Gaps in Penrose's toilings
| Abstract | Using the Gödel Incompleteness Result for leverage, Roger Penrose has argued that the mechanism for consciousness involves quantum gravitational phenomena, acting through microtubules in neurons. We show that this hypothesis is implausible. First, the Gödel Result does not imply that human thought is in fact non algorithmic. Second, whether or not non algorithmic quantum gravitational phenomena actually exist, and if they did how that could conceivably implicate microtubules, and if microtubules were involved, how that could conceivably implicate consciousness, is entirely speculative. Third, cytoplasmic ions such as calcium and sodium are almost certainly present in the microtubule pore, barring the quantum mechanical effects Penrose envisages. Finally, physiological evidence indicates that consciousness does not directly depend on microtubule properties in any case, rendering doubtful any theory according to which consciousness is generated in the microtubules. | |||||||||
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Similar books and articlesWilliam E. Seager (2003). Yesterday's Algorithm: Penrose and the Godel Argument. Croatian Journal of Philosophy 3 (9):265-273.
Stuart R. Hameroff & Roger Penrose (1996). Orchestrated Reduction of Quantum Coherence in Brain Microtubules: A Model for Consciousness. In Stuart R. Hameroff, Alfred W. Kaszniak & A. C. Scott (eds.), Toward a Science of Consciousness. MIT Press.
Roger Penrose & Stuart Hameroff (1996). Orchestrated Objective Reduction of Quantum Coherence in Brain Microtubules: The "Orch OR" Model for Consciousness. Mathematics and Computers in Simulation 40:453-480.
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Roger Penrose (1994). Mechanisms, Microtubules, and the Mind. Journal of Consciousness Studies 1 (2):241-49.
Roger Penrose & Stuart R. Hameroff (1995). What 'Gaps'? Reply to Grush and Churchland. Journal of Consciousness Studies 2 (2).
Rick Grush & P. Churchland (1995). Gaps in Penrose's Toiling. In Thomas Metzinger (ed.), Conscious Experience. Ferdinand Schoningh.
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