arXiv Preprint Archive
July 28, 2009
Rajat Kumar Pradhan
A phenomenological model treats consciousness as a spin-one entity whose three eigenstates correspond to waking, dreaming, and deep sleep. These states arise from treating subject and object as interacting two-state spin-half systems with external and internal projections. Deep sleep is analyzed, yielding a new understanding of individual consciousness in that state. A fourth state, the singlet state, is interpreted as the superconscious state of intuitive experience, justified by invoking universal consciousness as the underlying source of all individual states. Individual experiences result from four individualizing observables that project the individual from the universal. The one-to-one correspondence between individual and universal states is shown, and their identity in the fourth state is established because all individualizing quantum numbers become zero, leaving no trace of individuality.
arXiv Preprint Archive
July 15, 2009
Stuart Kauffman
Six enduring problems in philosophy of mind—how mind acts on matter, whether mind is a mere epiphenomenon, the source of free will, the source of responsible free will, the evolutionary advantage of consciousness, and the nature of consciousness itself—are addressed using two physical postulates. The mind-brain system is a quantum coherent but reversibly decohering and recohering system; mind does not causally act on brain but acausally decoheres to classicity, averting epiphenomenalism. A quantum mind yields a merely random free will, not a responsible one. The more radical proposal is that the quantum-classical interface can be nonrandom yet lawless, providing a source for responsible free will.
arXiv Preprint Archive
July 8, 2009
Pabitra Pal Choudhury, Swapan Kumar Dutta, Sk. Sarif Hassan et al.
The authors propose a physical definition of consciousness, termed the Quantum Consciousness Parameter (QCP), derived from an intuitive definition. They suggest QCP is the elementary level of consciousness in quantum particles, which can explain both perceptible and non-perceptible aspects of nature and existing physical postulates. Human consciousness is described as the most complex, with a fractal dimension of 4.85 based on EEG experiments by other groups, while other species have lower fractal dimensions. The paper also draws analogies between neurons and electrons/photons from a genome perspective and argues that QCP can provide a confirmatory proof for Einstein's postulate on the constancy of the speed of light, potentially elevating it to a law.
arXiv Preprint Archive
January 27, 2009
Nikitas Papasimakis, Fotini Pallikari
Meditation, a state of induced mental relaxation, weakens correlations in heart rate variability at longer time scales, as shown by the average wavelet coefficient method. While periodic patterns dominate at short intervals, the signal loses complexity at larger scales, indicating a shift in underlying physiological mechanisms. An entropy analysis in the natural time domain confirms this substantial loss of complexity.
arXiv Preprint Archive
October 23, 2008
Willard L. Miranker, Gregg J. Zuckerman
The Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms, especially the Anti-foundation Axiom instead of the standard Axiom of Foundation, allow sets that can contain themselves, supporting Platonic interpretations. Using graphs, decorations, and labelings, a syntax and semantics of operators acting on these non-well-founded sets is developed. This framework is extended with new axioms that treat experience and consciousness as primitives, introducing consciousness operators, with the Russell operator as a central example. Neural networks provide non-well-founded graphs whose decorations generate sets with Platonic aspects. Applying consciousness operators to these sets shows how consciousness can supervene on its neural correlates, framing a theory of consciousness.
arXiv Preprint Archive
August 29, 2008
V. Salari, M. Rahnama, J. A. Tuszynski
The possibility of wave function collapse in the human brain has been debated since early quantum theory. Some scientists initially argued that collapse occurs in the brain or is caused by the observer's mind. Penrose and Hameroff proposed that quantum information processing in microtubules underlies consciousness via collective wave function collapse, while Tegmark argued thermal decoherence prevents any quantum processing in neurons. Rosa and Faber suggested a middle ground: despite decoherence, the brain could still be a quantum system. Thaheld concluded that quantum states of photons collapse in the eye, not the brain. This paper argues that together these views can describe different parts of a teleportation mechanism.
arXiv Preprint Archive
August 26, 2008
Stevan Harnad
Consciousness is argued to be the capacity to feel, making all mammals—and likely lower vertebrates and invertebrates—conscious, contrary to Julian Jaynes's theory that denied consciousness to language-less dogs and to ancient Greeks who heard gods' voices. Jaynes's humanitarian convictions prevented him from harming animals, yet his theory posits that those without introspective self-awareness, including bicameral-era humans, were not conscious. Despite this disagreement, Jaynes's analysis of consciousness continues to inspire inquiry into the mind/body problem and its links to cognition and language.
arXiv Preprint Archive
December 21, 2007
Michael B. Mensky
The author's Extended Everett's Concept (EEC) proposes that consciousness can, during sleep, trance, or meditation, access information from all parallel realities (Everett's worlds) and select favorable ones. A mathematical operation called postcorrection is introduced to model this ability, which adjusts the present state to ensure certain future characteristics. Evolution of living matter is thus guided by goals like survival as well as by causes, creating a theory symmetric in time direction that follows from an anthropic principle. The framework explains free will and direct insight, distinguishes artificial intellect from artificial life, and suggests the deepest level of consciousness is not a brain function.
arXiv Preprint Archive
December 7, 2007
Ricard V. Sole
Consciousness is thought to emerge from brain activity, but the mapping between neural hardware and conscious experience is not one-to-one; multiple conscious patterns can arise from the same hardware. A thought experiment shows that any temporary shutdown of brain activity irreversibly ends the original conscious experience. Without a guaranteed continuous stream of consciousness, the previous self vanishes and a new self replaces it.
arXiv Preprint Archive
October 12, 2007
V. Astakhov
A thought experiment uses information geometry to model mind uploading, the hypothetical transfer of core mental functions from a human brain to an artificial environment. The toy mind is represented as a geometrical shape on an information manifold, and this shape can be given a distributed holographic representation. The process of creating that holographic representation provides a strategy for migrating the mind between original and artificial environments. The interface between brain and environment is modeled as an entropy flow, a geometrical flow on the information manifold analogous to holographic recording. Reconstruction of the mind is modeled by non-local Hamiltonians on the manifold.
arXiv Preprint Archive
June 28, 2007
Daegene Song
The orthodox interpretation of quantum theory treats subject and object equally. A cyclical-time process that resolves self-reference in consciousness may interconnect the observed universe and the subject's mind. Drawing an analogy between cryptography and language, universal grammar—the common innate structure of language—may be associated with continuity in consciousness. Extending this, Claude Lévi-Strauss's proposal on universal culture may represent a shared structure of continuity among the consciousness of multiple subjects.
arXiv Preprint Archive
March 5, 2007
Daegene Song
Some philosophers and scientists argue that the observer and the observed universe may be inseparable. A recent proposal suggests this inseparability could arise if the discrete physical universe is filled with the observer's continuous consciousness via quantum evolution with time flowing backward. This idea of matter and mind interwoven through cyclical time resembles Immanuel Kant's Copernican Revolution in philosophy, which shifted priority from the object to the subject.
arXiv Preprint Archive
December 10, 2006
A. Sarkar, P. Barat
Meditation profoundly alters the long-range correlation of heartbeats in normal hearts, introducing periodic behavior. Using multiscale entropy and recurrence analysis, the complexity of heart rate variability is shown to increase during meditation.
arXiv Preprint Archive
December 9, 2006
U. Gayathree
Natural consciousness and intelligent systems may have arisen through a co-evolutionary path with biological evolution. Taking a learning system perspective, the paper explains how natural factors—such as reproduction, incubation, extinction, sleep, and the richness of behavior—influence the design of conscious intelligent systems. This approach accounts for the rise of the human mind, self-consciousness, looping thought processes, and the sense of 'I'. It also allows speculation on a possible human evolution scenario and other natural phenomena, offering a unified framework that does not rely on high-tech neuroscience.
arXiv Preprint Archive
December 9, 2006
U. Gayathree
The presence of mind in intelligent systems necessitates language, and language in turn transforms understanding. The paper examines how self-consciousness, mind, thought, and language relate to understanding in both humans and humanoid systems, building on concepts from the first part of the work.
arXiv Preprint Archive
August 31, 2006
Michael B. Mensky
Conceptual problems in quantum mechanics arise from the specific quantum concept of reality and require including the observer's consciousness into measurement theory. The Extended Everett Concept (EEC) identifies the separation of classical alternatives with the phenomenon of consciousness, explaining why alternatives appear classical and why unusual manifestations of consciousness occur at the edge of consciousness (sleep or trance) when access to other Everett worlds becomes feasible. Because quantum evolution is reversible in EEC, all time moments are equivalent while the impression of time flow appears only in consciousness. Assuming consciousness may influence probabilities of alternatives, EEC explains free will, probabilistic miracles (observing low-probability events), and decreasing entropy in the sphere of life.
arXiv Preprint Archive
April 13, 2006
Efstratios Manousakis
The authors propose that consciousness is the fundamental basis of reality, from which quantum theory emerges, rather than the other way around. They extend the concept of streams of consciousness—normally associated with individual beings—to a Universal stream of conscious flow of ordered events. Individual conscious experiences are sub-streams of this Universal flow. Consciousness is described as an operator that acts on a state of potential consciousness, creating or modifying the likelihood of events that become part of the Universal conscious flow.
arXiv Preprint Archive
September 6, 2005
Fred H. Thaheld
An analysis of von Neumann, London and Bauer, and Wigner's theories on consciousness collapsing the wave function suggests they may have erred in calling for reduction of superposition states in the brain. Wigner later adopted a simpler objective position, expanded by Shimony, which offers a resolution. The argument holds that the wave function of superposed photon states is objectively changed within the eye's architecture: first a continuous linear process for most photons, then a discontinuous nonlinear collapse for any remaining, ensuring only final measured information reaches the brain. A future experiment may resolve the measurement problem and test if quantum mechanics' linearity is violated by perception.
arXiv Preprint Archive
August 13, 2005
Elemer E Rosinger
Human consciousness played a crucial a priori role in the discovery or creation of both classical and quantum mechanics, a role more fundamental than any a posteriori interplay between consciousness and these theories during experiments or measurements. Recent attempts to connect or reduce human consciousness to quantum mechanical processes often draw a sharp distinction between consciousness in classical versus quantum mechanics, emphasizing the exceptional character of the latter. However, the specific features consciousness may exhibit when interacting with quantum systems could have other explanations that are equally plausible and well founded.
arXiv Preprint Archive
September 27, 2004
Andrei P. Kirilyuk
A new mathematical analysis of multi-component systems, using an extended effective potential method that avoids common limitations, reveals that such systems exhibit dynamic multivaluedness: multiple, incompatible system realizations emerge, with components dynamically entangled within each realization. This universal concept of dynamic complexity can be applied to intelligence and consciousness, which arise as high enough levels of unreduced complexity. Consciousness is identified with bound, localized states emerging from chaotic unconscious intelligence, analogous to classical behavior emerging from quantum states. The properties of this emergent consciousness match empirical properties of natural consciousness. The analysis provides a rigorous foundation for genuine machine consciousness, distinct from both natural consciousness and any mechanistic imitation, with implications for mental and social progress.
arXiv Preprint Archive
March 29, 2004
E. A. Novikov
Consciousness can be manipulated by external influences on the brain, according to a nonlinear dynamical model of how automatic and conscious processes interact. The model suggests that external factors can alter conscious experience by affecting neural dynamics, potentially shifting the balance between automatic and controlled mental states. This framework provides a theoretical basis for understanding brain susceptibility to environmental impact and neuromanipulation, with implications for studying awareness and mental states through complex systems and nonlinear dynamics.
arXiv Preprint Archive
March 5, 2004
Jean Faber, Luiz Pinguelli Rosa
The Hameroff-Penrose model of consciousness, which relies on gravitational collapse (orchestrated objective reduction, Orch OR), is incompatible with decoherence theory. Decoherence, caused by interaction with the environment, offers a more viable mechanism for quantum processes in the brain. Quantum mechanics can still be applied to brain research without the Hameroff-Penrose model by replacing gravitational collapse with decoherence.
arXiv Preprint Archive
February 18, 2004
Bernard d'Espagnat
Decoherence theory is widely seen as a major advance toward solving the quantum measurement problem, but its consistency is challenged when a sentient being observes the outcome. The Broglie-Bohm model suggests that even simple systems might possess a form of proto-consciousness, though their internal states of consciousness are not predictive. As systems grow larger, decoherence makes these internal states increasingly predictive, so for macroscopic systems they can be identified with the predictive states of consciousness used in observational predictions. Extending this idea to standard quantum mechanics leads to two conceptually distinct solutions, both relying on generalized internal states of consciousness that may be non-predictive.
arXiv Preprint Archive
December 18, 2003
Dick J. Bierman
A replication of the Hall experiment tested whether a quantum event is physically real only when consciously observed. The delay between a pre-observer and a final observer viewing the same event was extended to 1 second, and the final observer's early brain responses (EEG) were measured before they became conscious of the event. Significant differences in brain responses occurred depending on whether the pre-observer looked at the quantum event, supporting the 'subjective reduction' interpretation. Alternative normal explanations were considered and rejected, and the authors conclude that further research is warranted.
arXiv Preprint Archive
October 30, 2003
Germano D'Abramo
The mind-body problem can be reformulated using a brain duplication argument. If consciousness arises solely from the physical organization of matter and energy, then duplicating a brain would require duplicating not just the brain itself but also its extensive interdependence with the entire surrounding physical world to produce the same conscious experience. This suggests that consciousness may depend on a broader physical context beyond the isolated brain.