Can qualitative biophysics solve the hard problem?
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Data
2016-10-01
Autores
Pereira, Alfredo [UNESP]
Vimal, Ram Lakhan Pandey
Pregnolato, Massimo
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Resumo
A solution to the Hard Problem formulated by Chalmers should include a biophysical nonreductive explanation of the qualities of conscious experience ( subjective qualia). This task is nearly impossible to be performed in the context of Modern Physics, since most influential scientists and philosophers conceived such qualities as being mental phenomena without a physical counterpart. We propose to extend the concept of multiaspect state into the concept of potential qualitative aspects in fundamental physics, allowing for its expression in biophysical systems under adequate conditions. We conceptually model a structure, the N-dimensional dual-aspect state space of Nature, having elementary waveforms (EW) as the qualitative building blocks, and three dynamical phases: a) coherent wave functions, b) decoherent and c) recoherent macrostates. In coherent wave functions composing microstates, Elementary Waveforms (EW) are superposed and entangled. In decoherent macrostates, the Heisenberg matrix (HM) is reduced to the diagonal, generating - according to the principles of chemistry - one macro (not conscious) qualitative state. In living systems, chemical processes combine in a self-organizing manner, keeping the system at low entropy states and making room for the emergence of new structures and functions by means of an order from fluctuation mechanism. In the brain, the instantiation of macrostates is spatially distributed and unconscious. Brain recoherent macrostates are formed by means of the operation of quantum computing gates within ionic waves, and can be expressed by a hypermatrix (or hypertensor), corresponding to the binding of qualitative features in one integrated conscious episode. Once formed, the ionic waves feedback on brain activity, similarly to David Bohm's pilot wave. In the theoretical context of systems theory, the global recoherent process would correspond to a phase in Scott Kelso's framework of metastable dynamics. In such a dynamics, each recoherent macrostate alternates in a time scale of nanoseconds with decoherent macrostates, but we consciously perceive only the sequence of nanosecond recoherent states, which appear to us in continuous chunks with the duration of - at least - hundreds of milliseconds.
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Boltzmann entropy, Consciousness, Decoherence, Dual-aspect state, Maxwell demon, Metastability, Qualitative biophysics, Quantum coherence, Recoherence, Synergy
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Biophysics of Consciousness: A Foundational Approach, p. 149-188.