Russell Standish wrote:
> On Sat, Aug 26, 2006 at 01:57:07PM -0700, Brent Meeker wrote:
>
>>>What are the ingredients of a conscious computer ? Perhaps
>>>one essential component is a central processing unit that depends on quantum
>>>randomness to arrive at a decision when other factors balance out.
>>
>>I don't think there's any reason to suppoose quantum randomness plays a role in human
>>consciousness - and there are some reasons to think it doesn't, e.g. see Tegmarks
>>paper. There is plenty of environmental "noise" to prevent Buridan's ass from starving.
>>
>>Brent Meeker
>>
>
>
> Tegmark's paper looked specifically at quantum computing as a model
> for consciousness (ie Penrose's suggestion), and the requirements of
> quantum coherent states. He didn't look at quantum noise effects.
>
> There is evidence in the form of brains being structured to behave
> chaotically (in the classical deterministic chaos sense) (see Walter
> Freeman's work). This has the effect of amplifying randomness at the
> molecular (thermal) level, which ultimately depends on quantum
> randomness, to the macroscopic brain level.
>
> This may be coincidental, but I think not. Your PC is engineered to
> avoid the effects of chaos to prevent this very thing occurring. Why
> wouldn't nature do the same thing unless it were deliberately trying
> to exploit randomness?
In nature there's no reason to depend on amplifying quantum randomness - there's
plenty of "random" environmental input to keep our brains from getting stuck in loops.
Brent Meeker
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Received on Sat Aug 26 2006 - 23:29:58 PDT