If The Brain Is A Computer, Is The Mind A Quantum Computer?
George recently wrote a post about the brain’s similarity to a computer.
There are neuroanatomists, like Jill Bolte Taylor, who back up George’s premise and, in fact, believe that the brain behaves as a parallel processor (right hemisphere) and a serial processor (left hemisphere).
I’d like to take this analogy one step further: if the brain is a computer, could the MIND be a quantum computer? A quantum algorithm uses superposition (or quantum entanglement) to work on data exponentially. Whereas a regular computer operates on single bits, a quantum computer, technically speaking, can use qubits to manipulate multiple operations at the same time.
Stuart Hameroff, a anesthesiologist, and Sir Richard Penrose, a quantum physicist, say that at the nano-scale level the brain is engaging in quantum computations. This is so fundamental, the researchers suggest that the brain is literally wired into reality.
Is this the point where the brain becomes the mind?
There are those, like Hameroff and Penrose, who think so, but other scientists still aren’t sure. Consciousness remains the hardest soft science.
By the way, Hameroff doesn’t believe that the Singularity will happen, stating that AI won’t be able to compete with the quantum computational operations in the human brain–or mind. However, he doesn’t address whether AI could be used to augment the mind.
Related posts:
- One Small Quantum Leap Toward The Singularity
- Is Your Brain a Computer?
- How Will Quantum Computing Affect Finance?
- Tired of Mouse and Keyboard? Use your Mind to Control the Computer.
- Moving Things with Your Brain
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Very insightful!
I would have to disagree, while it is true that cells are manufactured with a number of nanoscale components that have a potential for quantum influence (The mitochondria being a popular example), we have not, as of yet, found any source of quantum influence within these structures, or anything that might provide a path for this quantum influence to effect synaptic activity. Further, experiments with neural nets have provided results that are eerily similar to organic brains, ie: memory and pattern recognition. I propose that these two properties under a sufficiently complex neural network can produce the effect of consciousness, making any reference to quantum computing within the brain moot.
Some points of research are possible if the brain and it’s resulting consciousness are hypothesized to be entirely the result of a highly complicated and sophisticated neural network:
If the neural network plays a completely passive role, meaning we are nothing more than the interplay between our sensory input, stored memory and information within the neural network, and the neural network itself, then a sufficient period of time in sensory deprivation would eventually see a cessation of conscious thought. This has not been the case, and therefore there is either something else at play, or the neural network has a more active role, such as an additional signal that serves to stimulate the brain regions. It would then be possible that the interplay of this other signal combined with sensory stimulus produces ‘original thought’
This allows my earlier hypothesis to be falsified, because if the animus keeping conscious activity going without external stimulus is a result of neuronal structures, then measuring the activity of individual neurons would show this. If, on the other hand, it is the result of internal mechanics within the neuron, then we would see spontaneous firing. If Spontaneous firing is observed, things get a bit more interesting.
Thanks for that ragarth!
I’m glad to see the other side of the debate.