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. 2021 Jan-Jan;12(2):74-76.
doi: 10.1080/17588928.2020.1839037. Epub 2020 Nov 24.

'Orch OR' is the most complete, and most easily falsifiable theory of consciousness

Stuart Hameroff  1
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'Orch OR' is the most complete, and most easily falsifiable theory of consciousness

Stuart Hameroff. Cogn Neurosci. 2021 Jan-Jan.
Free article

Abstract

The 'Orch OR' theory attributes consciousness to quantum computations in microtubules inside brain neurons. Quantum computers process information as superpositions of multiple possibilities (quantum bits or qubits) which, in Orch OR, are alternative collective dipole oscillations orchestrated ('Orch') by microtubules. These orchestrated oscillations entangle, compute, and terminate ('collapse of the wavefunction') by Penrose objective reduction ('OR'), resulting in sequences of Orch OR moments with orchestrated conscious experience (metaphorically more like music than computation). Each Orch OR event selects microtubule states which govern neuronal functions. Orch OR has broad explanatory power, and is easily falsifiable.

Keywords: Consciousness; Orch OR; anesthesia; microtubule; orchestrated objective reduction; pyramidal neuron; quantum computing; tubulin.

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