The Mind, The brain, and The Quantum Mechanics

The Mind, The Brain, and The Quantum Mechanics

IntroductionHistoryBrainMindClassicalApproachQuantumApproachQuantumPhysics

IntroductionImportance of Brain studies

The issues of Mind or ConsciousnessFree willUnity of consciousness

The Amazing BrainHistory

2000 B.C.

500 B.C.400 B.C.Egyptians considered the brain to be worthless. Alcmaeon favored the head over the heart.Hippocrates took a similar view as Alcmaeon.

350 B.C.The Amazing BrainHistory2nd cent.Aristotle believed the brain is designed to cool blood.Galen was the first to speculate that particular functions are carried out in specific parts of the brain.

The Amazing BrainHistory17th cent.

Thomas Williss studies became the first scientific investigation of the brain and the nervous system.18th cent.

Galvani and Volta showed that electricity could activate nerve and muscles.

The Amazing BrainHistorySantiago Ramon y Cajal examined nerve cells under a microscope.19th cent.20th cent.Emil du-bois Reymond:Nerves and muscles generate electrical impulses.

The Amazing BrainNeurons

The Amazing BrainNeuronsInsects neurons are more complicated!

Cajal: connectionist view.

The Amazing BrainNeurons

The Amazing BrainNeurons

The MindIs the mind physical or something else?What is the relationship between the mind and the brain?

The MindClass of TheoryName of TheoryPhysical UniverseCausal DirectionMental UniverseMonismIdealismNoneNo causalityMindPhysicalismBodyNo causality

NoneDualismClassical DualismBodyMindParallelismBody

No causalityMind

EpiphenomenalismBody

Mind

InteractionismBody

Mind

IntroductionHistoryBrainMindClassicalApproachQuantumApproachQuantumPhysics

16Classical approachWorldview of classical physicsClassical brainWhat is consciousness?Unsolved problems

In classical physics events are deterministic.

17 Worldview of classical physics

18 Worldview of classical physicsChaos:Edward Lorenz (1917-2008)The Butterfly Effect

Unpredictable Pluto

Deterministic Chaos

19Classical Brain

InputOutput

20Classical BrainWe are automatons.

Consciousness is an illusion.

21 What is consciousness?

Consciousness is emergent.

22 What is consciousness?

Unsolved problem: Unity of Consciousness23

IntroductionHistoryBrainMindClassicalApproachQuantumApproachQuantumPhysics

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)

25

Treatment of OCDcognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT)Jeffrey M. Schwartz

Mindfullness26Henry P. Stapp

The birth of Quantum Mechanics19 October, 1900Max Planck introduced quanta of light.

27

WeirdAnyone who is not shocked by quantum theory has not understood it. -Neils Bohr

I am now convinced that theoretical physics is actual philosophy. -Max Born

The double slit experiment is the heart of quantum mechanics. Richard Feynman

28

Double slit experiment

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More double slit experiment

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And still more double slit experimentElectronsIonsBuckyballs

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Heisenbergs uncertainty principle

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33Fuzzy stateMeasurement principle

Superposition

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35Interpretations of quantum mechanics

How quantum mechanics informs our understanding of nature:The Copenhagen interpretationMany worldsVon Neumann...

Goodbye classical physicsObserverJohn Wheeler, 1978, theoreticalAlain Aspect, 2009, experimental and Verified!

No phenomenon is a phenomenon until it is an observed phenomenon. John A. Wheeler

Physical reality what isOur knowledge what is knowable36

Von Neumann interpretation (the orthodox interpretation)Process IActualization of statesProcess IISchrodinger equation37

IntroductionHistoryBrainMindClassicalApproachQuantumApproachQuantumPhysics

The quantum brain

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Agent: MindMind carries out process IUnity of consciousness40

41What is mind for gods sake?It doesnt matter.

We can only know what is knowable.Erwin Schrodingers view on the knowledge limitation problem:

This is a marvel than which only one is greater; one that, if intimately connected with it, yet lies on a different plane. I mean the fact that wepossess the power of acquiring considerable knowledge about it. this knowledge may advance to little short of a complete understanding of the first marvel. The second may be well beyond human understanding.

Free willQuantum Zeno effectState ARepeated measurementFreeze42

State AState BSchrodingerequation

43Free willAttention must be paid.

Binocular rivalry via quantum Zeno effect

CriticsWeakness of will

Quantum mechanical difficulties44

ConclusionClassical physicsVs.Consciousness 45

ReferencesMichael S. Sweeny, Brain, The Complete mindJay Friedenberg, Gordon Silverman, Cognitive scienceJeffrey M. Schwartz, The Mind and The BrainJeffrey M. Schwartz, Henry P. Stapp, QUANTUM PHYSICS IN NEUROSCIENCE AND PSYCHOLOGY: A NEW MODEL WITH RESPECT TO MIND/BRAIN INTERACTIONDavid J. R. Bourget, Quantum Leaps in Philosophy of MindNewScientist , April 6-12, 2013Scientific American Mind , May-June, 2012, p 22-27Henry P. Stapp, The Quantum-Classical and Mind-Brain Linkages: The Quantum Zeno Effect in Binocular Rivalry46