logoalt Hacker News

roomminlast Monday at 8:02 PM1 replyview on HN

The tendency to attribute consciousness to the quantum is one I find very grating. What makes the human brain any less mechanical if quantum mechanics dictate the firing of neurons rather than electrodynamics? Why does the wave nature of subatomic systems mean that an artificial tongue would suddenly be able to subjectively experience taste? It always reads to me as very wooy, and any amount of drilling leads to even more questions that seem to take the ideas further from reality.

I think the largest case for consciousness being a mechanical system is the fact that we can interface with it mechanically. We can introduce electricity, magnetic fields, chemicals, and scalpels to change the nature of peoples experience and consciousness. Why is the incredible complexity of our brains an insufficient answer and that a secret qbit microtube in each neuron is a more sound one?


Replies

ACCount37last Monday at 10:03 PM

Quantum effects are weird, and poorly understood, and are just about the only thing in the known universe that isn't deterministic.

Human mind is weird, and poorly understood, and isn't deterministic - or, at least, most humans like to think that it isn't.

No wonder the two are intuitively associated. The two kinds of magic fairy dust must have the same magic at their foundation!