[ExI] quantum brains

The Avantguardian avantguardian2020 at yahoo.com
Tue Jan 19 00:43:48 UTC 2010



----- Original Message ----
> From: Damien Broderick <thespike at satx..rr.com>
> To: scerir <scerir at libero.it>; ExI chat list <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org>
> Sent: Mon, January 18, 2010 3:11:37 PM
> Subject: Re: [ExI] quantum brains

> Maybe the reason we don’t see intelligences out there is that they have all 
> migrated to quantum brains and so they avoid any contact with classical beings 
> who will destroy their coherence…

In the literature, it seems that the main (if not only) objection to the brain (and biological systems in general) utilizing quantum mechanics is the decoherence caused by the "warm and wet" environment of living systems. But I don't think this is the huge problem everybody makes it out to be. Physicists are closing in on macroscopic entanglement even as we speak. They have made progress at maintaining entanglement between macroscopic systems and quantum systems at relatively high temperatures.

http://physicsworld.com/cws/article/news/24285

You have increasing reports of the importance of *photons* in intercellular communication. Indeed there are *photoreceptors* in the deep tissues of the brain which never see the light of day.

http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/full/19/10/3681


And furthermore, one of the oldest QM thought experiments out there involves the macroscopic quantum entanglement of a rather "warm and wet" cat with the radioactive decay of atoms.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schr%C3%B6dinger's_cat

All and all, Penrose may not be spot on with his mechanism of microtubules and quantum gravity, but the general gist of his argument is compelling. To dismiss the possibility of QM effects in living organisms due to the "warm and wet" mantra is just lazy science.

Stuart LaForge 


"Never express yourself more clearly than you think." - Niels Bohr


      




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