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ORCH Or Theory

Posted: Sun Nov 20, 2022 8:12 pm
by Clayton
Hello everyone, this is my first post here and had a question I was wondering if some could help me answer his question. The question I had was about ORCH OR theory. Is this theory considered an idealist theory or some other school of thought such as panpsychism or materialism?
I’m really not sure at this point.

Re: ORCH Or Theory

Posted: Tue Nov 22, 2022 5:07 pm
by Cleric K
Clayton wrote: Sun Nov 20, 2022 8:12 pm Hello everyone, this is my first post here and had a question I was wondering if some could help me answer his question. The question I had was about ORCH OR theory. Is this theory considered an idealist theory or some other school of thought such as panpsychism or materialism?
I’m really not sure at this point.
Hi Clayton,

Penrose himself wouldn't even try to classify ORCH OR as belonging to some philosophical stream. It is not even a full mathematical model because we don't have mathematics that can address non-computable processes. So all that ORCH OR says is that the collapse of the WF may not be random, nor computable by some algorithm, but still resulting from specific fully objective natural processes of non-computable nature, which are amplified to affect the overall behavior of the brain. So really, if we are strict about what ORCH OR says, we can't tell anything about what consciousness is, whether it is fundamental or not, what qualia is and so on. It's really about the fact that the measurable effects in the brain can never be fully predicted by a computable process - even if we had infinitely precise information about every particle of the brain and infinitely powerful computer that can run them through our computable physics theories.

Of course, Penrose has his own musings about the three worlds.

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but he's careful to keep that aside from his mathematical modelling. He's been clear in interviews that he doesn't even know how to address these questions and that's why he only mentions them in anecdotal manner, while he's focus is entirely in mathematical models.

Re: ORCH Or Theory

Posted: Thu Dec 01, 2022 7:47 am
by Wayfarer
There's an article that just came up in my feed which is possibly related to this, Brain experiment suggests that consciousness relies on quantum entanglement. The opening statement is:
Supercomputers can beat us at chess and perform more calculations per second than the human brain. But there are other tasks our brains perform routinely that computers simply cannot match — interpreting events and situations and using imagination, creativity, and problem-solving skills
To be honest, it seems like pseudo-science to me. It's an example of the kind of thinking 'hey, quantum processes are really mysterious. And so are neural processes! Maybe there's a relationship!' I'm an arts graduate, I don't really know either neuroscience or quantum physics, but this strikes me as deeply confused. I'd be interested to know if Bernardo has addressed this meme somewhere.