Quantum Entanglement in Your Brain Is What Generates Consciousness | Hacker News Reader

Quantum Entanglement in Your Brain Is What Generates Consciousness

popularmechanics.com

11 pointsfork-bomber7 comments

Entangled biphoton generation in myelin sheath [0]

Zefei Liu, Yong-Cong Chen, Ping Ao

    Consciousness within the brain hinges on the synchronized activities of millions of neurons, but the mechanism responsible for orchestrating such synchronization remains elusive. In this study, we employ cavity quantum electrodynamics (cQED) to explore entangled biphoton generation through cascade emission in the vibration spectrum of C-H bonds within the lipid molecules' tails. The results indicate that the cylindrical cavity formed by a myelin sheath can facilitate spontaneous photon emission from the vibrational modes and generate a significant number of entangled photon pairs. The abundance of C-H bond vibration units in neurons can therefore serve as a source of quantum entanglement resources for the nervous system. The finding may offer insight into the brain's ability to leverage these resources for quantum information transfer, thereby elucidating a potential source for the synchronized activity of neurons.

[0] https://arxiv.org/abs/2401.11682

Yet the signaling between nerve cells is through chemicals, neurotransmitters, being released. The working of transistors in CPU's is also based on quatum effects, so, following the same reasoning, they could be conscious as well. And many processes in plants, photosyntesizes, are based on quatum effects, so, for that same reasoning, plants and trees could be conscious.

I think the use of quatum mechanics here, is like 'god(s)' was/were used in the past for explaining things we do not understand or seem magical.

I don't think the article was about "quantum effects" but specifically "quantum entanglement" which I'd guess transistors in CPUs cannot do.

I am aware of this. But the entanglement of photons in nerve cells can only go as far as one nerve cell, because between cells the signaling is based on chemicals that flow through some liquid. The signaling is not even electric. One nervecel releases some pockets with neurotransmitters and the other cell has receptors for those, causing an electric signal to start in that cell. This breaks any meanigful entanglement due to the very bad signal noise ratio.

So, I was given an example of another quantum effect as an example. If there is some entanglement in nervecells, it might as well occur in plant cells, because they have a common ancestor.

These kind of articles wash over the signal noise ratio. Your phone does pick-up WiFi signals from tens of kilometer away, yet you hardly ever establish a connection with them, because there are so many other stronger signals. Only in some very specific setup is this possible, like we are still able to communicate with the voyager probes, one of which is now more than a lightday away.

> because between cells the signaling is based on chemicals that flow through some liquid. The signaling is not even electric.

There are some electrical synapses (gap junctions) between neurons and between astrocytes (which are a key part of computation based on more recent research).

Also, the electromagnetic field around the cells influences cell activity, and that field has various types of waves that appear to be specific to different types of activity (still unknown if it's a cause or an effect).

> Additionally, the idea of quantum entanglement playing a role in consciousness isn’t a mainstream one

No one in this article guesses at what role it would play.

Not quantum entanglement, mere neuron entanglement

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