posted on Aug, 28 2009 @ 12:11 AM
Actually, some scientists have been doing research into the idea that consciousness may be "controlled", if I may, by quantum physics. The February
2009 issue of Discover magazine spells it out in an article entitled Entangled Life.
As I cannot find the link, here is a direct quote:
"[Stuart] Hameroff speculates that anesthetics 'interrupt a delicate quantum process' within the neurons of the brain. Each neuron contains
hundreds of long, cylindrical protein structures, called microtubules, that serve as scaffolding."
Easy enough to follow. The article then goes on to say:
"Anesthetics... dissolve inside tiny oily regions of the microtubules, affecting how some electrons inside these regions behave."
That makes sense, right? Carrying on:
"He speculates that... [when] certain key electrons are in one 'place', call it to the the 'left', part of the microtubule is squashed; when the
electrons fall to the 'right', the section is elongated. But the laws of quantum mechanics allow electrons to be both 'left' and 'right' at the
same time, and thus for the microtubules to be both elongated and squashed at once. Each section of the constantly shifting system has an impact on
other sections, potentially via quantum entanglement..."
If one is vaguely familiar with the basics of quantum mechanics, one should know that quantum mechanics states that a particle can essentially exist
in two states at once (or both at the same time) - commonly called 'on' and 'off'. More:
"It is in this faster-than-light subatomic communication... that consciousness is born. Anesthetics get in the way of the dancing electrons and...
are able to switch consciousness off."
Hameroff's theory says that consciousness is controlled by quantum physical interactions of electrons and other physical matter - that's right:
consciousness arises from inanimate, non-living matter.