The Hard(wire) Problem: IV

Recall that, according to Chalmers in The Hard(wire) Problem: II, what we are missing is an “extra ingredient,” that novel property that will explain how consciousness proceeds.  One such theory, the theory of quantum mechanics, attempts to account for the unique features of consciousness.   Almost all of modern physics is based on the quantum theory. 

 However, very few people actually question its implications.  Einstein was one of the few, and he was profoundly bothered by what he called “spooky forces” involved in quantum theory.  If quantum theory is correct, in Einstein’s mind, then it denies the existence of the real world.  An atom is only in one place because you observe it to be there, not necessarily because it physically exists there.  It is your act of looking that makes it visible to you.  In fact, that atom could exist in two, three, or many more places at once, until you look.  Conscious observation is what allows it to be found in actuality at that particular place you saw it (Rosenblum & Kuttner, 2006). 

Chalmers recognized the potential for a crucial connection between quantum theory and consciousness, “When there are two mysteries, it is tempting to suppose that they have a common source.  This temptation is magnified by the fact that the problems of quantum mechanics seem to be deeply tied to the notion of observership, crucially involving the relation between a subject’s experience and the rest of the world” (Rosenblum & Kuttner, 2006).  These are the two mysteries: the mystery of out there versus the mystery of in here.  But, according to some quantum theorists, out there and in here are fundamentally tied to one another in a state of universal consciousness.  Everything exists as wave functions in a state of entanglement, until an object is observed.  Stuart Hammeroff and Roger Penrose proposed the theory of objective reduction, OR, to address this.  According to OR, they “consider that consciousness occurs if an appropriately organized system is able to develop and maintain quantum coherent superposition until a specific "objective" criterion is reached; the coherent system then self-reduces (OR) (Hammeroff & Penrose, 1996).  This self-collapse gives rise to non-computability (qualia), the fundamental aspect of consciousness.  They go on to propose that OR is occurring actively in the microtubules of neurons (Hammeroff & Penrose, 1996).