Consciousness, Whitehead and quantum computation in the brain: Panprotopsychism meets the physics of fundamental spacetime geometry

Panprotopsychism meets the physics of fundamental spacetime geometry Stuart Hameroff I. Introduction: The problem of consciousness and the " emergence " approach Ever-increasing understanding of brain function has failed to illuminate the nature of consciousness, specificallythe subjective experience of mental states (e.g. Nagel, 1974; Chalmers,1996). Incorporating the conscious mind into a scientific world-view involves finding scientific explanations for what philosophers call " qualia " , raw components of subjective experience which give rise to our " inner life ". Broadly speaking, there are three types of approaches to the problem of consciousness: dualism (consciousness lies outside knowable science), emergence (consciousness arises as a novel property from complex computational dynamics in the brain), and some form of panpsychism, pan-protopsychism, or pan-experientialism (essential features or precursors of consciousness are fundamental components of reality which are accessed by brain processes). In addition to 1) the problem of subjective experience, other related enigmatic features of consciousness persist, defying technological and philosophical inroads. These include 2) the " binding problem " —how disparate brain activities give rise to a unified sense of " self " or unified conscious content. Temporal synchrony—brain-wide coherence of neural membrane electrical activities—is often assumed to accomplish binding, but what is being synchronized? What is being coherently bound? Another enigmatic feature is 3) the transition from pre-conscious processes to consciousness itself. Most neuroscientists agree that consciousness is the " tip of an iceberg " , that the vast majority of brain activities is not conscious, and that consciousness can occur in brain regions which at other times are not conscious. But there is no explanation for a threshold, or transition from non-conscious, " subconscious " or " pre-conscious " processes to consciousness itself. Yet another enigmatic feature is 4) the problem of 'free will. Do we indeed have free will—agency of choice—or are we merely epiphenomenal " helpless spectators " , following a deterministic behavioral path shaped by our genes and environment? Finally, 5) what is the nature of subjective time? Does time flow? To our conscious minds time does seem to flow, however in physics there is no necessity for a flow of time. Why is the flow of time such an intrinsic feature of our conscious experience? Conventional neuroscientific approaches to the enigmatic features of consciousness are based on contemporary understanding of the brain as a collection of neurons acting as fundamental units. A century ago the Spanish neuroanatomist …