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Physics in Mind: A Quantum View of the Brain, by Werner Loewenstein
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No one can escape a sense of awe when reflecting on the workings of the mind: we see, we hear, we feel, we are aware of the world around us. But what is the mind? What do we mean when we say we are “aware” of something? What is this peculiar state in our heads, at once utterly familiar and bewilderingly mysterious, that we call awareness or consciousness?
In Physics in Mind, eminent biophysicist Werner R. Loewenstein argues that to answer these questions, we must first understand the physical mechanisms that underlie the workings of the mind. And so begins an exhilarating journey along the sensory data stream of the brain, which shows how our most complex organ processes the vast amounts of information coming in through our senses to create a coherent, meaningful picture of the world. Bringing information theory to bear on recent advances in the neurosciences, Loewenstein reveals a web of immense computational power inside the brain. He introduces the revolutionary idea that quantum mechanics could be fundamental to how our minds almost instantaneously deal with staggering amounts of information, as in the case of the information streaming through our eyes.
Combining cutting-edge research in neuroscience and physics, Loewenstein presents an ambitious hypothesis about the parallel processing of sensory information that is the heart, hub, and pivot of the cognitive brain. Wide-ranging and brimming with insight, Physics in Mind breaks new ground in our understanding of how the mind works.
- Sales Rank: #790939 in eBooks
- Published on: 2013-01-29
- Released on: 2013-01-29
- Format: Kindle eBook
From Booklist
*Starred Review* Was Leibniz wrong? The German philosopher once declared that science would never explain the human mind. His assertion hangs in the balance when Loewenstein illuminates the enigma of thought. Defying the usual disciplinary boundaries, Loewenstein deploys a Darwinian physics (replacing the daunting mathematics with clear bioneurological narrative, laced with sprightly humor) to explain how the cosmic volley of information arrows loosed by the Big Bang set the course for evolution. Readers will marvel at the electrochemical cunning of the chlorophylls and carotenes, cellular proteins and ion-selective membranes, that convert quantum signals carried by photons and electrons into life codes governing all multicellular organisms, all while satisfying the inflexible demands of thermodynamics. Astonishment swells again as readers contemplate the time structure of macromolecules, shaping the brain’s neuron trellis into a parallel quantum biocomputer. That biocomputer has given one peculiar species a mind’s-eye capacity for surveying the world as a whole and for anticipating future events in that world. It may disappoint some readers that, having come so far in explaining mental functions, Loewenstein finally balks before “the mystery of mysteries”—consciousness itself. Somewhere the shade of Leibniz breathes a sigh of relief. But Loewenstein will be back. And readers will be eager to join him. --Bryce Christensen
Review
Physics World's 2013 Book of the Year
“In the hands of a less scrupulous author, a book such as Physics in Mind could easily have strayed into the world of ‘quantum woo’, in which the weird effects of quantum mechanics are conveniently trotted out as the explanation for every problem, with scant regard to evidence. But Loewenstein, despite his enthusiasm for applying physics principles to biological topics, is careful to avoid such traps.... Loewenstein’s prose is both distinctive and enticing, and his beautifully clear explanations of more ‘traditional’ physics topics such as quantum computing and the cosmological arrow of time are among the best we have seen.”
Physics World
“This book is a fantastic journey for any reader, but especially for a physicist. In Loewenstein’s account, life is a delicate dance between the bits of information and quantized chunks of energy that drive all biological processes. Accordingly, he takes us on an intellectual rollercoaster ride.... Loewenstein is an engaging writer, one who spices his prose with elaborate wordplay, assonance, internal rhymes, puns, metaphors and quotations. All those verbal high jinks go to good use, put into the noble service of communicating hard stuff in a comprehensible fashion.... This is a ripping good read. Each chapter brings novel insights into the fundamental workings of life. Those who buy their ticket and take the ride will emerge breathless, but enlightened.”
Metapsychology Online Reviews
“Physics in Mind makes a bold...argument. It offers a unification of physics and biology on a higher, more sophisticated level than one usually finds. It even offers a plausible glimpse of that storied grail: brain as quantum computer.... [A] significant contribution to outlining the bigger picture.”
Trends in Cognitive Science
“Loewenstein takes readers on a delightful journey through one of the greatest scientific challenges of our time: the quest to understand how physics can explain brain function and consciousness. With precise, engaging, and often provocative prose, Loewenstein dares to delve into fundamental questions at the intersection of physics, biology, neuroscience, and philosophy.… Every page explodes with enthusiasm, metaphors, and food for thought. It is not common to find science books that are accurate, without oversimplifications, and yet read like pieces of fiction that cannot be put down.... [A] masterpiece of scientific outreach and discourse. This must-read book will promote vigorous scientific discussion in many circles.”
Psychology Today
“To perceive and understand the world around us, we need to process vast amounts of information. While the brain dedicates dense networks of neurons to the task, biophysicist Loewenstein explains that the heavy lifting is done by a complex array of microscopic particles making calculations at the quantum level.... Ultimately, survival depends on how well an organism can spot patterns and distinguish signal from noise—a test of computational power. It’s an indication, Loewenstein notes, that to understand the mysteries of consciousness, we may have to think small.”
Jane Smiley, Harper’s
“[An] absorbing account…. [Loewenstein’s] book is vital and wide-ranging, exploring everything from the structure of time to the phenomenon of gut feelings, the color of white and the reach of our senses, and why we’ve adapted to notice the anomaly rather than the norm.”
Booklist, starred review
“Defying the usual disciplinary boundaries, Loewenstein deploys a Darwinian physics (replacing the daunting mathematics with clear bioneurological narrative, laced with sprightly humor) to explain how the cosmic volley of information arrows loosed by the Big Bang set the course for evolution.”
Seth Lloyd, Professor of Quantum-Mechanical Engineering, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and author of Programming the Universe
“Werner Loewenstein’s Physics in Mind is a passionate exploration of how biological systems process information. Starting from how molecules transform information and energy at the most microscopic level, where quantum mechanics plays a central role, Loewenstein provides clear and elegant explanations of the mechanisms of sight and smell, of senses and neural signals, culminating with the phenomenon of consciousness itself. Erudite, witty, and highly accessible, Physics in Mind proves once and for all that the unquantized life is not worth living.”
Jared Diamond, Professor of Geography, UCLA, and Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel
“The more we think about it, the more challenging it becomes to answer the apparently simple question: how do we think? Here, eminent scientist Werner Loewenstein has assembled recent insights from biology and physics to give us his richly textured new view of this great challenge.”
About the Author
Werner R. Loewenstein was professor of physiology and biophysics at Columbia University and director of its Cell Physics Laboratory. Author of The Touchstone of Life, he lives in Woods Hole, on Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
Most helpful customer reviews
48 of 52 people found the following review helpful.
Outstanding For Other Reasons Than Promoted...
By Let's Compare Options Preptorial
Once in a while I get tired of publishers promoting books for "wider" audiences by, well, fooling the shopper! Right up front, Loewenstein admits that this book is really about sensory biology and physics, and "at the time of writing" there were some new revelations in quantum computing vs. parallel processing.
This book is categorically NOT revelatory about "mind." The author spends many wonderful and valuable pages discussing DEEP issues about vision (a high percentage of the brain is about vision), and the book is a must read if you're at all interested in the intesection of physics, biology and "below ion potential" spiking-- what goes on atomically. Of course VERY LITTLE is known about this right now, and the author is intellectually honest in admitting a lot of what he explains is speculative when it gets to superposition issues.
Another shot at the publisher-- promotions also say there is very little math here, and even the author states that he only has a few brief formulas at the end which we can skip. Then, he goes on to fill the book with breathtaking and valuable, but VERY DIFFICULT math concepts, explained in prose! After all, the foundation math in almost all of QM relies on Hermitian linear operators acting in Hilbert space on state vectors or wave functions. Even at the most basic level, these require robust linear algebra. Judge the "quantum" part of what you hear about this book accordingly!
Very little of this book really is about consciousness. The author has even stated that he started out to write that kind of book but found that physics works much better when explaining sensory mechanics. That's a subtle way of being humble and admitting we know VERY little about quantum computing at subatomic, room temperature coordinates. In fact, Loewenstein is again intellectually honest enough to say his goal is to promote the "EXPECTATION that consciousness has a physics explanation" (my emphasis).
The crux of what's being glossed over there is that we don't yet have a good understanding of the interface between thought and charge separation - spiking (pure dynamical systems electronics), let alone quantum. A wonderful overview of this is Tse's new book: The Neural Basis of Free Will: Criterial Causation. On the other hand, to lay a reductionist foundation, Loewenstein does a magnificent job of detailing quantum effects in information theory, but fails to relate it to consciousness in a credible way (although he also admits he's not really trying to do that!).
If you enjoy the now somewhat bypassed (in Neurology) computational reduction, you will REALLY like Kurzweil: How to Create a Mind: The Secret of Human Thought Revealed, which does connect it very convincingly to at least decision theory. As a couple year older "anticipation" of Tse and Kurzweil above, Lauwereyns has some amazing connections between neural circuits, coincident signals, bias and choice in: The Anatomy of Bias: How Neural Circuits Weigh the Options.
I probably don't have to mention Buzsaki as other reviewers have as the bible of this field, but he's here in case you haven't found him: Rhythms of the Brain. His book is deeply physiological and at a graduate neuro level. All three of the above make great "before and after" supplements to Loewenstein.
I'm not looking for a conditioned response, but do want you to gauge your expectations if you're expecting to see clear connections between quantum computing and consciousness-- the quantum parts are valuable, fun and enlightening, and certainly not simple, but are really about sensory and particularly visual topics. Even there, no sense of mystery is lost, we're at kindergarten level here in understanding what's going on. For example, until 10 years ago we couldn't even understand why "fixing" adult blindness physically didn't result in sight (it's about information processing), and we still don't understand how a fingertip touching a desk converts that mechanical energy into electrical without a tiny turbine or magnetic field! If we don't yet "get" even TOUCH at an ion/charge separation electronic level, how much do we really understand quantum mechanisms? Please do get this book, but knowing that the publisher's promos about consciousness, mind, and especially math when it comes to quantum computing are a little misleading, for the purpose of "not scaring off" a larger audience, even though this book is written at the senior MIT undergrad level in my opinion, and much more specialized in sense than "mind."
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14 of 16 people found the following review helpful.
LImits of quantum computing
By David Goodale
I enjoyed the book; this fellow knows a heck of a lot about cell biology and physics, and he communicates well. Contemplation of the microstructure of living beings brings about a feeling of awe, almost of fear, at the wizardly complexity that underlies what we think of as the humdrum operations of our bodies and minds.
I have a few reservations about the book. I should make clear that I'm not a scientist or mathematician, though I know enough to get in trouble. My main sticking point is something that I know about quantum computing, something that Mr. Loewenstein doesn't mention, which seems like a strange omission since quantum computing is in a way the theme of the book.
He says that the main problem with quantum computing is decoherence brought about by interaction with the surrounding environment. There is another problem, namely a very serious limitation on what quantum computing can do and what it can't.
As an example let us say that a quantum computer solves the decoherence problem and maintains its quantum coherence long enough to finish a problem, such as factoring a large number to see if it is prime. If the computer tried all possible divisors, then at the end of its calculation it would contain the results of a zillion trial divisions, all superposed in memory. Most of them would have failed; only a few (or perhaps none) of the trials would have found valid divisors.
So the computer "knows" the answer, but the big problem is to find out what the computer knows. If we examine the computer's memory, its coherence vanishes and we see only one result from the many different possibilities - a random result, almost certainly one of the failures.
It is true that an algorithm has been developed by which a quantum computer could factor large numbers, but the algorithm doesn't work by trying all divisors. It exploits very special properties of the factoring problem and cannot be applied in other situations. So far as I know factorization is the only really significant problem known to be solvable by quantum computers but not by classical computers. See Scott Aaronson's blog: "Quantum Computing Since Democritus Lecture 10: Quantum Computing."
I'm not saying that quantum computing doesn't happen in living beings. It could be common for all we know. But Mr. Loewenstein's book gives no flavor of the difficulty I mentioned above. Here is a typical passage, in which he discusses the operation of chlorophyll, where he says that the initial electron transfer (caused when a photon reaches the chlorophyll molecule) is by coherent quantum waves: "... in those 660 femtoseconds of to-and-fro the molecule implements an algorithm enabling it to select, out of the many quantum states hovering about, the one that provides the most efficient information transition."
It certainly is interesting that coherent quantum waves are part of the operation of chlorophyll. But his description sounds a bit too facile, as if the "selection" of a quantum state is relatively simple. Even though there may be coherent quantum waves, it seems to be a big step to assume that "information" is involved and that some useful quantum computation takes place. I imagine Mr. Loewenstein is aware of this issue but decided it leave it out for reasons of clarity or persuasiveness.
11 of 13 people found the following review helpful.
Pretty Drapery - on the Standard Matrix
By Stephen E. Robbins
This book [Physics in Mind] declares that it will, (1) "...hold implicitly forth the expectation that consciousness has a physics explanation," and indeed, Loewenstein attempts to deliver on this, taking us through an interesting and well explicated catalogue of incredible physical-chemical ("information processing") devices existing in the body and neural structure, with finally several sections on quantum computing, culminating in the hypothesis that the brain is employing quantum computing operations, and then we come, near the end, to this, (2) "Perhaps just as important as what the hypothesis is, is what it is not. It is not a hypothesis of consciousness... and it bears on consciousness only insofar as those operations are the prologmena to this mystery of mysteries."
So we wonder what have we actually been reading? These two sentences are the bread slices which brace the rather confused ingredients of the sandwich. In the middle of the sandwich we have been treated to a discussion of Turing Machines, computation, and virtual reality generating programs, with the absolute assertion made that the brain is using computing processes (standard, not quantum, apparently) to generate virtual reality images. So let's see, before me is the kitchen, its table, its chairs, my wife canning tomatoes, the steam rising from the pot, and all this - my experience, yes, experience - is a virtual image generated by the brain....but, but, but... this experience...is not consciousness??? This is not to mention that in the rather let-it-slide-into-oblivion style of the writing where the issues are subtly diminished and obscured, the difficulty of what this virtual image (dynamically changing over time as well) would actually look like when encoded in the neural processes of the brain is buried by Loewenstein. As he notes, it certainly is not going to be a nice matrix of pixels of the kitchen (or matrix after matrix after matrix...for which he attempts no theory of the memory that binds them as a flow), but rather he says, a function of "information transforms" (virtually entirely unexplicated) taking place. But the very existence of this image (my kitchen with table and steaming pot) - distributed over the neural processes and various areas of the brain, and undergoing the information transforms taking place - is only because this existence is attributed by an external observer - a theorist - and worse, it would require some internal observer (in the brain? Not?) to also make sense of all this (computations et al.) as an image/experience.
Despite, then, the many interesting discussion topics, the problem noted above generally characterizes the book - it is a whole lot of physics, psychophysics, information theory, quantum theory and computing notions that are simply draped upon the standard faith-framework of current science, namely, the framework that all this (physics) is certainly going to explain consciousness, if nothing else than by the sheer weight of the catalog of things of which we think we know how they work. But the coherence of it, that actual true addressing of the problems, a theory - is missing. Chalmers' "hard problem," which is in actuality simply a poorly stated and misleading formulation of the problem noted above, namely, the origin of the image of the external world, is never mentioned. Loewenstein speculates on mechanisms underlying our perception of the flow of time while simultaneously appearing to entertain the standard construal of relativity and its notion of the space-time block in which there is no flow at all. Another problem obscured. He wonders how we can see the third dimension, trots out a binocular theory which is completely inadequate, and utterly fails to address the perception theory of J.J. Gibson, which has a great deal to say about the information in the environment by which this external world is specified. This critical form of information, i.e., invariance laws defining events, is ignored along with the science (ecological psychology) involved, while the book celebrates physics' ubiquitous appropriation of information as bits residing in (or assigned to) apparently any physical phenomenon in which it pleases physics to see them (yet Gibson cannot be so appropriated). An antidote to this "information" mindset would be some of the contributors in Davies {Information and the Nature of Reality} who have begun to openly wonder about all this. Along the way, the origin and construction of the complex devices discussed is routinely assigned to "Lady Evolution," for example the exquisitely fine tuned channels in the cell membrane, tuned for maximum flow and yet selectivity. "How many trials she needed to steer that middle course, we may never know," Loewenstein says. "The failures in her laboratory - and given the magnitude of the problem, there probably were many - have been wiped off the record." Yet, to one who has become increasingly skeptical of a theory that has not one proven model of how these marvelous "selections" could happen given these problems of enormous engineering/design magnitude (the scope of which the author shows brilliantly each time, even using the term "design") - for such a one, with each example that Loewenstein piles on and merrily assigns to "Lady Evolution," the cognitive dissonance (and the trials upon trials, all sequenced across these devices which in fact interact) only grows. This refrain is just another disturbing adornment on the standard matrix that, "we can explain it all in our current (physics/evolution) framework."
So, yes, the book holds interesting information, worth reading. As a coherent theory of how these interesting elements/physics explain consciousness, it is a mirage. For those interested in escaping the standard matrix, i.e., seeing what an alternative evaluation of the problems and what a possible solution path might look like, I would suggest perhaps Time and Memory: A primer on the scientific mysticism of consciousness (yes, mine, but I just don't know many better right now), and/or Gunther's brilliant,Mind, Memory, Time.
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