George Henry Lewes' writings on the mind-body problem, especially in his five-volume Problems of Life and Mind, remain relevant today. The author argues that Lewes rejected extreme cerebrocentrism, instead viewing the mind as embodied, with its somatic substrate extending beyond the brain to the rest of the body. Lewes also contended that living creatures' mechanisms are qualitatively different from and 'incalculable' compared to machines. Finally, he proposed that humans' capacity for ideation (symbolic thought) and immersion in the 'Social Medium' (culture) are defining characteristics of humankind.
This essay examines whether quantum mechanics has any genuine link to human consciousness, focusing on the 'measurement problem' that arises from the Copenhagen Interpretation. It reviews alternative interpretations including Everett's 'Parallel Worlds', Bohm's 'Hidden Variables', and the 'Heisenberg-Dirac Propensity' interpretations. The role of consciousness in the Parallel Worlds theory is explored in detail, along with quantum theories of mind proposed by Stapp, Eccles, Hodgson, and Penrose. The essay also discusses how 'Interactive Decoherence' affects proposed theories of quantum-dependent brain function, ultimately questioning the viability of such connections.