Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience

The question of what generates conscious experience has mesmerized thinkers since the dawn of humanity, yet its origins remain a mystery. The topic of consciousness has gained traction in recent years, thanks to the development of large language models that now arguably pass the Turing test, an oper...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2024-05, Vol.26 (6), p.460
Main Authors: Neven, Hartmut, Zalcman, Adam, Read, Peter, Kosik, Kenneth S, van der Molen, Tjitse, Bouwmeester, Dirk, Bodnia, Eve, Turin, Luca, Koch, Christof
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
anesthesia
brain organoids
brain–computer interface
Communication
Consciousness
Information theory
Intelligence
Internet service providers
Large language models
Logic
Penrose, Roger
physical substrate of consciousness
quantum biology
Quantum computers
Quantum entanglement
Quantum mechanics
Quantum physics
Quantum theory
xenon
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Summary:The question of what generates conscious experience has mesmerized thinkers since the dawn of humanity, yet its origins remain a mystery. The topic of consciousness has gained traction in recent years, thanks to the development of large language models that now arguably pass the Turing test, an operational test for intelligence. However, intelligence and consciousness are not related in obvious ways, as anyone who suffers from a bad toothache can attest-pain generates intense feelings and absorbs all our conscious awareness, yet nothing particularly intelligent is going on. In the hard sciences, this topic is frequently met with skepticism because, to date, no protocol to measure the content or intensity of conscious experiences in an observer-independent manner has been agreed upon. Here, we present a novel proposal: Our proposal has several implications: First, it suggests that the structure of the superposition determines the qualia of the experience. Second, quantum entanglement naturally solves the binding problem, ensuring the unity of phenomenal experience. Finally, a moment of agency may coincide with the formation of a superposition state. We outline a research program to experimentally test our conjecture via a sequence of quantum biology experiments. Applying these ideas opens up the possibility of expanding human conscious experience through brain-quantum computer interfaces.
ISSN:1099-4300
1099-4300
DOI:10.3390/e26060460