Was Penrose Right? NEW EVIDENCE For Quantum Effects In The Brain

This is by far the most lucid explanation of this argument I've ever heard. Fantastic work, Matt. Seriously.

My brain is both empty and full at the same time.

Something I didn't learn until reading foundational papers on the subject, is that Penrose invented some of the fundamental concepts around topological quantum computing. That makes him, super cool 👍 Applications of Negative Dimensional Tensors (1971)

"Sherlocking consciousness" lol

93, Bless his heart, great man.

"Luminous beings are we, not this crude matter" - Yoda

I'm a neuroscientist working for patients with rare genetic disorders affecting kinesins, some of the motors that move cargo along microtubules. As a result I'm also familiar with genetic disorders in microtubule, or microtubule-related, genes. Microtubules are quite dynamic - adaptors and motors are constantly applying modifications to the microtubules, and I'm quite curious about how these would play into this paradigm; the microtubule ecosystem would be adapted to supporting this kind of quantum encoding - if it's meaningful. One reason I'm skeptical of this iteration of quantum consciousness is that you would expect microtubule-related mutations to cause disorders with a more profound effect on "consciousness," however you decide to define that. Cognitive symptoms certainly are common and sometimes profound in these disorders, but not in a way that seems fundamentally separated from other neurological disorders. A good follow-up might be: 1) Decide on an operational definition of consciousness, with pre-defined clinical measurements. 2) Look at microtubule-affecting genetic conditions with variable predicted impact on these tryptophan-mediated quantum effects 3) Perform a meta-analysis across studies, and check whether there's any kind of relationship between clinical features of "consciousness" and types of mutations. I'm also skeptical of the Sherlock approach; I'm quite interested in possible quantum effects in neurobiology and there's a ton we don't know about microtubules, but so much of this reminds me of claims that the pineal gland held the soul.

Love that PBS Space Time is picking this up so quickly - I am very keen to learn more about these developments with tryptophan. I honestly was one of those doubters, wondering why Penrose thought this was even required for undecidability. The game of life runs on basic computers and it's undecidable - why should consciousness need quantum effects just for that? But here we are and it's super interesting.

This is so perfectly communicated. Thorough acknowledgement that there's a great deal of warranted skepticism, without dismissing it outright, and exploring the interesting elements without necessarily accepting the whole.

I want to make a suggestion for the merch shop. Super smarty pants. Then we can all be in the club.

This really cleared a lot up for me about this theory. I'm glad that it gained enough attention to get an episode here!

PBS SpaceTime does an amazing job of making me smarter and feeling dumber with every video. Please never stop.

It is rather astonishing how hunks of flesh are able to process, think, speak, etc. so incredibly fast, and without generating tons of heat in the process.

My bird Roger is named after Sir Roger Penrose

Roger Penrose is definitely in my top 3 favourite thinkers of all time ❤ thanks Matt

My tinnitus feels quantum.

All I can say is, there's defintely a lot of tangling going on in my brain, especially after watching PBS Space Time.

Regarding quantum effects in biological systems, chloroplasts exhibit electron tunneling that increases the efficiency of energy transfer (I spent a few hundred hours measuring this in grad school). While it's not entanglement or on a brain-sized scale, it does show that evolution is capable of tapping into quantum effects even in wet, warm, messy systems. Great video as always!

So glad this was covered by you guys. As you said, as safe as it is to be skeptical about anything related to consciousness, one thing we can say about OOR theory and what makes it incredibly interesting is that it at the very least is giving us something that can be objectively tested and proven/disproven. That alone put's it miles ahead of other Theories of consciousness. Thanks Matt and PBS:ST crew, you guys are always the best.

0:30 "Super Smarty Pants Club!" That got me lmao