Quantum panprotopsychism and the structure and subject-summing combination problem

TL;DR

This paper explores how quantum mechanics-based panprotopsychism can address the subject-summing problem in consciousness, proposing a quantum ontology of experience that accounts for evolution and complexity in consciousness.

Contribution

It introduces a quantum ontological framework for understanding the subject-summing problem and adapts Whitehead's prehension concept to quantum entities, advancing panprotopsychism.

Findings

Quantum ontology explains the emergence of complex consciousness structures.

Conditions for quantum cognition in the brain are proposed.

Evolutionary development of consciousness is analyzed through quantum structures.

Abstract

In a previous paper, we have shown that an ontology of quantum mechanics in terms of states and events with internal phenomenal aspects, that is, a form of panprotopsychism, is well suited to explaining the phenomenal aspects of consciousness. We have proved there that the palette and grain combination problems of panpsychism and panprotopsychism arise from implicit hypotheses based on classical physics about supervenience that are inappropriate at the quantum level, where an exponential number of emergent properties and states arise. In this article, we address what is probably the first and most important combination problem of panpsychism: the subject-summing problem originally posed by William James. We begin by identifying the physical counterparts of the subjects of experience within the quantum panprotopsychic approach presented in that article. To achieve this, we turn to the notion of subject of experience inspired by the idea of prehension proposed by Whitehead and show that this notion can be adapted to the quantum ontology of objects and events. Due to the indeterminacy of quantum mechanics and its causal openness, this ontology also seems to be suitable for the analysis of the remaining aspects of the structure combination problem, which shows how the structuration of consciousness could have evolved from primitive animals to humans. The analysis imposes conditions on possible implementations of quantum cognition mechanisms in the brain and suggests new problems and strategies to address them. In particular, with regard to the structuring of experiences in animals with different degrees of evolutionary development.