Quantum Information and Consciousness. A gentle Introduction

348 Pages·2018·15.324 MB·english

by  Danko D. Georgiev

Quantum Information
and Consciousness
a gentle introduction
Danko D. Georgiev
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
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Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2018 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
Version Date: 20171025
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-138-10448-8 (Hardback)
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Contents
Foreword xi
Preface xiii
I Introduction 1
1 Themainproblemsofconsciousness 3
1.1 Thephysicalboundaryproblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Thebindingproblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.3 Thecausalpotencyproblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
1.4 Thefreewillproblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
1.5 Theinnerprivacyproblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
1.6 Themind–brainrelationship . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
1.7 Thehardproblem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
II Somebackgroundforbeginners 29
2 Thescientificconceptionoftheworld 31
2.1 Subjectiveandobjectiveknowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.2 Scienceandscientifictheories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2.1 Logicalconsistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.2.2 Communicability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.2.3 Explanatorypower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
2.2.4 Empiricalcorroboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.3 Axiomsoflogic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
2.4 Rulesofinference . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
2.5 Axiomsofnaturalscience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
3 Theworldofclassicalphysics 45
3.1 Matter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.2 Determinism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
3.3 Observability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.4 Realnumbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
3.5 Functions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
3.6 Derivatives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
3.7 Vectors . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.8 Integrals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.9 Sets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.10 Classicalprobabilitytheory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.11 Particleandfieldfluxes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
3.12 Axiomsofclassicalmechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.13 SolvingHamilton’sequations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
3.14 Classicalelectrodynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
3.15 Vectoroperators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 76
3.16 Maxwell’sequations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
3.17 Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
3.18 Specialrelativity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
3.19 Classicalinformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
4 Theworldofquantumphysics 85
4.1 Complexnumbers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
4.2 Wavefunctions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
4.3 Vectorspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.4 Innerproductspaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
4.5 Metric . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.6 Hilbertspace . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.7 Bra-ketnotation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.8 Matrixmultiplication . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
4.9 Operators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
4.10 Orthonormalbasis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.11 Quantumwavefunctionrepresentations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
4.12 Two-levelquantumsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
4.13 Three-levelquantumsystems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
4.14 Tensorproducts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
4.15 Axiomsofquantummechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 111
4.16 Quantumsuperpositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.17 Quantumentanglement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.18 Densitymatrices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.19 SolvingtheSchro¨dingerequation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
4.20 Quantuminformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
III Aquantuminformationtheoryofconsciousness 141
5 Consciousnessinclassicalphysics 143
5.1 Physicalboundaryofconsciousnessinclassicalphysics . . . . . . . 143
5.2 Bindingofconsciousnessinclassicalphysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
5.2.1 Neuralconvergence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
5.2.2 Neuralassembly . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
5.2.3 Neuralsynchrony . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
5.2.4 Integratedinformation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
5.2.5 EEGwaves . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
5.3 Causalpotencyofconsciousnessinclassicalphysics . . . . . . . . . 160
5.3.1 Classicalfunctionalismimpliesepiphenomenalism . . . . . . 160
5.3.2 Classicalreductionismimpliestrivialimmortality . . . . . . 165
5.4 Freewillinclassicalphysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
5.4.1 Debunkingcompatibilism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 167
5.4.2 Determinismimpliesmoralnonresponsibility . . . . . . . . . 169
5.4.3 Instabilityandchaoscannotrescuefreewill . . . . . . . . . . 171
5.4.4 Beliefinfreewillandhumanconduct . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
5.5 Innerprivacyofconsciousnessinclassicalphysics . . . . . . . . . . 176
5.6 Mind–brainrelationshipinclassicalphysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
5.6.1 Idealism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
5.6.2 Eliminativism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 179
5.6.3 Functionalism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 180
5.6.4 Reductionism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
5.6.5 Dualism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 181
5.6.6 Panpsychism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 182
5.7 Thehardproblemofconsciousnessinclassicalphysics . . . . . . . 183
6 Consciousnessinquantumphysics 185
6.1 Axiomsofquantuminformationtheoryofconsciousness . . . . . . 185
6.2 Physicalboundaryofconsciousnessinquantumphysics . . . . . . . 186
6.3 Bindingofconsciousnessinquantumphysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 188
6.4 Causalpotencyofconsciousnessinquantumphysics . . . . . . . . 194
6.4.1 Onthenatureofquantumstates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
6.4.2 Quantumindeterminismavoidsepiphenomenalism . . . . . 199
6.5 Freewillinquantumphysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 200
6.5.1 Actualizationofpossibilitiesandchoicemaking . . . . . . . 202
6.5.2 Freewillversussuperdeterminism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
6.5.3 Wheredoesfreewillcomefrom? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 205
6.5.4 Schro¨dinger’scatandobjectivereduction . . . . . . . . . . . 207
6.5.5 Debunkingfree-willskepticism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
6.5.6 Quantumexistentialism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
6.6 Innerprivacyofconsciousnessinquantumphysics . . . . . . . . . . 212
6.6.1 Observabilityandunobservability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 212
6.6.2 Quantumpurity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 213
6.6.3 Quantumentropy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
6.6.4 Quantumcoherence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
6.6.5 Communicabilityandincommunicability . . . . . . . . . . . 218
6.6.6 Quantumsupportofclassicalinformation . . . . . . . . . . . 221
6.6.7 Quantumversusclassicalcomputation . . . . . . . . . . . . . 221
6.7 Mind–brainrelationshipinquantumphysics . . . . . . . . . . . . . 223
6.7.1 Quantuminteractionism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
6.7.2 Quantumpanpsychism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 226
6.7.3 Comparisonwithotherquantumtheoriesofmind . . . . . . 229
6.7.4 Intertwiningconsciousnessandquantummechanics . . . . . 233
6.8 Thehardproblemofconsciousnessinquantumphysics . . . . . . . 237
7 Towardaquantumneuroscience 239
7.1 Proteinenginesoflife . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
7.2 Neuronalionchannelsandelectricexcitability . . . . . . . . . . . . 242
7.3 Dynamictimescaleofindividualconscioussteps . . . . . . . . . . . 245
7.3.1 Consciousperceptionoftimeandtimeagnosia . . . . . . . . 245
7.3.2 Reactiontimesandinnermonologue . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
7.4 Quantumtunnelinginsynapticcommunication . . . . . . . . . . . 250
7.4.1 SNAREproteinsandsynapticvesicleexocytosis . . . . . . . . 253
7.4.2 Proteinα-helixstructureandconformationaldistortions . . 254
7.4.3 Quantumtunnelingthroughrectangularpotentialbarrier . . 255
7.4.4 SNAREproteinsandvolatileanesthesia . . . . . . . . . . . . 262
7.4.5 ComparisonwithinteractionismproposedbyJohnEccles . . 263
7.5 Memorystorageandretrieval . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 265
8 Researchprogramsandconsciousexperiences 267
8.1 Verificationismandfalsificationism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 267
8.2 Theory-ladenobservationsandsharedknowledge . . . . . . . . . . 269
8.3 Bayesianinferenceandassessmentoftheories . . . . . . . . . . . . . 270
8.4 Comparisonofscientificresearchprograms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 273
8.5 Consciousexperiencesandprotocolsentences . . . . . . . . . . . . 276
8.6 Testingthequantuminformationtheoryofconsciousness . . . . . . 277
8.6.1 Testsforlogicalconsistency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 277
8.6.2 Testsforempiricaladequacy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 278
8.6.3 Testsforempiricalcorroboration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
8.6.4 Testsforexplanatorypower . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 281
References 283
Glossary 319
Index 339
Foreword
Quantum Information and Consciousness: what a dazzling mosaic of ideas pre-
sented by Dr. Danko Georgiev in this book. Here we are escorted on a panoramic
excursion of the essential groundwork covering a wealth of intellectually chal-
lenging concepts. But for whom is this book intended? Much of its contents, as
they unfold chapter by chapter, are to an extent introductory; true for the first
partatleast.Thedevelopmentoftopicsseemsaccessibletothereaderwhowants
to take stock of how logic and classical physics pass over to the quantum realm,
and to see what thereafter may spring out, as when biology comes into the pic-
ture, for instance. If the reader had been inclined to step into the subject for the
firsttime,withouthavingtoenslaveagoodsearchengine,thenmuchofwhatone
wants to (or perhaps, should) know is amply stored here under one roof, mainly
for getting started upon what may turn out to be a captivating, though often a
very perplexing voyage. Having some background in mathematics, physics, and
biology, of course helps. So to say this is a ‘gentle’ introduction depends to some
extent on the reader’s background, openness of mind, and the willingness to fill
out the margins with red ink as she/he makes it to the very end. It may be worth
theexercise,asinfuriatingasthatmightbecomefortheastutemindedreader.Soit
ishardtothinkthattherearenorewardsatstakeincommittingtoaseriousstudy
ofthevarioustopics,workedthroughinwhateverwaywithwhichthereaderfeels
somecomfort.
All said and done, the book is actually a very good introduction to the basic
theory of quantum systems. But on stepping beyond, we further advance into a
world of weirdness riddled with controversy. It may be worth keeping in mind
that the problem with a crazy idea is to determine if it is crazy enough, as Niels
Bohr would have said it. And Richard Feynman has cautioned us of the dubious
credibility of those proclaiming to possess an expert understanding of quantum
phenomena. A ‘gentle’ introduction, or otherwise, Dr. Georgiev’s book aptly pre-
paresthereadertoconfrontwhatevermightbeinstorelater.
I was pleased to have been invited to write this Foreword, and also pleased
that the author has deemed it worthwhile to include in his book aspects of our
ownjointworkthatspannedseveralyears.Iverymuchthankhiminthisrespect.
JamesF.Glazebrook
ProfessorEmeritus
EasternIllinoisUniversity
Charleston,IllinoisUSA
Preface
Our minds are constituted by subjective conscious experiences through which we
access ourselves and the surrounding world. Examples of conscious experiences
are the pain of the toothache, the smell of the rose, or the perceived blueness of
thebluesky.Despitethelargeamountofclinicalevidencesuggestinganintimate
relationshipbetweenthebrainfunctionandtheconsciousmind,thenatureofthis
relationship has been subject to a long-lasting controversy. The main culprit in
thisstateofaffairshasbeenthealmostexclusiverelianceofcurrentneuroscience
on classical physics. Thus, some philosophers have promoted flawed theories of
consciousness, e.g., we hallucinate that we have conscious experiences (while in
fact having none), our consciousness is a causally ineffective epiphenomenon, or
ourfreewillisanillusion.
To restore our common sense view of ourselves as conscious minds with free
will,weneedtoadoptaradicallynewconceptualframeworkforapproachingthe
physicalworldsuchastheoneprovidedbyquantuminformationtheory.Because
it is impossible to understand the quantum information theory of consciousness
without knowing any quantum physics at all, in the first half of the book I gen-
tlyintroducethereaderintothewondrousworldofquantummechanicsthatwas
revealed to us by the discovery of the Schro¨dinger equation in 1926. Only after I
derivethedifferencesbetweenclassicalandquantuminformationinasetofrigor-
oustheorems,Imoveforwardtodiscusstheclassicaloriginofsevenlong-standing
problems related to consciousness including the physical boundary problem, the
binding problem, the causal potency problem, the free will problem, the inner
privacyproblem,themind–brainrelationshipandthehardproblemofconscious-
ness,andthenshowhowtheseproblemscanbeaddressedusingthespecifictools
of quantum information theory. Finally, I discuss the theory-ladenness of exper-
imental observations and highlight the importance of conscious experiences for
providingprotocolsentencesthatareusedbothinthetheoreticalconstructionof
scientific theories and in the critical assessment of these theories in the light of
newexperimentaldata.
Because consciousness is of utmost importance for virtually all forms of hu-
man activity, I have written this book with the expectation that it will be of in-
terest to a wide target audience with diverse backgrounds. Consequently, I have
attemptedtomaketheexpositionself-containedandequallyaccessibleforunder-
graduate/graduate students and academic professionals. Even though individual
chapters are didactically arranged in the order in which they should be read, dif-
ferent readers may proceed with different speeds through the chapters depend-
ing on their previous knowledge of the topics discussed. To enhance the overall
reading experience and prevent the reader from skipping over essential details,
below I provide a general map that displays at a glance the logical relationships
between different chapters. This map could be very useful for fast navigation be-
tween chapters in a second reading of the book aimed at appreciating the fine
detailsinthepresentedtheories.Thespecifictasksperformedbyeachchapterfor
addressingthemainproblemsofconsciousnesscouldbesummarizedasfollows.
Chapters1,5and6comprisethecoreofthebookthatcontainsalargenumber
of original results in the form of theorems and solved examples. Chapter 1 for-
mulatesclearlythesevenmainproblemsofconsciousnessusingintrospectiveex-
periments whose understanding does not require any scientific background. The
rest of the book, however, requires mastering of a theoretical minimum of math-
ematical and physical concepts that are duly introduced in Chapters 2, 3 and 4.
Chapter 5 explains the origin of various difficulties encountered when one ap-
pliesclassicalinformationtheoremsto studyconsciousnessandintroducesmany
oftheconstraintsthataphysicaltheoryofconsciousnessshouldrespect.Twochar-
acteristic features of classical physics, namely, determinism and observability of
physical states, are singled out as the worst adversaries to consciousness and free
will.Chapter6constructsanaxiomaticquantuminformationtheoryofconscious-
nessandshowshowfundamentalquantuminformationtheoremscanbeapplied
to address all of the main problems of consciousness. Chapters 5 and 6 are con-
trastedtoeachothertherebyenablingthereadertofullygraspwhatthequantum
information theory of consciousness is, what it is not, and why its axioms are not
arbitrary due to the large number of constraints that had to be respected. For a
complete picture on any one of the seven problems of consciousness, one has to
takeintoconsiderationatrioofcorrespondingsectionsfromChapters1,5and6.
Chapter 8
Research programs and
conscious experiences
Chapter 1 Chapter 6 Chapter 5
The main problems Consciousness in Consciousness in
of consciousness quantum physics classical physics
Chapter 4 Chapter 3
The world of The world of
quantum physics classical physics
Chapter 7
Toward a
quantum neuroscience
Chapter 2
The scientific conception
of the world
The necessity of axiomatizing science with subsequent proving of valid theo-
remsisintroducedinChapter2,wherethereaderisalsoacquaintedwiththecri-
teria for rigor expected from any physical theory. Chapters 3 and 4 introduce the
basicsoftheclassicalorquantumdescriptionofthephysicalworldandwouldbe
especially valuable for non-physicists. Even though advanced readers could skip
overthebasics,acquaintancewithSections3.19and4.20ishighlyrecommended
as these provide proofs of the fundamental physical theorems pertaining to clas-
sical or quantum information that are subsequently used in Chapters 5 and 6.
Chapters 3 and 4 are also contrasted to each other thereby providing a deeper
insightintothephysicalrealityofthequantumworld.
Chapters7and8discusstheimportanceandpossibleapplicationsofquantum
information theory of consciousness. Chapter 7 illustrates how quantum theory
could be applied to neurosciences, presents previously published quantum mod-
els of synaptic communication between neurons, and provides a number of open
questions for future work. Chapter 8 wraps up the presentation by highlighting
the importance of conscious experiences for the growth of scientific knowledge
through Bayesian inference and assessment of competing scientific research pro-
gramsbasedondifferentscientifictheories.Italsoprovidesapostponedjustifica-
tionofthemethodologyforparallelpresentationofcompetingtheoriesandusing
contrastsforadvancingondifficultscientificproblems.
My expectations from the reader are minimal and include only a basic famil-
iarity with numbers, mathematical equations, the parts of the human body, and
thenaturalevolutionoflifeonEarth.Fromthere,Itakethereaderontoacompre-
hensible journey through logic, mathematics, classical and quantum information
theory,neuroscience,andphilosophyofmind.Thescopeoftheexpositionineach
of these disciplines is limited only to a theoretical minimum of concepts, theo-
rems and experimental facts that are essential for understanding and addressing
thesevenlong-standingproblemsofconsciousness.Reducingthenumberofthe-
oretical concepts, however, leaves room for presenting a detailed explanation of
what these concepts really are, why they are needed and how they relate to the
problemsstudied.Attheendofourjourney,thereaderwillconfidentlyknowthat
the world of classical information that can be observed, copied, stored or erased
is not a complete description of all there is. Instead, the physical world is made
of quantum particles that are packets of complex-valued probability amplitudes
that evolve in space and time according to the Schro¨dinger equation until a cer-
tainenergythresholdisreachedforanobjectivereductiontooccur.Thequantum
information that is carried by the quantum particles cannot be observed, cannot
be copied and cannot be erased, and it is exactly this quantum information that
is the fabric of which our conscious minds are made. The conscious free will is
exercised through the aforementioned objective reductions and the brain is the
classical physical record of past mind choices. Thus, the quantum information
theoryofconsciousnessprovidesaphysicalsupportforphilosophicalexistential-
ismaccordingtowhichyouarebornfreetochoosewhatyouwanttobewithinthe
limits of the physically possible and that ultimately it is you who is responsible
foryourowndecisionsandactions.