Skeptic Redesign

ARTICLE Quantum Consciousness and Other Spooky Myths Quantum mechanics is mysterious. Consciousness is mysterious. The thought that there may be a connection has led to a lot of quantum biological pseudoscience. BY MARTIN BIER ABOUT A HUNDRED YEARS HAVE PASSED since coordinate axes are not to be thought of as tangible quantum mechanics was first developed. Quantum geometrical objects with real directions in three di- mechanics proved very successful in describing mensional space. They are part of a mathematical what is happening on the atomic level. The emission model in which there may be infinitely many such of light by objects when they are heated up (e.g., a axes. There is no equation that describes the col- light bulb), spectral lines, and later things like super- lapse. The numerical outcome of the observation conductivity, superfluidity, and the laser could be depends on which of the coordinate axes the wave well understood and described with quantum me- function collapses on. It is only probabilities that chanics. are associated with the different coordinate axes Quantum mechanics is not an approximation or that can be derived from Schrödinger’s equation. an ad hoc trick to make the equations agree with real- “Observation” is a somewhat vague notion and ity and with each other. It is a fundamental theory many physicists have a problem with its central role that is supposed to describe what is really happening in quantum mechanics. Furthermore, the element at the subatomic level. A wave function is the basis of of randomness in the collapse of the wave function the theory and Schrödinger's equation, named after is troublesome, and led to Einstein’s famous remark the German physicist Erwin Schrödinger, explains that “God does not play dice.” Richard Feynman, in the evolution of that wave function over time. The his 1967 book, The Character of Physical Law, equation is linear and for many specific cases there noted: “I think I can safely say that nobody under- is an exact solution or, at least, a good way to ap- stands quantum mechanics.”1 It is this spooky as- proximate the solution. However, a problem arises pect of quantum mechanics that leads some to when you want to leave the math for a moment to speculate wildly on possible connections to con- try to understand what is happening when an ob- sciousness and other aspects of human psychology. servation is made on a system on the atomic level. Our story begins with the Nobel Prize winning In quantum mechanics a particle—for instance physicist Eugene Wigner, who stood somewhat an electron—is represented by the aforementioned alone in his conviction that consciousness is re- wave function. The electron is then no longer a quired to make the wave function collapse—that is, point particle, but a wave, or something like a rip- that human thought can act as an “observation” to pling of the water in a pond; a rippling that is si- trigger the collapse of the wave function in a quan- multaneously present at more than one spot. tum event. Wigner died in 1995. That was one year Suppose you have a device that takes the outcome after the Queen of England knighted Roger Penrose, of an atomic level event, amplifies it, and makes it who basically inverted Wigner’s idea. According to visible on a macroscopic level, such as a Geiger Penrose, consciousness is a consequence of the col- counter. What is supposed to happen when the ob- lapse of quantum mechanical wave functions. servation is made is that the wave function col- Roger Penrose had built an impressive record lapses onto one of its coordinate axes. Such in physics before he devoted himself at a later age 40 SKEPTIC MAGAZINE volume 16 number 1 2010 to the quantum origins of life and consciousness. when the energy that is associated with the gravita- His 1997 book, The Large, the Small, and the tional attraction becomes too large. For the micro- Human Mind, contains a concise and very readable tubule this is supposed to work as follows: every explanation of his quantum-biological theories.2 monomer consists of two clusters and the distance Through many examples, Penrose argues that the between these two clusters is different in the 0 and human mind does not operate algorithmically. Ac- the 1 state. It is a small difference: only tenths of a cording to Penrose, the way in which we analyze a nanometer. Gravity leads to an attractive force be- move in a chess game, for example, is more than tween these two clusters and that force is di!erent just a sequence of procedures. There is something in the 0 and 1 state. In the electrochemical reality else going on, and that something else may be of the cell, this gravity is completely overwhelmed found, Penrose argues along with his colleague, the by electrostatic interactions and the thermal mo- anesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff, in the cytoskele- tion of the molecules. But, according to Penrose, ton of neurons that, they believe, harbor the equiv- gravity is essential for the collapse of the wave func- alent of a quantum computer. The operations tion. Two states with a gravitational energy differ- carried out by this quantum computer are what ence E can coexist, according to Penrose, in a lead to consciousness. wave function for a time t as long as E and t are How? Every cell that is larger than a bacterium within the limits that are set by Heisenberg’s uncer- has a cytoskeleton—a kind of a network of support tainty relation, i.e. E t h/2. The symbol h beams that gives the living cell structural reinforce- represents Planck’s constant, which is a very small ment. A microtubule (Figure 1) is a very stiff poly- number (6.6 10-34 J.s). mer and it is the main constituent of the It is not hard to compute that the combined cytoskeleton. The monomers in a microtubule are wave function of about a billion monomers lasts proteins that consist of about 800 amino acids. Two around one second in Penrose’s scheme. For a heav- conformational states are possible for each individ- ier object such as a human being, the wave function ual monomer. By associating these states with the 0 collapses within 10-30 seconds according to the and the 1 of the digital code of a computer, Penrose quantum gravitational model of Penrose. For and Hameroff believe they have found the basis for the brain acting as a computer. It is a quantum computer, they argue, because for each monomer the wave function is suspended between the two states. The two different conformational states have different electric dipoles. The dipoles of neighboring monomers can “feel” and affect each other and, in this way, the monomers interact. This would entan- gle the involved wave functions and lead the microtubule to operate like a working quantum computer. The cytoskeleton differs from a customary network of support beams in that it is in continuous motion. Cells grow, shrink, and change shape all the time. For nerve cells the dimensions of the synapses can be changed through the growing or the shrink- ing of the microtubules. It is at these synapses that signals are being transferred from one cell to the next. According to Penrose and Hameroff, it is at these synapses that the nervous system is connected to the microtubule network, and it is there that they Figure 1—An artist’s concept of a microtubule—a very stiff polymer that makes up the major part of the cytoskeleton of a neuron. interact to produce consciousness. This tube is the location of Penrose and Hameroff’s hypothesized How? Suppose an electron can exist in two consciousness-generating “quantum computer.” states—“spin up” and “spin down.” The wave func- Every little square on the microtubule is a monomer—an tion would then be suspended between these two individual protein of about 800 amino acids. The polymer tube is states. According to Penrose, there is a gravitational a spiral made up of 13 monomers per winding with a diameter of 23 attraction between these two states. His idea is that nanometers. Redrawn from an image by Graham Johnson published the wave function collapses onto one of these states on the cover of the Journal of Cell Biology, Vol. 151 (2000). volume 16 number 1 2010 WWW.SKEPTIC.COM 41 lighter objects such as an electron or a proton, the wave function can persist for many millions of Superstition years. But for a polymer-like microtubule, the sur- Belief in the Age of Science vival timescale of the wave function is one that Robert L. Park could be relevant for the operation of the nervous system. The basic idea of Penrose and Hameroff is that the microtubule quantum computer starts cal- culating, but that after about a second the calcula- “Bob Park is a sceptic’s sceptic, a consummate critical tion is terminated by the quantum gravitational thinker, a no-nonsense collapse of the wave function. The cytoskeleton scientist who knows baloney would at that moment effectively transfer the state when he detects it. of the calculation to the nervous system. Because Superstition is more than an the precise moment of termination is not algorith- entertaining romp through mically determined, this hypercomputer tran- the weird and wonderful. It is an important contribution scends algorithmicity. It is in this way that, to the sceptical literature . according to Penrose and Hameroff, we experience that every scientist needs to a “moment of consciousness” about every second.

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