Experimental Evidence No One Expected! Is Human Consciousness Quantum After All?

Hello and welcome! My name is Anton and in this video, we will talk about an unusual explanation of consciousness as a quantum effect...that actually now may have some proof after all
Links:
#consciousness #quantum #penrose
0:00 Human consciousness and quantum mechanics
0:55 New study about tryptophan
1:30 Penrose proposes consciousness is quantum
3:30 But quantum states are difficult to produce
4:25 Stuart Hameroff explains it with microtubules and anesthesia
5:40 What is consciousness though?
7:20 Anesthesiology research is exciting
8:05 Tryptophan connection
9:25 Ok, microtubules - what are these?
10:35 Microtubules could be the source?
11:30 Disagreement with neuroscience
12:10 New proposition by Penrose and Hameroff
13:20 Basic explanation of everything
14:10 First negative experiment
15:25 Anesthesia experiment finds positive results
16:40 Recent paper shows tryptophan can create quantum effects
18:35 What this shows and why this is important
19:25 Potential medical breakthroughs?

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[neutronstorm]

If all this talk of crystals and frequencies pans out, the alternative healing community is going to have a field day.

[cratecruncher]

Seeing the now obvious link between anesthetics and the study of consciousness was just by itself worth the price of admission.

[YordanGeorgiev]

Anton, you are the ONLY youtuber, who has the capability to present in a really comprehensible way complex studies and scientific papers from quite vast array of domains, which at least should make you much more confident when you are promoting your channel. Thank you for all of your work !!!

[shaney]

Excellent report, Mr. Petrov. I had been planning on checking out the work between Penrose and Hameroff, and you've given us a basis with which to view that work. The work that many physicists and philosophers are doing on consciousness may help humanity transcend our egocentric problems. Thank you for this video.

[MarshmallowRadiation]

One thing I learned when getting a degree in cognitive science was that so far no one really knows how all the different brain regions sync up their activity to create a coherent experience of the present moment. If they operated solely by electrochemical signaling for processing and data transmission, then our sensory experiences would be delayed by up to _several seconds, _ which is not at all how our perception of time works. Even the modern paradigm that "experience is a controlled hallucination" where your experiences are predictions based on pre-cached expectations "loaded in" ahead of time is a bit hand-wavey and, again, doesn't line up with how fast humans can respond to surprise stimuli.

It would make SO MUCH MORE SENSE if the disparate processing regions of the brain all synchronized and communicated via some kind of quantum optical or even entanglement phenomenon, where the info of what is being sensed and thought "now" is correlated at the speed of light rather than the ludicrously slow speed of nerve impulses. This is a _mind-blowing_ development that could potentially solve a ton of big mysteries in neuroscience.

[jty]

This is some of the most interesting stuff happening at the moment! At the moment, we mostly see quantum stuff as some distant thing, unrelated to daily life. If it does turn out it's practically related to EVERYTHING we as human beings experience, it could change a lot.

[orionmedivh]

I heard his theory a long time ago about consciousness is a quantum effect. Glad you're covering it!

[leecheshire]

VERTY interesting. Anton you have a gift for explaining science and you are neutral, logical, and insightful. Keep up the good work.

[acacciafarm]

Anton, your videos & content are wonderful. You are thorough, careful, and thoughtful. No hyperbole, just a methodical breakdown of the state of our knowledge & also what we don’t know or understand. Thank you so much.

[allenholmes]

I m a psychology student. This is so interesting, my two favourite topics collided with each other. Thanks wonderful Anton for such a great explanation of the paper.

[cbody]

Great cutting edge info. Please provide updates on this topic when available. Thanks.

[grey_north]

Hey Anton.
Would be awesome to hear from a scientific standpoint about the structural similarities between the tryptophan, psilocybin and DMT molecules and how they relate to the perception of reality and consciousness of the human being.

[chicliac]

This is both very little and extremely exciting! Thanks for veering outside of your usual scope to report on these studies. Cant wait to hear more!

[demeurecorentin]

The idea of partially treating Alzheimers and dementia with electromagnetism is wild

[JackStonexp]

I remember coming back from general anesthesia (nose surgery, could not breathe properly) and I can't remember the instant I lost consciousness, but coming back from it was traumatic as I didn't understand who I was, where I was or what was happening. For a couple of minutes I felt I just came to exist in that moment and every sensation was shocking. I had to be told who I was and what was happening and I just had to accept it. I felt like dreaming for a few hours or days. I still feel everything is a dream. Consciousness is so strange, amazing and intriguing, really.

[roland]

The idea that the structure of crystalline bonds creates consciousness is crazy great video!

[chadx]

Outdone yourself with the 4k graphics in this one Anton. Superb!

[jswong]

I remember reading "The Emperor's New Mind" long ago and have been fascinated by this concept ever since. Hammeroff later on made some good points to expand upon Penrose's ideas. For example, he pointed out that some compounds have different effects on consciousness which cannot be explained chemically. One such example is lithium. Lithium-6 and Lithium-7 are identical chemically yet have vastly different effects on the brain.

[CunningLinguistics]

This topic (consciousness) is frankly more important than ANY other topic we could discuss.

[gavo]

ORCH-OR is one of the most exciting theories out there.
A breakthrough in this arena is needed and perhaps this is it?