This image caught my attention. The double origination of the spiral at the center and the twelve radial sections set off some synchronous associations for me this week, and certainly Hameroff & Penrose's Orch OR has been the big story in consciousness right now. See what you think.
The conclusions are as follows, and I generally agree:
Brain processes relevant to consciousness extend downward within neurons to the level of cytoskeletal microtubules.
An explanation for conscious experience requires (in addition to neuroscience and psychology) a modern form of pan-protopsychism in which proto-conscious qualia are embedded in the basic level of reality, as described by modern physics.
Roger Penrose's physics of objective reduction (OR) connects brain structures to fundamental reality, leading to the Penrose-Hameroff model of quantum computation with objective reduction in microtubules (orchestrated objective reduction: Orch OR).
The Orch OR model is consistent with known neurophysiological processes, generates testable predictions, and is the type of fundamental, multi-level, interdisciplinary theory which may account for the mind's enigmatic features.
I'm not a neuroscientist or biochemist so I don't know plausible it is that microtubules are specific enough. My vague intuition is that Orch OR may be overstating the role in personal human experience, but that as a vehicle for sub-personal experience on the intracellular level, it might be a better fit. I agree that brain processes very likely do extend to the cytoskeletal level, and perhaps beyond, but I wouldn't bet on that being as relevant once we factor in the primacy of aesthetic relativity that I propose in MSR. That's just my wild ass guess about it, I will defer to Hameroff's expertise and assume that I could be wrong.
I agree, but I think that we should not stop there with pan-protopsychism. The emergence of conscious qualia from proto-conscious qualia has the same Hard Problem/Explanatory Gap/Substance Dualism issue as it would have on the mind-brain or self-body level. I think that only a total absorption of all structure and phenomena within aesthetic awareness can break through the gap. To do this, we should try what I call Primordial Identity Pansensitivity (PIP). Instead of starting from 'all matter is potentially conscious', I say 'some aspects of consciousness can appear unconscious/functional/material. The ontology of PIP is such that material appearances are genuinely 'real' locally, but in absolute terms, only the capacity to appreciate and participate in appearance is universally 'real'.
Sure, Orch OR may be the key to connecting brain structures to quantum effects and the fundamental ground of being. I would only suggest that this may relate to biological types of conscious only, and that PIP and MSR suggest a more profound integration of all phenomena in the universe. Orch OR should be a very big deal if it works, and it may allow for the development of a new medical revolution (and some kickass consciousness enhancing techniques), but it still stops short of the explanation for everything that I'm interested in.
Could be. Nice work Hameroff & Penrose. I'm not sure that the theory proves what it is supposed to, but it seems like it might be a worthwhile piece to the puzzle.
