Archive 1

Archive 1

28/05/08: I was sent a recent piece from the Sunday Times discussing the controversy over stem cells. In the end the discussion has to be a bit ungrounded because of the lack of a consensus theory of consciousness based on experiment and observation. Of the quantum consciousness theorists only Penrose/Hameroff are specific enough about the biological details to provide much to discuss. They reckon single cell organisms have a microtubule based information system by which they can navigate, locate food, avoid predators etc. However, they do not think single cell organisms are concious. They suggest a critical mass of 300 neurons, as distinct from any other body cells that may exist. This critical mass would give a long enough time to collapse of the wave function, to be relevant to neural processes. Smaller aggregations of neurons might not manage this. Presumably, this initial consciosness of the 300 neuron brain would be of the raw qualia of the womb, quite different from a more developed human.

28/05/08: Added piece on Paul Davies's 'Universe Galore' chapter in 'Universe or Multiverse' Ed. Bernard Carr and published last year. Davies criticises multiverse theory and suggests that mind can be integrated into the universe.

27/05/08: Added discussion of Lee Smolin's book, 'The Trouble with Physics' highlighting the problems in string theory and multiverse theory, and appealing for new phsics to deal with the problems of cosmology. This seems to echo Penrose's appeal for new physics and Bohm's idea of an implicate order beyond both relativity and quantum theory.

24/05/08: Added lengthy discussion of Michael Lockwood's book 'Mind, Brain and the Quantum. A rather tortous discussion focusing on the relationship between time, relativity and consciousness, which still seems to miss out many salient points about time. The quantum consciousness part is very sketchy. Lockwood begins and ends his book with an attack on other philosophers for not having a proper go at the mind-body problem.

20/05/08: Added note on Sean Carroll's (Caltech) article 'The cosmic origing of time's arrow', relative to the problem of low entropy at the beginning of the universe.

19/05/08: Recently added are 'Quantum coherence in the brain' in which Hameroff discusses coherence between the spin of nuclei in the brain. Not conclusive since these are better shielded than electrons or protons. Also 'Magnetic quantum coherence in muscles' describing evidence of magnetic coherence in actin filaments in muscles. Both interesting in eroding the stance that quantum coherence in biological tissue is impossible.

Mohanty group at Boston University report the largest scale observation of quantum mechanical behaviour to date. P. Ferreira, A., Guerreiro, A., & Vedral, V. in Physical Review Letters, 96, 060407 report that an electromagnetic field in an optical cavity with a macroscopic mirror can support entanglement at high temperatures.

Researchers at the Aist Tsukuba Diamond Research Centre consider it possible that Bose-Einstein condensation could persist in diamond films at room temperature.

Benjamin et al in quant-ph 0511198 suggest that C60 (fullerene) appear to be natural candidates for quantum technology. Individual C60 atoms can remain in superposition for long periods. The group has performed experimental work in this area.