Stuart Hameroff: Penrose's Quantum Consciousness Theory Explained

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Previously titled “Stuart Hameroff on Penrose, Self-Similar Consciousness, and Time Travelling Free Will (technical)” — renamed by the publisher on Aug 3, 2026

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Recorded04 Mar 2021

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YouTube link: https://youtu.be/uLo0Zwe579g Stuart Hameroff is an American anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona known for his studies of consciousness and contention that consciousness originates from quantum states in neural microtubules, partnering with Roger Penrose to explicate on the physics involved. TOE Clippings: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCdITf9DoFmndXy7nXWIoa7g Discord Invite Code (as of Mar 04 2021): dmGgQ2dRzS Subreddit r/TheoriesOfEverything: https://reddit.com/r/theoriesofeverything Patreon for conversations on Theories of Everything, Consciousness, Free Will, and God: https://patreon.com/curtjaimungal Help support conversations like this via PayPal: https://bit.ly/2EOR0M4 Twitter: https://twitter.com/TOEwithCurt iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802 Pandora: https://pdora.co/33b9lfP Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/4gL14b92xAErofYQA7bU4e Google Podcasts: https://play.google.com/music/listen?u=0#/ps/Id3k7k7mfzahfx2fjqmw3vufb44 iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/better-left-unsaid-with-curt-jaimungal/id1521758802 00:00:00 Introduction 00:02:18 For 73, how does Hameroff stay fast and adroit? 00:02:58 On Hameroff's personal beliefs of God 00:03:44 How did Stuart come to the idea that consciousness arises in microtubules? 00:08:55 The non-computational nature of consciousness and the hard-problem 00:11:56 Gödel's theorem and quantum gravity / superposition 00:16:54 Quantum computers and Frolich resonances 00:19:25 Roger Penrose enters in the picture where / when / how? 00:23:45 David Chalmer's legendary talk was at the conference Hameroff organized 00:26:33 Penrose modified Hameroff's ideas 00:28:04 The vibrations of consciousness (Gamma) 00:32:00 Details on the calculations of the collapse time of tubulin and microtubules 00:38:07 The myth of the 1% of the brain 00:41:33 Firing rates of neurons during psychedelics and how the brain seemingly "decreases" 00:46:42 Which comes first, cognition or consciousness? 00:48:27 Anesthesia and "truth serums" (disinhibition revealing inner truths?) 00:50:04 What's it like to work with Penrose? What's an example of a problem you're working on? 00:57:00 Free-will as travelling backward in time (Libett's experiments) 01:01:36 Dennett won't comment on his theories 01:02:33 Agreements / disagreements with Penrose 01:06:16 Explaining terms: Isolated systems, phases of quantum computing, gamma synchrony 01:11:40 Explaining terms: Benzine rings, non-polar, and hydrophobic 01:13:08 Structure of the microtubules 01:17:33 Tau proteins and Alzheimer's 01:17:00 Fractals / self-similarity and its relation to consciousness 01:20:06 Quantifying consciousness with anesthesia 01:21:42 Glial cells vs neurons for consciousness / computation 01:24:08 Can quantum computers be consciousness? 01:28:55 Is periodicity required or is aperiodicity a prius? 01:29:41 IIT vs Global Neuronal vs Orch OR 01:33:57 Falsifying Hameroff's and Penrose's theory (Orch OR) 01:37:00 Koch's thought experiment on the ridiculousness of Schrödinger's cat being alive and dead 01:38:01 How do Platonic Forms come into this? 01:40:12 What Curt likes most about Orch OR 01:42:52 Experiencing "nothing" 01:43:55 Comparing Wolfram's theory 01:45:00 How does Penrose's theory solve the Hard problem of consciousness 01:47:07 Does there exist free will 01:48:15 Strong vs Weak anthropic principle and and an explanation for the ratios of nature Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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