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Journal of consciousness exploration & research

How Subjective Memories Are Realized in TGD Inspired Theory of Consciousness?

Matti Pitkanen

Published Dec 28, 2024• 0 citations
OpenAlex

Abstract

We remember our conscious experiences, also as re-experiences, and not just as learned, often unconscious, behaviors that reduce to associations. In the standard ontology of quantum theory. The information of the conscious experience, if determined by the quantum jump, must be about the initial and the final states of the quantum jump and the transition between them. In the standard ontology of quantum theory, it cannot be represented by the final state of the quantum jump. According to the standard quantum theory, quantum states 3-D time=constant snapshots and do not remember anything about the previous quantum jumps. In TGD, the zero energy ontology (ZEO) combined with holography = holomorphy vision suggests a universal mechanism of memory storage and recall. The slight non-determinism of the classical field equations, determining the space-time surface, implies that quantum states are superpositions of space-time surfaces analogous to 4-D Bohr orbits for 3-surfaces as particles. In standard ontology they would be superpositions of 3-surfaces. State function reductions (SFRs) occur between these states and the information about the initial state (in 3-D sense) and about transition to the final state (in 3-D sense) is coded to the Bohr orbits associated with the final state (in 4-D sense). The slight on-determinism makes possible memory recall in ZEO. The proposed mechanism is universal and applies also to matter, which is usually regarded as "dead" (since it looks dead in the time scales of our perceptive abilities). This justifies the notion of the 4-dimensional brain. In this article the notion of memory is discussed from the points of view of computer science and neuroscience, of quantum theories of consciousness, and of TGD inspired theory of consciousness.

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We remember our conscious experiences, also as re-experiences, and not just as learned, often unconscious, behaviors that reduce to associations. In the standard ontology of quantum theory. The information of the conscious experience, if determined by the quantum jump, must be about the initial and the final states of the quantum jump and the transition between them. In the standard ontology of quantum theory, it cannot be represented by the final state of the quantum jump. According to the standard quantum theory, quantum states 3-D time=constant snapshots and do not remember anything about the previous quantum jumps. In TGD, the zero energy ontology (ZEO) combined with holography = holomorphy vision suggests a universal mechanism of memory storage and recall. The slight non-determinism of the classical field equations, determining the space-time surface, implies that quantum states are superpositions of space-time surfaces analogous to 4-D Bohr orbits for 3-surfaces as particles. In standard ontology they would be superpositions of 3-surfaces. State function reductions (SFRs) occur between these states and the information about the initial state (in 3-D sense) and about transition to the final state (in 3-D sense) is coded to the Bohr orbits associated with the final state (in 4-D sense). The slight on-determinism makes possible memory recall in ZEO. The proposed mechanism is universal and applies also to matter, which is usually regarded as "dead" (since it looks dead in the time scales of our perceptive abilities). This justifies the notion of the 4-dimensional brain. In this article the notion of memory is discussed from the points of view of computer science and neuroscience, of quantum theories of consciousness, and of TGD inspired theory of consciousness.
This article is a summary of TGD inspired theory of consciousness as it is towards the end of 2025 and of its applications to biology. This article gives a summary of TGD inspired theory of consciousness as it is towards the end of 2025. In the TGD framework, it is not possible to discuss consciousness without the TGD view of space-time and quantum. Also the applications to quantum biology and neuroscience have been essential in the development of ideas. The basic inspiration has come from the deep philosophical problems of recent day physics and philosophy of consciousness. The TGD view of consciousness can be seen as a generalization of quantum measurement theory: the observer as an outsider becomes a part of the system. The basic new elements are zero energy ontology (ZEO) as a new quantum ontology forced by the new view of space-time as 4-surfaces analogous to Bohr orbits of particles as 3-D surfaces. The dynamics of the classical space-time obeys holography = holomorphy principle. The failure of a strict classical determinism provides geometric correlates of intention and cognition. ZEO allows us to solve the basic problem of quantum measurement theory, allows free will, and provides a new view of the relation between geometric time and subjective time. Physical existence, identified as the mathematical existence of quantum states: one can speak of quantum Platonia. Conscious existence is identified as quantum jumps between them and can be seen as two different kinds of existence. The classical non-determinism gives rise to quantum jumps giving rise to conscious entities, selves, and the ordinary quantum jumps are predicted to change the arrow of time. This means death and reincarnation of self with an opposite arrow of time. Also the number theoretic visions of TGD is central. A key implication of the number theoretic vision is a hierarchy of Planck constants heff making possible quantum coherence in arbitrarily long scales crucial for the coherence of living matter. p-Adic length scale hierarchy is the second number theoretic prediction. The applications to quantum biology and neuroscience rely on these hierarchies. In this article, the key notions and ideas of TGD, especially those relevant to consciousness and quantum biology, are summarized. The TGD view of consciousness emphasizing recent progress is summarized. The basic ideas and applications to quantum biology are also described.
This article is a summary of TGD inspired theory of consciousness as it is towards the end of 2025 and of its applications to biology. This article gives a summary of TGD inspired theory of consciousness as it is towards the end of 2025. In the TGD framework, it is not possible to discuss consciousness without the TGD view of space-time and quantum. Also the applications to quantum biology and neuroscience have been essential in the development of ideas. The basic inspiration has come from the deep philosophical problems of recent day physics and philosophy of consciousness. The TGD view of consciousness can be seen as a generalization of quantum measurement theory: the observer as an outsider becomes a part of the system. The basic new elements are zero energy ontology (ZEO) as a new quantum ontology forced by the new view of space-time as 4-surfaces analogous to Bohr orbits of particles as 3-D surfaces. The dynamics of the classical space-time obeys holography = holomorphy principle. The failure of a strict classical determinism provides geometric correlates of intention and cognition. ZEO allows us to solve the basic problem of quantum measurement theory, allows free will, and provides a new view of the relation between geometric time and subjective time. Physical existence, identified as the mathematical existence of quantum states: one can speak of quantum Platonia. Conscious existence is identified as quantum jumps between them and can be seen as two different kinds of existence. The classical non-determinism gives rise to quantum jumps giving rise to conscious entities, selves, and the ordinary quantum jumps are predicted to change the arrow of time. This means death and reincarnation of self with an opposite arrow of time. Also the number theoretic visions of TGD is central. A key implication of the number theoretic vision is a hierarchy of Planck constants heff making possible quantum coherence in arbitrarily long scales crucial for the coherence of living matter. p-Adic length scale hierarchy is the second number theoretic prediction. The applications to quantum biology and neuroscience rely on these hierarchies. In this article, the key notions and ideas of TGD, especially those relevant to consciousness and quantum biology, are summarized. The TGD view of consciousness emphasizing recent progress is summarized. The basic ideas and applications to quantum biology are also described.
This article is inspired by the article "Is a time symmetric interpretation of quantum theory possible without retrocausality?" of Leifer and Pusey related to the notion of retrocausality. Retrocausality means the possibility of causal influences propagating in non-standard time direction. The conjecture is that retrocausality could allow wave functions to be real and allow to get rid of the problematic notion of state function reduction. TGD leads to a new view about reality of wave function solving the basic problem of quantum measurement theory. In ZEO quantum states are replaced by zero energy states analogous to pairs of initial and final states in ordinary positive energy ontology and can be regarded as superpositions of classical deterministic time evolutions. The sequence of state function reductions means a sequence of re-creations of the superpositions of classical realities identified as space-time surfaces. The TGD based view about scattering amplitudes has rather concrete connection with the view of Cramer as I interpret it. There is however no attempt to reduce quantum theory to a purely classical theory. The notion of the "world of classical worlds" (WCW) consisting of classical realities identified as space-time surfaces replaces space-time as a fixed observer independent reality in TGD. Retrocausality is basic aspect of TGD. Zero Energy Ontology (ZEO) predicts that both arrows of time are possible. In this sense TGD is time symmetric. On the other hand, twistor lift of TGD predicts a violation of time reflection T and this might imply that second arrow of causality dominates in some sense. The ZEO based view about state function reduction essential for TGD inspired theory of consciousness and implying generalized Zeno effect giving rise to conscious entities - "selves" - is also essential. One might say that when conscious entity dies it re-incarnates as time-reversed self.
Zero energy ontology (ZEO) lies behind TGD based quantum measurement theory in turn giving rise to a theory of consciousness by making observed part of system as a conscious entity - self. ZEO solves the basic paradox of quantum measurement theory forcing to give up ontology altogether in the Copenhagen interpretation. ZEO has become a key aspect of the entire TGD based physics. In this article I will consider more precise mathematical formulation and physical interpretation of ZEO. ZEO forms also the cornerstone of TGD inspired theory of consciousness and quantum biology and I will consider also some related aspects of ZEO such as the notions of free will and intentionality, the notions of memory and precognition as its time reversal, intuitive in contrast to formal reasoning, and remote metabolism as a universal thermodynamical mechanism of metabolism in ZEO based thermodynamics.
TGD inspired theory of consciousness relies on two fundamental identifications. The identification of quantum jump between quantum histories as a moment of consciousness reduces quantum measurement theory to fundamental physics and solves long list of paradoxes of modern physics. The identification of self as a subsystem able to remain unentangled in subsequent quantum jumps provides a quantum theory of observer and one can identify self also as a fundamental statistical ensemble. The generalization of spacetime concept so that it allows both real and p-adic regions, is a crucial prequisite for the notion of self. Quantum jump between quantum histories decomposes into three parts corresponding to the unitary U process of Penrose followed by the TGD counterpart of state function reduction in turn followed by a cascade of self-measurements giving rise to the TGD counterpart of state preparation. The dynamics of self-measurement is determined by the so-called Negentropy Maximization Principle (NMP). Selves form a hierarchy and self experiences its subselves as mental images and is in turn a mental image of a higher-level self. Selves can have common subselves and this makes possible fusion and sharing of mental images. The experience of self is a statistical average over quantum jumps occurred after the last 'wake-up' and the theory of qualia can be formulated in terms of statistical physics. Self experiences the subselves of subself as a statistical average so that self-hierarchy means also an abstraction hierarchy. Self has as its geometric correlate so called mindlike spacetime sheets of finite duration with respect to the geometric time (as opposed to subjective time determined by the sequence of quantum jumps) and one can understand how psychological time and its arrow emerge. The paradigm of four-dimensional brain provides a completely new view about long-term memories and intentionality. Crucial element behind all these developments are both the classical non-determinism of the fundamental variational principle determining the dynamics of the spacetime surfaces making possible nondeterminism of symbolic representations and the inherent nondeterminism of p-adic differential equations making possible cognitive representations. Together with the nondeterminism of quantum jump these nondeterminisms make possible the self-referentiality of consciousness. Combining this general theory with the notion of manysheeted spacetime one ends up to a vision about biosystems as macroscopic quantum systems and to a rather detailed view about quantum brain.
The interaction between number theoretic vision, ZEO, and the TGD view DNA enriches all of them. In this article the recent view about quantum measurements is discussed in light of the recent progress in the understanding of the number theoretic aspects of TGD. By M8-H duality space-time regions would be determined by polynomials whose roots define in M4 ⊂ M8 3-D mass shells providing the data for holography fixing the space-time surfaces. Whether product polynomials besides irreducible polynomials should be allowed has been an open question. The product polynomials could naturally correspond to free states unable to entangle. The functional composition was earlier interpreted as formation of many-particle states but perhaps a more natural interpretation is as a generation of sheets of the many-sheeted space-time with interactions having wormhole contacts as geometric correlates. This modified picture leads to a re-analysis of state function reduction (SFR), in particular the notions of "big" SFR and "small" SFR from a number theoretic perspective. This leads to a more precise view about the notion of time and time evolution. The emerging picture can be applied to TGD inspired theory of consciousness, in particular various aspects related to the notion of time and memory.