Re: coherent quantum systems in neurons

Damien Broderick (damien@ariel.ucs.unimelb.edu.au)
Tue, 18 Nov 1997 13:05:45 +0000


>1) Can somebody explain how these quantum systems stay coherent long
>enough to perform a useful computation?
>
>(As far as I know the current proposals for artificial quantum computers
>are to be working at very low temperatures to keep the system coherent
>long enough. )

Exactly. Paul Davies has pointed out that the ambient heat noise in a
brain would instantly decohere such putative effects. Danah Zohar and Ian
Marshall and other fans of Bose condensates in neural structures seem to me
to be engaging in hand-waving of the most noxious kind.

On the other hand, moderate-temperature superconductors were once thought
impossible in principle.

Damien Broderick