Quantum computation and the physical computation level of biological information processing

TL;DR

This paper argues that quantum computation, unlike classical computation, can process large amounts of information simultaneously, providing a physical basis for consciousness and explaining the unity of subjective experience.

Contribution

It establishes that quantum computation satisfies the physical requirements for consciousness, offering a new perspective on the role of quantum processes in cognitive functions.

Findings

Quantum computation allows simultaneous processing of large information sets.

Classical networks cannot process more than three bits together at once.

Quantum measurement acts as a many-body interaction solving problems in one step.

Abstract

On the basis of introspective analysis, we establish a crucial requirement for the physical computation basis of consciousness: it should allow processing a significant amount of information together at the same time. Classical computation does not satisfy the requirement. At the fundamental physical level, it is a network of two body interactions, each the input-output transformation of a universal Boolean gate. Thus, it cannot process together at the same time more than the three bit input of this gate - many such gates in parallel do not count since the information is not processed together. Quantum computation satisfies the requirement. At the light of our recent explanation of the speed up, quantum measurement of the solution of the problem is analogous to a many body interaction between the parts of a perfect classical machine, whose mechanical constraints represent the problem to be solved. The many body interaction satisfies all the constraints together at the same time, producing the solution in one shot. This shades light on the physical computation level of the theories that place consciousness in quantum measurement and explains how informations coming from disparate sensorial channels come together in the unity of subjective experience. The fact that the fundamental mechanism of consciousness is the same of the quantum speed up, gives quantum consciousness a potentially enormous evolutionary advantage.