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Roger Penrose Says Physics Is Wrong, From String Theory to Quantum Mechanics

discovermagazine.com

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Re: Roger Penrose Says Physics Is Wrong, From String Theory to Quantum Mechanics

#111

Post by maxharris »

Symmetry wrote: post #40

A rather depressing interview. I enjoyed a lot of the explanations of Physics in *The Emperor's New Mind", but even there I could see big holes in his arguments about consciousness. For example, he talks about how its impossible to make an algorithm tile a grid in a certain way, but I had a screensaver which in fact did what he was saying was impossible. Here I just feel sort of sad and lost. I think my least favorit…

By the way, if you're looking for a good book to read on philosophy and the history of science, give David Harriman's book a shot. It's called "The Logical Leap: Induction in Physics."

Re: Roger Penrose Says Physics Is Wrong, From String Theory to Quantum Mechanics

#112

Post by polynomial »

drostie wrote: post #71
baddox wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't understand why some researchers are so quick to blame our failure to understand consciousness on the fact that consciousness is a quantum phenomenon. I was under the impression that we're still nowhere near fully understanding the brain even from a classical perspective.

Okay, so, let me try to enumerate these. (1) The hardest part of quantum mechanics to understand is intimately tied to our nature as subjects. Quantum mechanics is an entirely deterministic theory about waves in superpositions which even explains how, why, and when it disappears and averages out into classical probabilities. Except it doesn't tell you why we don't see your television as 50% in your bedroom and 50% in…

> If quantum systems could really feel in a way that machines really can't, this would solve the problem neatly.

Late to the party, but pretty sure that's the situation we're in.

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