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This feels a lot like a standard line of muddy thinking we see in youtube videos about consciousness (for example): "we don't understand brains, and we don't un

This feels a lot like a standard line of muddy thinking we see in youtube videos about consciousness (for example): "we don't understand brains, and we don't understand quantum mechanics, so they're probably related." It's easy to speculate, but it's not easy to find any evidence at all to back up those guesses. It's still not clear that this has anything to do with consciousness or information processing or AWS datacenters.

throwaway11460 2y ago
There's evidence that biology takes advantage of quantum effects on all levels - all the way from individual chemical bonds and interactions of molecules (quantum biochemistry) up to cellular and multi-cellular. Mostly because there's no way it could work on such small scales and be so energy efficient if it didn't. So one thing is certain - the brain does use quantum mechanics just like the rest of the body, because otherwise it wouldn't be possible to have so much done inside such a small volume, with such small amounts of energy. Of course this question is actually meant to be "is brain a quantum computer?" and we don't have any idea.
- 613style 2y ago
  > otherwise it wouldn't be possible to have so much done inside such a small volume, with such small amounts of energy That's interesting. Could you share your source?
  - throwaway11460 2y ago
    Meh, down voters have no idea what they're talking/reading about and yet they down vote. Not everything about quantum mechanics is voodoo. Sorry, not in the mood to talk about this here any more. The Wikipedia page is a good start, it has some relevant references to research articles in the Enzyme catalysis and Energy transfer sections: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_biology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_biology Quantum effects are also used inside cells to convert chemical energy to motion. It wouldn't be possible otherwise at that nanoscale.

throwaway11460 2y ago

There's evidence that biology takes advantage of quantum effects on all levels - all the way from individual chemical bonds and interactions of molecules (quantum biochemistry) up to cellular and multi-cellular. Mostly because there's no way it could work on such small scales and be so energy efficient if it didn't. So one thing is certain - the brain does use quantum mechanics just like the rest of the body, because otherwise it wouldn't be possible to have so much done inside such a small volume, with such small amounts of energy. Of course this question is actually meant to be "is brain a quantum computer?" and we don't have any idea.

613style 2y ago
> otherwise it wouldn't be possible to have so much done inside such a small volume, with such small amounts of energy That's interesting. Could you share your source?
- throwaway11460 2y ago
  Meh, down voters have no idea what they're talking/reading about and yet they down vote. Not everything about quantum mechanics is voodoo. Sorry, not in the mood to talk about this here any more. The Wikipedia page is a good start, it has some relevant references to research articles in the Enzyme catalysis and Energy transfer sections: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_biology https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum_biology Quantum effects are also used inside cells to convert chemical energy to motion. It wouldn't be possible otherwise at that nanoscale.