Editor’s note: This is the concluding part of the series on mathematical, quantum mechanical and consciousness-based analysis
The first part of the article in the last edition of Science India (October 2024) introduced the subject of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam and described all the necessary points related to its declaration and its relationship with consciousness. In the following sections, we deal with mathematical and quantum mechanical descriptions of the topic under consideration.
MATHEMATICAL STRUCTURE OF CONSCIOUSNESS
It has been suggested that a picture on which the physical correlates of consciousness immediately collapse once superposed: In the course of some such dynamical evolutions (in the course of measurements, for example), the brain of a sentient being may enter a state wherein states connected with various different conscious experiences are superposed; and at such moments, the mind connected with that brain (as it were) opens its inner eye, and gazes on that brain, and that causes the entire system (brain, measuring instrument, measured system, everything) to collapse, with the usual quantum-mechanical probabilities, onto one or another of those states.
According to Chalmers, observation of a superposed system, Schrodinger evolution at the moment of observation would cause the observed system to become correlated with the brain, yielding a resulting superposition of brain states and so (by psychophysical correlation) a superposition of conscious states. In this way, there is a causal role for consciousness in the physical world. The key idea here is that consciousness is a superposition-resistant property and that its physical correlates therefore resist superposition too. The total conscious state of a subject is what it is like to be that subject: If what it is like to be subject A is the same as what it is like to be subject B, then A and B are in the same total conscious state. A subject’s total conscious state at a time may include many aspects: Visual experience, auditory experience, the experience of thought, and so on. Like position or mass or colour or shape, consciousness in this form can take on many specific values. Its specific values are the vast range of possible total conscious states of a subject at a time. For simplicity, we can start by assuming a materialist view where the total conscious state and its physical correlate are identical. Things work best if we also assume that the physical correlate of consciousness (PCC) can itself be represented as a quantum observable with an associated operator. A PCC observable will have many different eigenstates corresponding to distinct total states of consciousness. This makes it straightforward to treat consciousness as a super-resistant property.
All Images Courtesy: Prof VPN Nampoori
To illustrate how this works, we can again suppose an electron in a superposition of locations (again omitting amplitudes for simplicity) ai + bi. The electron registers on a measurement device and then the result is perceived by a human subject. Assuming the measurement device is not conscious, then at the first stage the electron and the device will go into an entangled state When the human looks, this result will affect the eye (E), early areas of the nervous system and brain (B), and eventually the physical correlates of consciousness (PCC). In effect, at the point where the measurement reaches consciousness, the electron, the measurement device, and the brain will collapse into a definite state.
Consciouness and Quantum Zeno Effect
Unfortunately, the dynamics of continuous measurement leads to a well-known effect, the Quantum Zeno effect, which renders any super selection collapse model empirically inadequate. “A moving arrow is at rest.” Zeno, a Greek philosopher (5th century BC) famous for his metaphysical trolling, devised a paradox whose conclusion is that changes are illusions. This conclusion of Zeno is opposite to that of Socrates according to whom changes bring about evolution and growth in the world. Surprises come from quantum mechanics which support Zeno effect in quantum world. If we’re talking about a quantum arrow, there may be a way to freeze its motion simply by looking at it, through the aptly named Quantum Zeno effect. The first description of Quantum Zeno effect was made by Prof ECG Sudarshan. The Quantum Zeno effect predicts that certain quantum events can be frozen through this act of observation.
The Quantum Zeno effect is the effect whereby a continuous measurement of a quantum observable (like energy state or spatial position) will inhibit the system to change the quantum state. Eigen states are orthogonal to each other (which means that no two states can be occupied by the quantum system simultaneously), so that continuous process of Schrodinger evolution cannot evolve directly from eigenstate to eigenstate. Hence continuous measurement will therefore force the system to remain in that initial eigenstate.
We know that systems have different conscious states at different times, and sometimes evolve from being unconscious to being conscious. Once we illustrate the Zeno problem by taking the super selection observable to be consciousness (or its physical correlate), and if we started in an unconscious state, we could never become conscious. The unfortunate consequence would be that we could never wake up from a nap. It implies that if there is no consciousness in the early universe, then consciousness could never emerge later.
The concept water is different from the concept H2O, but they are found to refer to the same thing in nature. Something similar applies to consciousness: The concept of consciousness is distinct from any physical or functional concepts, but we may discover empirically that these refer to the same thing in nature. This yields the attractive possibility that we can acknowledge the deep epistemic problems of consciousness while retaining a materialist worldview.
Our dynamics predict that the state of the object (human mind) is not completely stable, but continuously collapses towards one of the two eigenstates, with probabilities stated above. The stability of the mind can be achieved by meditation as suggested by Patanjali so that individual mind will become one with the universal consciousness, thereby escaping from the birth-rebirth cycle reaching sayujya.
Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam
Now we will turn to the motto ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’. “Space-time is really just some geometrical manifestation of entanglement, showing a very close connection between quantum mechanics and space-time, and the continuity of space-time which seems to be something very solid, could come from the ghostly properties of entanglement”. As Susskind also put it “quantum entanglement is a form of information and so space-time is a manifestation of quantum information.” The informational entanglement of our quantum-holographic consciousness with the fabric of space-time is what explains the greatest mystery of quantum physics: The wave function collapse by the observer consciousness. It extended Chalmers’ 1996 definition of consciousness as “an irreducible aspect of the universe, like space and time and mass”, and Stonier’s 1997 definition of information as “the cosmic organisational principle with a ‘status’ equal to matter and energy,” putting it in the context of the Quantum Information Theory, yet little known in 1998.
Quantum information and entanglement are the way consciousness acts over matter, energy and space-time in-forming this universe—Brain and Cosmos Entanglement. We live in an interconnected and indivisible universe made of quantum entangled information. This universal interconnectedness is not limited by space-time and is a field of non-local information that interpenetrates everything in the cosmos instantaneously, as Umesawa demonstrated in his quantum field theory. And our consciousness is an active and dynamical part of this whole universe.
NEURAL ASSEMBLIES
Brain is a complex network of about one billion neurons with about one trillion neural connections. The complex structure of brain is the physical organ of the sixth sense called mind, represented by correlated activities of neuronal assemblies. Mental representations are correlated with the activity of neuronal assemblies, i.e., ensembles of several thousands of coupled neurons. Tubulin is a major protein in the mammalian brain that plays a crucial role in maintaining the integrity of microtubules, which are essential for neural growth and synaptic function in the nervous system. The neural correlate of a mental representation can be characterised by the fact that the connectivities, or couplings, among those neurons form an assembly confined with respect to its environment, to which connectivities are weaker than within the assembly. The neural correlate of a mental representation is activated if the neurons forming the assembly operate more actively, e.g., produce higher firing rates, than in their default mode.
Human mind is a part of the vast space-time structure or the cosmos which is completely connected by the Panchmahabhuta of Akasha. As Akasha is filled with super fluid aether, any disturbance anywhere in the vastnesss of Akasha will be interconnected without any loss of its strength of connectivity. Human minds in the meditation state will be interconnected, belonging to one whole family, leading to the feeling of Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam or the world family. In this state, the whole world will act coherently as one unit of family element giving no space for the feeling of hate and vengeance.
Microtubules are microscopic hollow tubes made up of the proteins alpha and beta tubulin that are part of a cell’s cytoskeleton, a network of protein filaments that extends throughout the cell, giving the cell its shape, and keeping its organelles in place. Microtubules are the largest structures in the cytoskeleton at about 24 nanometers thick. They have roles in cell movement, cell division, and transporting materials within cells.
SINGLE NEURONS AND SYNAPSES
The fact that neuronal assemblies are mostly described in terms of classical behaviour does not rule out that classically undescribable quantum effects may be significant if one focuses interfaces between neurons called synapses through which the signals between neurons propagate. There are electrical and chemical synapses, depending on whether they transmit a signal electrically or chemically.
At electrical synapses, the current generated by the action potential at the presynaptic neuron flows directly into the postsynaptic cell, which is physically connected to the presynaptic terminal by a so-called gap junction. At chemical synapses, there is a cleft between pre- and post-synaptic cell. In order to propagate a signal, a chemical transmitter (glutamate) is released at the pre-synaptic terminal. This release process is called exocytosis. The transmitter diffuses across the synaptic cleft and binds to receptors at the post-synaptic membrane, thus opening an ion channel. Chemical transmission is slower than electric transmission.
A model developed by Beck and Eccles (and later refined by Fisher) applies concrete quantum mechanical features to describe details of the process of exocytosis. Their model proposes that quantum processes are relevant for exocytosis and, moreover, are tightly related to states of consciousness.
At this point, another approach developed by Flohr (2000) should be mentioned, for which chemical synapses with a specific type of receptors, the so-called NMDA receptors, are of paramount significance. Briefly, Flohr observes that the specific plasticity of NMDA receptors is a necessary condition for the formation of extended stable neuronal assemblies correlated to (higher order) mental representations which he identifies with conscious states. Moreover, he indicates a number of mechanisms caused by anaesthetic agents, which block NMDA receptors and consequently lead to a loss of consciousness. Flohr’s approach is physicalistic and reductive, and it is entirely independent of any specific quantum ideas.
MICROTUBULI
The lowest neurophysiological level, at which quantum processes have been proposed as a correlate to consciousness, is the level at which the interior of single neurons is involved—their cytoskeleton. It consists of protein networks essentially made up of microtubuli (see figure on the left), which are essential for various transport processes within neurons (as well as other cells). Microtubuli are long polymers usually constructed of 13 longitudinal α and β-tubulin dimers arranged in a tubular array with an outside diameter of about 25 nm. It is the behaviour of the brain through its microtubular structure which governs the dynamics of living beings through quantum mechanical descriptions like entanglements and the phenomenon of consciousness.
CONCLUSION
We saw the description of universal consciousness based on quantum mechanical, mathematical and philosophical aspects. Penrose suggests that these quantum effects might occur within the brain’s microtubules, tiny structures found in the neurons. Penrose’s hypothesis is controversial, as many scientists argue that the brain is too warm and noisy for delicate quantum processes to occur. However, Penrose counters these objections by proposing that the microtubules are shielded from environmental noise and that quantum processes in the brain might be more robust than previously thought. As detailed in the above sections, one of the Panchamahabhuta, namely Akasha filled with superfluid aether, makes the whole world, living as well as nonliving, interconnected into a coherent single family or Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam.
*The author is Visiting Scientist, Cochin University of Science and Technology, Kochi. He can be reached at nampoori@gmail.com.
