Is this Quantum Brain model possible?
in [Physics]
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From: Lino on 4 Jul 2010 19:01 Hi, According to Henry Stapp who is a personal friend of Pauli, the following mechanism is what made possible the brain being describing as quantum... what do you think about it especially those bonafide physicists?? Questions follow below. from: http://www.newdualism.org/papers/H.Stapp/Stapp-PTB6.htm " The channels through which the calcium ions enter the nerve terminal are called ion channels. At their narrowest points they are less than a nanometer in diameter (Cataldi et al. 2002). This extreme smallness of the opening in the ion channels has profound quantum mechanical implications. The narrowness of the channel restricts the lateral spatial dimension. Consequently, the lateral velocity is forced by the quantum uncertainty principle to become large. This causes the quantum cloud of possibilities associated with the calcium ion to fan out over an increasing area as it moves away from the tiny channel to the target region where the ion will be absorbed as a whole, or not absorbed at all, on some small triggering site. This spreading of this ion wave packet means that the ion may or may not be absorbed on the small triggering site. Accordingly, the contents of the vesicle may or may not be released. Consequently, the quantum state of the brain has a part in which the neurotransmitter is released and a part in which the neurotransmitter is not released. This quantum splitting occurs at every one of the trillions of nerve terminals. This means that quantum state of the brain splits into vast host of classically conceived possibilities, one for each possible combination of the release-or-no-release options at each of the nerve terminals. Actually, because of uncertainties on timings and locations, what is generated by the physical processes in the brain will be not a single discrete set of non-overlapping physical possibilities but rather a huge smear of classically conceived possibilities. Once the physical state of the brain has evolved into this huge smear of possibilities one must appeal to the quantum rules, and in particular to the effects of Process 1, in order to connect the physically described world to the steams of consciousness of the observer/participants. This focus on the motions of calcium ions in nerve terminals is not meant to suggest that this particular effect is the only place where quantum effects enter into brain process, or that the quantum Process 1 acts locally at these sites. What is needed here is only the existence of some large quantum of effect. The focusing upon these calcium ions stems from the facts that (1) in this case the various sizes (dimensions) needed to estimate the magnitude of the quantum effects are empirically known, and (2) that the release of neurotransmitter into synaptic clefts is known to play a significant role in brain dynamics. The brain is warm and wet, and is continually interacting strongly with its environment. It might be thought that the strong quantum decoherence effects associated with these conditions would wash out all quantum effects, beyond localized chemical processes that can be conceived to be imbedded in an essentially classical world. Strong decoherence effects are certainly present, but they are automatically taken into account in the von Neumann formulation employed here. These effects merely convert the state S of the brain into what is called a statistical mixture of nearly classically describable states, each of which develops in time, in the absence of Process 1 events, in an almost classically describable way." ------------------ Questions guys... what does this mean? " These effects merely convert the state S of the brain into what is called a statistical mixture of nearly classically describable states, each of which develops in time..." How could strong decoherence be taken account of in von Neumann formulations?
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