The Science of Consciousness: Stuart Hameroff

Stuart Hameroff, co-founder of the Toward a Science of Consciousness conference, follows a brief overview of quantum theory and general relativity with an update of the latest ideas and findings from the science of consciousness. He illustrates Roger Penrose's suggestion that the collapse of the wave function causes consciousness, not the other way round, describing Objective Reduction (OR) as still the only mechanism to explain consciousness. He concludes with the tantalizing idea that life and consciousness may play an intrinsic role in the nature of the universe, allowing the physical constants to mutate and evolve from aeon to aeon.


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[jdkingsley]

I someone who had a near-death experience and had the out-of-body experience as well. I immediately turned to science to try to make sense of it instead of diving into religion. I wanted to make sense of why it seemed like I was everywhere at once but there, outside of my body, at the same time. It's almost as if I existed in a field of collective consciousness but still unique enough to know I was me. I can't recall how it felt or what everything else looked like I just remember seeing myself and my family. I can recall the feeling of being brought to life which felt like the world's fastest rollercoaster drop. Thank you Dr. Hameroff, Sir Penrose, and Dr. Lanza. Because of you, three reality makes a bit more sense.

[dedicatedgamer]

Stuart, thank you creating and maintaining a space to discuss consciousness, and thank you for your ongoing contributions. Also, Penrose is a legend!

[joecaner]

*Bing* = collapse of the quantum wave function generating the moment of consciousness.
*Badda* =  is the state of superposition where all possibilities are simultaneously true.
*Boom* = the cosmic crossover demarcation between aeons.
*Badda Bing Badda Boom* = pervasive consciousness driving the evolving universe.

[maikhowthomaz]

WE LOVE YOU, HAMEROFF AND PENROSE. Thank you for spending hours and hours of your consciousness digging deep into the most important questions of our existence. Very important for the entire humanity.

[StephenCRose]

One of the best comprehensive looks at the present state of things -- it will speak to many disciplines and points of view.

[redguardgaming]

Stuart looks so much older than when I first heard his name. You're still on the right path

[spiritualanarchist]

The old saying 'God is omnipresence' could mean 'consciousness is omnipresence' Therefore we could also reason : 'Everything we call the classical world is solid because it's being observed constantly everywhere . By this omnipresence observation the universe on **'classical scale ' stays solid, instead of staying is a constant state of superposition

[kelvinbel]

That was the greatest explanation for layman, thank you.

[MRBROWNCOW]

Collapse of the wave function creating the observer. Love it.

[mikechaisson]

Like a record that emerges sound, "recorded music eg.", when playing on a record player, our consciousness emerges in much the same way as what our senses have recorded throughout our lives. Whatever environmental stimulating factors there are, a moment of memory comes. These are memories that make up the ongoing experience of your life they provide you with a sense of self as does the record emerge the content of what was recorded without the attachment of a self, but more so as a expression of who recorded the record. In the plain vernacular" there is no mystery", only memory and imagination and an attachment to one or the other, or both.

[yashjhingan]

Bohm's Pilot Wave does make a lot of sense...

[science]

We are pure consciousness having a material experience at the moment.

[haimbenavraham]

Stuart that's a lot of conscious hard thought. well done. Thank you.

[markdanielpatureau]

I believe Dr. Hamerof receives a Nobel Prize for this theory. Sir Roger already has 1 but I think this collaboration gives him another.

[alanmalcheski]

the only answer is that there is motion where we think there is stillness. The fourth physical dimension (as opposed to time being the 4th dimension) is not static. If time slows down when we accelerate, then it could reverse if we exceeded c, but more importantly, there is a constant velocity, like c, at which everything or... everywhere, is moving. The only explanation for special relativity.
Perhaps that constant is a product of two opposing forces that give the illusion of being stationary. If all atoms are spinning, somehow (I'm not sure how that is actually happening), around their axes, axis, whatever, without the spin affecting their position, then a logical hypothesis might be that there is a very evenly distributed force that spins them. Do atoms spin themselves? Do they? How do you know?

[RodCornholio]

Great non-technical introduction to a variety of ideas.

[terrycallow]

Microtubules and collapse of the wave function. I didn't think I would ever write this down.

[thoel]

All the times we are trying to perceive consciousness and its properties from an outside point of view, we have to invoke an extra dimension. A new curvature, connecting awareness with a static pre-existing state. All math in quantum theories are turning numbers into vectors adding dimensions. In string theories the same. What if consciousness itself, is nothing but the definition of an extra dimension, a necessary one, that gives a meaning, an answer and a feedback to a universe growing up according to the anthropic principle. What if, the way that all particles and forces are nothing than vibrations of their respective quantum fields, consciousness might also be the same, drops emerging out from an underlying ocean of cosmic consciousness field that binds up the universe in an extra dimension, so that the universe can be having a meaning of existence? And for existence itself to get a meaning out of nothingness...

[alanmalcheski]

hmm... i think i understand.
So then, consciousness only happens when matter experiences wave form collapse? For a while I did not understand what wave form collapse was, or what it meant. That is still true. One thing I understand is that a signal becomes clear when the wave form "collapses." Rather than that meaning the wave becomes scrambled, collapse means that the energy in the signal stops looking scrambled (on an oscilloscope) and many lines condense, to move together, in a wave, or a motionless, standing wave.

So there must be a direct ratio, of consciousness to wave collapse. And that's what the guy discovered. Implying that all matter has consciousness.
Or more likely, more precisely, all space has a whole bandwidth of consciousness, and the matter in space tunes itself to one signal of consciousness or another. Like, there is a radio station that all trees listen to, and in that way they are conscious.

[muradtalukdar]

When I watched this, I could hear Dennett chuckling in discrete quanta.