RE: Penrose

Henri Kluytmans (hkl@stack.nl)
Thu, 13 Nov 1997 19:06:40 +0000


on 11 Nov 1997 Hall Fineney wrote:
>Within the neurons there may be quantum systems which manage to stay
>coherent. Some people point to the insides of microtubules as an area
>protected from the environment; others suggest that water molecules
>near surfaces may have a quasi-solid structure which could support
>quantum superpositions.

Although we do not yet know enough characteristics of biological
neurons to create exact simulations of such a neurons,
I have seen simulations which were able to mimic the behavior
of very simple life forms possessing very small neural networks
(<100 neurons) using artificial neural networks.

Because of biological evolution it seems that if quantum systems
should be present in the neurons of humans they should also be
present in the neurons of simple organisms, because these
neurons appear to be quite similar.

Based on this assumption quantum systems, even if present, do not
seem to be involved in determining the behavior of biological
neural networks.

IMHO the known characteristics of neural networks are sufficient
to account for the behavior of all biological neural networks,
including the ones which seem to posses consciousness.

The presence of quantum systems in biological neurons seems
very unlikely.

-- 
>Hkl