Quantum health and intracellular information technology
Stuart Hameroff M.D.Professor, Anesthesiology and PsychologyDirector, Center for Consciousness StudiesThe University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
www.quantumconsciousness.org
Health is the optimal state of a living system
But how do living systems differ from nonliving systems?
What is life?
19th century scientists believed life force fields connected all living beings: vitalism, animism or élan vital
But reductionist science showed biomolecular origins for life
Vitalists were purged from science and medicine
Varela, Maturana, Margulis:
Life is order from disorder (negative entropy) from entropy
Life defies the second law of thermodynamics:
Order (negative entropy) tends toward Disorder (entropy)
Memory –Long term potentiation (LTP)
Hameroff, Craddock & Tuszynski, 2010
Hameroff, Craddock & Tuszynski, 2010
Hameroff, Craddock & Tuszynski, 2010 – ‘Memory bytes’ - A molecular code for intra-cellular information processing
Reality is described by two distinct sets of laws. • Our everyday “classical” world follows predictable behaviors
• At small scales (and sometimes at large scales!) bizarre laws of quantum mechanics reign
Quantum
Classical
Quantum particles can
1) Exist in multiple possibilities: “superposition”
2) Remain connected over distance: “nonlocal entanglement”
3) Condense into one entity: “quantum coherence”
4) Quantum/classical transition (collapse) somehow involves consciousness (“observer effect”)
Sir Roger Penrose – Consciousness is a process on the edge between quantum and classical worlds,connected to the most basic level of the universe
Penrose-Hameroff ‘Orch OR’ theory of consciousness
Recent evidence shows ballistic/superconductivity at 8 MHz in microtubules (Bandyophadyay)
Quantum World Classical World Co-existing possibilities Definite
Interconnected/entangled Isolated
(?) Universal mind Material (?) Spiritual Material
Hope Doubt
Quantum vitalism?
EnlightenNext Magazine, spring 2010
Conclusions
• Microtubules are the information superhighway inside cells, and should be targets for pharmacological and optical encoding and regulation
• Life and consciousness are quantum processes subtly connected to the fine structure of the universe
• Spiritual beliefs are scientifically plausible
www.quantumconsciousness.org