'Human brain' supercomputer with 1 million processors switched on for first time

submitted by magnora7 from manchester.ac.uk

sorted by:
top
newinsightfulfun
you are viewing a single comment's thread.

view the rest of the comments →

[–]fred_red_beans 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

While a hypothesis that is widely assumed in scientific circles, there is no evidence that consciousness arises in the brain.

Quantum Physicist: Consciousness Arises Outside of the Brain

While this 'Human Brain' computer may be great for simulation of how the brain functions, I think containing consciousness is beyond it's capabilities.

[–]s8cyprks 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Interesting. So if consciousness doesn't arise in the brain, then where does it come from when the person is still conscious after his heart stopped beating? Doesn't it come from the brain, because that's the only thing that still functions when our heart stopped beating when we die? If this is the case then surely this supercomputer can also be used to learn more about how our consciousness works.

[–]DrStrangelove 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is consistent with a new theory of consciousness being advocated by physicist Sir Roger Penrose and Dr. Stuart Hameroff. Penrose and Hameroff suggest that consciousness is something applied to the brain, not generated by it.

Came to the comments to mention Hammeroff. He's an anesthesiologist who thinks consciousness arises out of the quantum states of microtubules within the neuron. Basically, the brain is more a quantum antenna than a computer. Really fascinating stuff, and interesting that it comes from a guy who's an expert in turning consciousness off (and hopefully back on again).