3 ms·

Yeah I think there's a paper about how brains most likely represent some things with quantum states which may explain why we don't understand them yet.

jerf 3y ago
There are many such papers. However they need to be understood as extremely speculative, if not outright woo-woo, as there is currently no reason to believe that the brain is capable of maintaining any sort of even modestly-large-scale entanglement properties. These papers, and people commenting on them, also often appear to believe that just finding that entanglement is happening would itself mean something; it's not hard to read them as basically saying "and we found the 'Here There Be Magic' in the brain!" They don't even seem to speculate as to what the entanglement and "quantum" would be doing. What visible difference would it make versus a non-"quantum" brain? How could we determine that the brain is using "quantum" to do something that could not otherwise be explained or is somehow irreducible to some otherwise-classical phenomenon? Not only do I not see answers, not only do I not even really see theories, I don't even see much recognition that the question exists. We have quantum computers right now. They are small, but they are fully quantum. They don't do anything by virtue of their quantumness. They aren't sitting there being ambiently quantum. They have to be set up, then executed, then answers read out, and the way in which they deviate from non-quantum computers is actually perfectly mathematically characterizable. And it is not clear to me exactly how those differences are supposed to be useful to describing how a brain works even if functioning quantum computers can be found. Basically, the problem of how a brain works is so vast that the question of whether or not it has some sort of quantum computer in it sinks without a trace, and certainly without providing any sort of explanation at the present time.
- mrguyorama 3y ago
  People are desperate for "quantum" to be involved in the brain because it's the only possible way to resolve "Physical processes are mostly deterministic" -> "The brain is a physical process" -> "A deterministic brain means truly no free will, which has serious philosophical and ethical implications".
sebastianconcpt 3y ago
Is it about the microtubules in brain cells? Dr. Stuart Hameroff comes to mind [1] His hypothesis is the "less incorrect" I've heard of. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpUVot-4GPM&list=PLOfMRzYBxE8V0TpHz2Q2ZNimEJDQTArbv&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpUVot-4GPM&list=PLOfMRzYBxE...

jerf 3y ago

There are many such papers. However they need to be understood as extremely speculative, if not outright woo-woo, as there is currently no reason to believe that the brain is capable of maintaining any sort of even modestly-large-scale entanglement properties. These papers, and people commenting on them, also often appear to believe that just finding that entanglement is happening would itself mean something; it's not hard to read them as basically saying "and we found the 'Here There Be Magic' in the brain!" They don't even seem to speculate as to what the entanglement and "quantum" would be doing. What visible difference would it make versus a non-"quantum" brain? How could we determine that the brain is using "quantum" to do something that could not otherwise be explained or is somehow irreducible to some otherwise-classical phenomenon? Not only do I not see answers, not only do I not even really see theories, I don't even see much recognition that the question exists. We have quantum computers right now. They are small, but they are fully quantum. They don't do anything by virtue of their quantumness. They aren't sitting there being ambiently quantum. They have to be set up, then executed, then answers read out, and the way in which they deviate from non-quantum computers is actually perfectly mathematically characterizable. And it is not clear to me exactly how those differences are supposed to be useful to describing how a brain works even if functioning quantum computers can be found. Basically, the problem of how a brain works is so vast that the question of whether or not it has some sort of quantum computer in it sinks without a trace, and certainly without providing any sort of explanation at the present time.

mrguyorama 3y ago
People are desperate for "quantum" to be involved in the brain because it's the only possible way to resolve "Physical processes are mostly deterministic" -> "The brain is a physical process" -> "A deterministic brain means truly no free will, which has serious philosophical and ethical implications".

sebastianconcpt 3y ago

Is it about the microtubules in brain cells? Dr. Stuart Hameroff comes to mind [1] His hypothesis is the "less incorrect" I've heard of. [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpUVot-4GPM&list=PLOfMRzYBxE8V0TpHz2Q2ZNimEJDQTArbv&index=1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YpUVot-4GPM&list=PLOfMRzYBxE...