Woo-free Quantum Consciousness?

[dlorde]

For those who simply must have QM involved in their model of consciousness, I found this refreshingly woo-free theory hypothesising that recursively connected neurons can act as pseudo-qubits, significantly enchancing performance:

A Theory of Consciousness Founded on Neurons That Behave Like Qubits (http://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1110/1110.3547.pdf)Abstract
This paper presents a hypothesis that consciousness is a natural result of neurons that become connected recursively, and work synchronously between short and long term memories. Such neurons demonstrate qubit-like properties, each supporting a probabilistic combination of true and false at a given phase. Advantages of qubits include probabilistic modifications of cues for searching associations in long term memory, and controlled toggling for parallel, reversible computations to prioritize multiple recalls and to facilitate
mathematical abilities.

For some reason, the 'probabilistic combination of true and false' reminds me of the 'fuzzy logic' that became so popular in the '90s.

[HansMustermann]

It's a bit more complex than fuzzy logic, but basically yes, it's about probabilities and levels, rather than strictly boolean true or false.

ETA: that said, the paper doesn't seem to be, or even claim to be, more than just a hypothesis. And a rather unsupported one at that. Who knows, it might even be correct, but ultimately it still must show the evidence before being worth taking as more than wild confabulation.

[jasonpatterson]

I'm just happy that the author was very clear in stating that his model is based on the ideas of QM metaphorically rather than trying to make a claim that consciousness is definitely a QM phenomenon.

[erased QM consciousness rant]

Thanks for the link. :)

[dlorde]

I'm just happy that the author was very clear in stating that his model is based on the ideas of QM metaphorically rather than trying to make a claim that consciousness is definitely a QM phenomenon.
That's what caught my eye. It's a plausible, reasonably well thought out hypothesis involving a specific QM idiom; I found that quite refreshing :)

[erased QM consciousness rant]
Yes, it's a good reminder to be wary of knee-jerk reactions to familiar word couplings :D

[dlorde]

ETA: that said, the paper doesn't seem to be, or even claim to be, more than just a hypothesis. And a rather unsupported one at that. Who knows, it might even be correct, but ultimately it still must show the evidence before being worth taking as more than wild confabulation.
Yes; I find myself half wishing Professor Burger finds his evidence - but somewhat doubtful, as he appears to specialize in electrical and computer engineering rather than neurobiology. Still, time will tell.

[Beerina]

I'm still betting on analog computer, rather than digital or quantum stuff. It's parsimonious.

[jasonpatterson]

Yes, it's a good reminder to be wary of knee-jerk reactions to familiar word couplings :D

Agreed, but it wasn't a kneejerk reaction, just an off topic rant. QM consciousness garbage is one of my biggest pet peeves among the more harmless forms of nonsense that people peddle.

[Minoosh]

I'm still betting on analog computer, rather than digital or quantum stuff. It's parsimonious.

I didn't know there was such a thing as an analog computer.

[Pulvinar]

I didn't know there was such a thing as an analog computer.
They were all the rage when digital was expensive, requiring many racks of hot tubes. Now of course it's much cheaper and easier to do computation digitally as numerical values instead of voltages. Any amount of noise can be added if desired (for dithering, etc.) from a hardware random number generator.

[MattusMaximus]

I didn't know there was such a thing as an analog computer.

Remember vacuum tubes?

[dlorde]

I didn't know there was such a thing as an analog computer.
It's a fascinating subject covering all kinds of weird stuff, from the Antikythera mechanism and slide-rules to the shipboard gun fire-control computers of WWII, and even MONIAC (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MONIAC_Computer) (Monetary National Income Analogue Computer), a hydraulic computer model of the UK economy. See Analog Computer (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Analog_computer).

[dlorde]

I'm still betting on analog computer, rather than digital or quantum stuff. It's parsimonious.
I guess it depends what level you're looking at. Neural communication is a strange mixture of analog and digital anyway.