve a paradox (in one domain) with a paradox (from another domain).<\/p>\n<p>Quantum computation (already a controversial field), if it turns out to be practical, could have a biological role &#8211; but already in photosynthesis (which does not enter consciousness\u2026) <\/p>\n<p>(One can draw one&#8217;s inspiration from anywhere, from anything, including having been relieved of depression by Prozac: the chemical effect on our consciousness may surprise us, as does any question about chemistry and consciousness; and if we struggle with the perplexities of quantum mechanics it can give us associative ideas:  mysteries have affinities: that&#8217;s what, in other minds, gives birth to the soul, immortal and immaterial, to the omnipotent and omniscient creator and to the mysteries of transubstantiation and the trinity &#8230;)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fisher&#8217;s hypothesis (about quantum tunneling effects in biology) &#8211; probably false, but not absurd &#8211; concerns physiological functioning, as in photosynthesis. But it has absolutely nothing to do with consciousness (sentience). [And it certainly does not justify the pseudo-scientific lithium experiment with rats (an experiment that apparently even failed to replicate).] Quantum physics, one of &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/2019\/01\/21\/quantum-brainstorms\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Quantum Brainstorms&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3074,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1186"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1187,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1186\/revisions\/1187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/generic.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/skywritings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}