That would be an example of science in action, and I'm certainly not denying that more evidence would make these theories more tenable. Considering that virtual

That would be an example of science in action, and I'm certainly not denying that more evidence would make these theories more tenable. Considering that virtually every spare differential at every scale is taken advantage of by the body to conduct its work, it's not surprising at all to find quantum effects put to work all over the brain. That's in the general, but we're talking about a specific theory. Your story is also about survivorship bias of scientific theories used as justification for a failure of imagination. Just because while looking for a place to seat consciousness they posited a phenomenon that turned out to take place does not imply that seating. Staking out a claim and adjusting it as information arrives is part of doing good science, but it does not follow that the initial or altered claim is then a good or likely scientific theory. Penrose's theories are especially problematic in this area (as opposed to your analogy) because consciousness as a phenomenon is so poorly defined and because of the (many) changes that have been made wrt the physical structures proposed as the mechanisms of his version of consciousness over the years. Fortunately the "objective reduction" is a very specific requirement for consciousness Penrose has laid out, and I see no evidence here that suggests we're seeing it in action, nor the additional needed evidence that it itself is necessary for "consciousness". Implying otherwise is my objection. > P.S. Re the "according to the article's narrative" snipe, uhh, some of us have been following this issue since the 90s when the idea was proposed. "You guys are crazy" is an accurate description of the majority consensus. I was not denying that there were people saying "You guys are crazy", I was saying that I have my doubts that there was ever consensus around calling crazy a statement like "there is quantum activity in the microtubules". See dnautics's comment above. "Theory pilloried by scientific community turns out to be true" is a nice narrative, but again: survivorship bias. Most theories turn out to be wrong (and, more crucially, less usefully wrong than accepted theories).