
Quantum vibrations in 'microtubules' in brain supports theory of consciousness - arikrak
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/01/140116085105.htm
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Udo
This is very old pseudoscience with a recycled thin veneer of freshness. The
idea that "quantum vibrations" in neuronal "microtubules" lead to decidedly
macroscopic effects like detectable EEG signals is absurd on many levels,
including spatial and temporal scope. There's also the small problem of neuron
behavior modeling. Our existing biochemical and information-theoretical models
are a very good match for the behavior of neurons.

The urge of tacking on some unneeded extra mystery baggage to distort a set of
models that were already both well rooted in empirical data and accessible to
rational analysis is an act of religiosity. It comes from, and speaks to
people who share, a deep instinctive bias towards a metaphysical theory of
consciousness - presumably because a purely physical model would be considered
too mundane. The mere wish for a literal metaphysical transcendence does not
make it true though, and in my opinion it also trivializes the amazing
hardware that allows us to experience life.

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winfred
Thanks. I suspected something was wrong when the authors posed the question:
"Has consciousness, in some sense, been here all along, as spiritual
approaches maintain?"

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dchichkov
[sarcasm] Quantum vibrations in 'microcircuits' in the CPU supports theory of
computativiness. [/sarcasm]

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lutusp
I feel sorry for people who don't know who the "researchers" behind this
article are and their histories. Ordinarily the identity of people behind a
scientific theory should be irrelevant, unless the theory is based on rhetoric
rather than replicable evidence and is as unfalsifiable as this one is.

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jliptzin
Previous discussion here

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7079547](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7079547)

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pyalot2
A theory is useless if it isn't testable/falsifiable. It's actually not a
theory at that point.

You don't have a theory of consciousness, period.

And attributing something you can't explain, to a physical effect you don't
understand is pure new-age pseudoscience babble.

Reverse the deflector polarity, fire photon torpedoes, beam me up.

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arikrak
"Our new paper... reviews 20 testable predictions of Orch OR published in 1998
– of these, six are confirmed and none refuted."

[http://phys.org/news/2014-01-discovery-quantum-vibrations-
mi...](http://phys.org/news/2014-01-discovery-quantum-vibrations-microtubules-
corroborates.html)

