On the geometry of consciousness
Following a theme which increasingly interests people concerned with problems of sentience, this paper describes how consciousness might encode information. The idea that awareness is inseparable from Bose-Einstein condensation in the brain is identified as the most promising of the ‘quantum consciousness’ notions. It can be inferred from this idea that brain Bose condensates will have a geometrical structure, analagous to that of tapestries, which can encode information and to which knot theory can be applied.These notions are able to explain otherwise puzzling features of conscious information handling and a neuroanatomically testable prediction is derived from them. Finally it's pointed out that they imply that any ‘strong’ panpsychist position is unnecessary.
Keywords: Bose-Einstein condensation; computation; consciousness; information; knot theory
Document Type: Research Article
Affiliations: Barfad Beag, Ardfern, Argyll PA31 8QN, Scotland.
Publication date: 01 May 1996
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