Speaker

John Malcolm, PhD Candidate

Abstract

Consciousness remains close to an absolute mystery in science, philosophy, and religion.  Can subjective experience ever be explained as a physical process?  Many regard quantum mechanics (QM) as a necessary component to understanding consciousness.  For one, processes in the brain are carried out on small scales where QM may be important.  But a more compelling feature of QM is that it is non-deterministic, only able to provide probabilities for the result of observations.  To many, this aspect must then be a key component in consciousness giving rise to free will.  In this talk, I will go over a preliminary physical model for consciousness that involves using gravity as a precursor to QM wavefunction collapse, put forward by Roger Penrose.

Further Details

The talk is from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. Snacks will be provided at 12:00 pm. Make sure to follow the Graduate Seminar Series on Facebook [1].