An account of consciousness from the synergetics and quantum field theory perspectives

Shan Gao

Antonio Manzalini

The article proposes a new model of consciousness of living organisms, based on an extension of the de Broglie-Bohm theory, which is also meeting the principles of the Quantum Field Theory. In particular, the article starts from the consideration that living organisms are similar to open systems, operating far from the thermodynamic equilibrium: in fact, they are subjected to continuous internal flows and exchanges of energy, matter and information with the surrounding environments. On a deeper physical level, however, these exchanges are mediated by quantum wave oscillations and interactions, so that it is argued that living organisms are even operating far from quantum equilibrium. Therefore, leveraging on a prior art arguing that quantum theory might be a special case of a much wider physics, where systems are far from quantum equilibrium, the article proposes a wider perspective of the de Broglie-Bohm theory for modeling consciousness. Consciousness is modelled as a special quantum wave field whose associated potential is elaborated as active information by living organism and accounts, with different complexity levels, for consciousness phenomena in life. Moreover, the article proposes that the form or curvature of the consciousness wave field can be expressed in terms of Nambu Goldstone bosons condensations (as described in Quantum Field Theory) associated to symmetry breaking phenomena in living organisms.

Henry Pierce Stapp

Paul A. Levi

This contribution concentrates on the evaluation of quantum processes in the brain that essentially contribute to the protection and activation of entanglement and their impact to consciousness. The corresponding calculations occur in the Fock space that represents discrete quantum fields, where the corresponding computations occur in the following succession. First, three possible weak interactions of emitted, small-sized neurotransmitters are described. These interdependencies are the attraction by electric dipole-dipole interaction, the attraction by the Morse potential and the repulsion characterized by s-wave scattering. Second, this article focus on ionotropic receptors that are embedded in a dense non-rigid grid. Anharmonic oscillators approximate these molecules, where their interactions cause grid vibrations. The determination of the expectation values of the total energy of the oscillating receptors, situated in two entangled ground states, demonstrate the existence of gap functions that shield the entanglement. This protected entanglement represents a bridge to the materialistic consciousness, and as well it refutes the dominant criticism against the quantum processes in the brain that decoherence destroys in picoseconds the entanglement (quantum coherence). The entangled entropy of the protected entangled states is not zero; what is a clear sign of entanglement. Third, consciousness activates the protected entanglement that reveals distinct positive effects, concerning the acquisition of information. Thus, the working space (associative cortices) that operates in a conscious state instantly gets compressed information on the current particular states of the cortical and subcortical components. Thereby, the emergence of consciousness is a synergetic process, which is created by the mutual interdependencies (causal circularity) of the components of the working space (synergetic agents) and the subcortical areas (synergetic “slaves”).

O.A. Lange

Although it is not endorsed by every theoretical physicist, I hold that - paraphrasing Abner Shimony - a theory of everything must 'close the circle'. That is, it must provide an account of the existence of consciousness in nature. Phenomenal consciousness, this intimate 'feel of me being me', is difficult to grasp in physical terms. David Chalmers famously distinguished the 'easy' cognitive problems of the mind from the true 'hard problem': physical theories describe worlds that could have been zombie-worlds as well, i.e. worlds occupied by creatures who act the way we do, but who do not share with us that special aspect we call phenomenal consciousness. That is to say, the facts of physics do not entail it.\nIn this thesis I explore how we should understand the problem from the perspectives of a discipline that seems to be concerned by its very nature with 'a view from the outside'. The burden of the hard problem of consciousness for physics seems to be concerned with putting a shift from the third- to the first person's perspective somewhere into physics. A deeper analysis of two concrete proposals for a physical theory of the mind reveals that specific interpretations of quantum mechanics take this first person's perspective as fundamental from the outset. It turns out that views on the ontology of quantum theory sometimes perfectly align with perspectives on the ontology of consciousness. I conclude that the essence of the hard problem for physics must not be concerned with an explanation of the existence of consciousness, but that it rather should be about the identification of metaphysically reasonable grounds to decide where to put it into nature.

Henry Pierce Stapp