Encinitas 2023 2_4 daniel sheehan 1080p

FREE WILL AND RETROACTIVITY
presented at the Summer Symposium:
Neuroscience Needs a Revolution to Understand Consciousness
hosted by California Institute for Human Science and the
Center for Consciousness Studies, University of Arizona
August 18-20, 2023 Encinitas, California

It Does Not Compute: Experimental Evidence for the Non-Algorithmic
Nature of Human Consciousness
Daniel P. Sheehan, Patricia S. Cyrus
University of San Diego, San Diego, CA, USA

Categories by Discipline
4.0 Physical and Biological Sciences
Primary Topic Area - TSC Taxonomy
[04.08]........Quantum brain biology

Abstract
In the neuroscience community, the consensus view holds that consciousness arises from classical-mechanical, electrochemical interactions between neurons in the brain and that mental operations are analogous to those in classical computers, that is, computable (algorithmic). While these hypotheses can explain much, there are objections. For example, Penrose claims some forms of human thought must be non-algorithmic, based on extensions of G\"{o}del's incompleteness theorems. Meanwhile, theories by Hameroff-Penrose, Nowakowski, and Sheehan-Cyrus assert that the mind has fundamentally quantum mechanical aspects. In this talk we review experimental evidence that indicates some human mental operations are intrinsically non-algorithmic and that consciousness is likely quantum in nature, to some degree. Extending beyond Libet's famous intercranial experiments, we consider {\em precognition} both in its conscious and unconscious forms: {\em controlled future remote viewing} and {\em presentiment}, respectively. Among numerous experiments, those by Bem and by Graff and Cyrus clearly demonstrate that, under appropriate conditions, humans are able to perceive random events in the future (with a time horizon up to a few days), which is equivalent to determining the identity of a random number days before it is chosen. Such a task is impossible for any classical (algorithmic) computer, either in a present moment and, especially, three days in advance. Therefore, precognition of random future events is an intrinsically non-computable (non-algorithmic) process which is available to humans but not to classical computers. We propose precognition as the basis for a new type of Turing test, one that no classical type of artificial intelligence (AI) can defeat. Purely classical processes cannot account for the phenomenon of {\em retrocausation}, the proposition that future events can affect -- or establish physical correlations with -- present ones, the temporal reverse of normal causation. Nor can classical processes account for precognition. Several versions of quantum mechanics, however, explicitly invoke retrocausation in their descriptions (e.g., Two-State Vector Formalism, Transactional Interpretation). It appears plausible, then, that precognition may have roots in quantum brain processes, perhaps down to the micro-level (e.g., microtubules) but certainly manifesting at the macro-level. Whether quantum-based artificial intelligence (QAI) will demonstrate precognition and non-algorithmic thinking is an open question; however, the propensity for quantum systems to enjoy retrocausation seems to open the possibility. In summary, numerous experiments in precognition provide strong support for the following five propositions:\\ 1) Precognition is evidence of retrocausation.\\ 2) Human consciousness is probably quantum mechanical in some respects.\\ 3) Some conscious and unconscious modes of cognition and perception (e.g., precognition) are intrinsically non-algorithmic, hence not computable by classical computers.\\ 4) A Turing test based on precognition can defeat any type of classical AI.\\ 5) Quantum AI might be capable of precognition and, if so, it might defeat this neo-Turing test, thus demonstrating non-algorithmic processing. Together these argue for a more expansive view of human consciousness as well as neurophysical and neurophysiological processes beyond those currently embraced by the neuroscience community.

Keywords
consciousness, computability, Turing machines, precognition, quantum theories of consciousness, retrocausation, time