Common-sciousness - The Litmus School Writing Project

$In Common-sciousness: Brains. Biochemical factories. An organ highly-prized by every sane being – something we all have in common. Time for some controversy: The “brain is the most important organ.” – says the BRAIN. (TED, Seth, & Pradhan, 2017) Surely this amalgamation of white and grey matter concentrated into a distasteful walnut is merely a vehicle for our consciousness? “Cogito, ergo sum.” “Je pense, donc je suis.” This is René Descartes’ “I think, therefore I am” postulation. Therefore, David Chalmers claims that he can doubt any truth in the world asides from the fact that he is conscious. (Britannica & Duignan, n.d.) (Lennybound & Chalmers, 2009) According to Integrated Information Theory (IIT), a sufficiently sizeable Reed-Soloman circuit is more conscious than you. IIT allows us to quantify consciousness, which can undoubtedly decipher fractions of Chalmers’ “hard problem of consciousness”. IIT investigates how information migrates between its subsystems, with phi (Φ) illustrating how well a system integrates information. IIT is essentially Patrizi’s panpsychic ideology; sci-fi come true; a model for a sentient universe. Although philosophically weak according to John Searle, it ascribes consciousness to sub-atomic particles. Perhaps neutrinos interact little with matter as they are consciously avoiding it. (Brooks, 2020) Please think twice before you unconsciously engage in mitosis. There will be a delocalised electron in the π system of a quadruplet of benzene rings hidden within a hydrophobic pocket of a microtubule. That tug-of-war that dynein is performing with your chromosomes as it dances senselessly on your microtubule is bound to induce shifts in space-time geometry which could unintentionally hurt the electron’s feelings. (Hameroff, 2010b) (Hameroff, 2010a) Please email #3/5/8/13/21 to FibonnaciTopologicalQuantumErrorCorrectionOnMicrotubules@gmail.com to donate 8.085 MHz today. Yet, Thomas Nagel suggests that something is conscious “only if there is something that it is like to be that organism”. (Nagel, 1974) Sure, Richard Feynman had no problem imagining himself as an electron, but we can understand that there is certainly a philosophical issue with granting our standard model consciousness. (Feynman, 2011) However, according to Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff, consciousness can be narrowed down to the microcosm of quantum mechanics. Scientists struggle near 0 Kelvin to observe quantum effects; how can quantum manoeuvres thrive in the warm salty seas that constitute our bodies? This is a phenomenon that quantum biology is uncovering: quantum tunnelling in the sun driving nuclear fusion alongside DNA mutations; coherence allowing for the 99% efficiency of photosynthesis; entanglement accounting for the European robin’s navigation via magnetoreception. (Al-Khalili & McFadden, 2014) The truth is, if plants can utilise quantum effects, then why not our brains? Penrose and Hameroff’s Orchestrated Objective Reduction Theory is a rigorous hunt for a non-computable model of consciousness which can erase discrepancies between the Schrödinger equation and the collapse of the wavefunction. (Penrose & Fridman, 2020) Quantum physics and general relativity not getting along very well? No problem. With the advent of the E8 structure and its relevance to the neglected successor of quaternions: octonions, bosonic string theory and its 26 dimensions may become our “Theory of Everything” and our answer to Chalmers’ “hard problem”. (Mathematics & Wildberger, 2014) Perhaps it is not just consciousness we have in common but also our understanding of it. Incomplete. Just like this sentence. References: Al-Khalili, J., & McFadden, J. (2014). Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology. Britannica, T. E. of E., & Duignan, B. (n.d.). Cogito, ergo sum. Retrieved from Encyclopaedia Britannica website: https://www.britannica.com/topic/cogito-ergo-sum Brooks, M. (2020). IS THE UNIVERSE CONSCIOUS? New Scientist, (3280), 40–44. Feynman, R. P. (2011). Six Easy Pieces: Essentials of Physics Explained by its Most Brilliant Teacher. Hameroff, S. (2010a). Stuart Hameroff defends Orch-OR theory at TSC 2010 - Pt 1 of 2. Retrieved from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZAVQjMf2fEQ Hameroff, S. (2010b). Stuart Hameroff defends Orch-OR theory at TSC 2010 - Pt 2 of 2. Retrieved from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ed9nZXrOaMk Lennybound, & Chalmers, D. (2009). David Chalmers on Consciousness. Retrieved from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NK1Yo6VbRoo Mathematics, I. into, & Wildberger, N. (2014). Hypercomplex numbers | Math History | NJ Wildberger. Retrieved from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uw6bpPldp2A Nagel, T. (1974). What Is It Like to Be a Bat? The Philosophical Review, 83(4), 435–450. Retrieved from https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/iatl/study/ugmodules/humananimalstudies/lectures/32/nagel_bat.pdf Penrose, S. R., & Fridman, L. (2020). Consciousness is Not a Computation (Roger Penrose) | AI Podcast Clips. Retrieved from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXgqik6HXc0 TED, Seth, A., & Pradhan, M. (2017). Your brain hallucinates your conscious reality | Anil Seth. Retrieved from YouTube website: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyu7v7nWzfo$

by Shanker Narayan, Age 17