Sir Roger Penrose & Dr. Stuart Hameroff: CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE PHYSICS OF THE BRAIN
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters point to it as a presentation of the Penrose-Hameroff theory of consciousness, which some find compelling.
What it is
A 2020 UC San Diego event with Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff presenting their Orch OR theory that consciousness arises from quantum processes in brain microtubules, followed by a conversation with Roger Bingham.
Recommended by 2 HN commenters across 2 different months, 2020 to 2024.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec tanepiper · 2020-08 · on “The Psychedelic Inspiration for Hypercard (2018)”
I watched this video the other day: [this video] It's Sir Roger Penrose & Dr. Stuart Hameroff talking about the physics of consciousness - for the first time I think a truly compelling idea of what consciousness is in a scientific way that could potentially be empirically measured. They mention the use of psychedelics to create more "conscious moments" - and funnily enough in this piece, Bill Atkinson talks about pockets of consciousness. I wonder if there is really an argument to say that A) We have conscious beings on Earth due to some kind of quantum effect in our space (that is we really are just the bi-product of the quantum process in our universe) and B) Psychedelics can make humans more i
Recommends suoduandao3 · 2024-01 · on “Brains are not required to think or solve problems – simple cells can do it”
I quite like Penrose-Hameroff's theory [this video] My best summary of it: consciousness is primal, every bit of matter has perspective, every interaction has experience, the body you're 'occupying' is having a particularly complex and long-lived experience. As for your question of why this one, well, someone's got to be having this one. As for why not another, there's no saying 'you' won't have another 'after' this experience ends, but if 'you' had them in a perfectly undifferentiated way that'd be a different experience again, and as stated, someone's got to be having this one.
Cites dsego · 2022-07 · on “Under anesthesia, where do our minds go?”
> For example, if there really is a “soul” that is able to influence (and be influenced by) my brain, then what is the physical mechanism for that interaction? Apparently, something to do with brain microtubules & quantum vibrations. [this video]