The Huffington Post – Stuart Hameroff
“How does the brain – a lump of ‘pinkish gray meat’ – produce the richness of conscious experience, or any subjective experience at all? Scientists and philosophers have historically likened the brain to contemporary information technology, from the ancient Greeks comparing memory to a ‘seal ring in wax,’ to the 19th century brain as a ‘telegraph switching circuit,’ to Freud’s sub-conscious desires ‘boiling over like a steam engine,’ to a hologram, and finally, the computer. Because brain neurons and synapses appear to act like switches and ‘bits’ in computers, and because brain disorders like depression, Alzheimer’s disease and traumatic brain injury ravage humanity with limited effective therapies, scientists, governments and funding agencies have bet big on the brain-as-computer analogy. For example billions of dollars and euros are being poured into ‘brain mapping,’ the notion that identifying, and then simulating brain neurons and their synaptic connections can reproduce brain function, e.g. the ‘human brain project’ in Europe, and the Allen Institute’s efforts in Seattle to map the mouse cortex. But the bet, so far at least, isn’t paying off.”(more)