Instability physics: Consciousness and collapse of the wave function

Abstract

Roger Penrose has long supported the view that wave function collapse, or more accurately wave packet reduction, is one of the defining aspects of consciousness In collaboration with Stuart Hameroff, he has suggested that it can be achieved by quantum gravity, giving rise to their well-known Orch OR theory of wave function collapse Their theory has a fundamental disadvantage, however Quantum gravity is too general; it applies at all points where matter is present, ie in all kinds of circumstance where wave packet reduction is not observed There is no hint as to why cell interiors are of special importance That assumption cannot be justified However, the Orch OR approach does acknowledge that only a situation governed by purely non-linear physics can offer circumstances where quantum wave-packets will be reduced; non-linearity must be at the heart of the theory This paper identifies a biological condition of non-linearity providing an advantageous way to explain objective reduction, OR, of wave packets: critical instability in complexity biology, known as ‘criticality’ The condition provides a rigorous reason why wave packet reduction should occur; one grounded in well-accepted modern biology, complexity biology This paper develops the idea further: it demonstrates how critical instabilities are found not in the cytoplasmic reticulum where Penrose and Hameroff site their Orch OR, but under the very circumstances where one would expect consciousness to be located: at the loci of control of biological regulatory systems Wave packet reduction can then select the future that the organism desires, doing so on a microscopic quantum level