Does Free Consciousness exist ？
I see a study: Discovery of quantum vibrations in ‘microtubules’ inside brain neurons supports controversial theory of consciousness shared on social media. Some one comments that this study indicates that human have free consciouness and the freedom comes from quantum process.
I disagree with this comments. To oppose this comment clearly, I will raise and answer two questions. First, what does ‘microtubules’ do inside neurons ? Second what is free consciousness ?
What does ‘microtubules’ do inside neurons ?
The above picture is from Wikipedia. It shows the structure of a neuron and what ‘microtubules’ is in neuron.
The way how neuron works is: A neuron collect chemical signals from many other neurons and generate a signal in the left side of the above picture and send the signal to the right side the above picture through the ‘microtubules’ and finally convert that signal to chemical material and emit them. So ‘microtubules’ is more like a cable to transmit signals. And in electrical engineering sight, in signal transmitting process, there could be some noise and some distorting being added to that signal. Such noise should be filtered in the recipient side. Otherwise the system would become unstable. Thus even though in the paper, researcher states that doctor may apply some strong electrical or magnetic field to this process to change the signal, in human’s normal life quantum vibration should just be some kind of noise during the signal transmission process and shouldn’t have obvious affect in the recipient side, otherwise you will find you body uncontrollable.
But why does neuron need such a relatively long ‘microtubules’ to transmit signal ? why not use some shorter transmission media and why not use chemical signal instead of quantum signal ? If there is no other better answer to the above questions, then free consciousness maybe the correct answer and a reasonable theory. However, I think there maybe some better answers. I think neuron user long ‘microtubules’ to transmit signal because this can prevent the neuron receive signal from it self which may cause self-oscillate and instability. And neuron uses quantum signal instead of chemical signal because the transmission media could be simpler and smaller and the energy cost could be lower comparing to some chemical transmission media like blood vessel. Thus there are better reasons to use ‘microtubules’ as a signal transmission media instead of a free consciousness generator.
For more detailed information, please refer to following material:
What is free consciousness ?
But obviously comparing to machines and computers, humans are free living. And we can feel we are live. So where does our free consciousness comes from ? Let me divide it into 2 questions.
First what is consciousness?
I think consciousness should be the processing of information input from the environment and desire and will from our body and memory. It is pretty clear that desire comes from our organs. There are many news telling that after transplanting people A’s organ to people B, B would have some similar desire or preference to A such as taste preference and so on. The more memory and the stronger capability of processing information one human have, the more consciousness one human have. Imagine that if unfortunately you were born with blind and deaf and disability of all other sense, then your consciousness would be very weak. You can’t think because no stuff for you to think. With process of growing older, you have more knowledge and stronger thinking capability and you feel more consciousness. And you have desire and preference. You know what you want and work hard to get it.
Second what is free in consciousness ?
Free is not some randomness like quantum theory talking about. Free is do what you want. It happens when the environment limitation is low and you have many different choice to do next. But you aren’t making random decision either. You may have a plan or some desire is stronger temporarily or after your evaluation you think you should pursue some desire or preference. But why can human be creative ? Some time one new idea may come to mind suddenly. And why can human think, do inference and even choose what to think ? My explanation to this is the effect of neural network. One neuron may send pulse to a large number of other neuron and activate them. But what set of neuron would be activated ? There is no deterministic answer. It is more like a Brownian motion. When you begin with a thought, your activated neuron will activate an undetermined set of many other neurons and other neurons will also activate an undetermined set of other neuron. New idea comes from this. Even when you are taking shower, some special set of neuron may be activated and new idea may come to mind.
Therefore free consciousness is not related to quantum vibration in ‘microtubulus’. It is the processing of information and desire and memory and the effect of neural network.