The Emerging Physics of Consciousness (The Frontiers Collection) [Hardcover]

Jack A. Tuszynski (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 3540238905 | ISBN-13: 978-3540238904 | Publication Date: August 29, 2006 | Edition: 1

Seeks answers to these questions using the underlying assumption that consciousness can be understood using the intellectual potential of modern physics and other sciences. There are a number of theories of consciousness, some based on classical physics while others require the use of quantum concepts. The latter ones have drawn criticism from the parts of the scientific establishment while simultaneously claiming that classical approaches are doomed to failure. The contributing authors presents a spectrum of opinions from both sides of this on-going scientific debate, allowing readers to decide for themselves which of the approaches are most likely to succeed.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Consciousness remains one of the major unsolved problems in science. How do the feelings and sensations making up conscious experience arise from the concerted actions of nerve cells and their associated synaptic and molecular processes? Can such feelings be explained by modern science, or is there an entirely different kind of explanation needed? And how can this seemingly intractable problem be approached experimentally? How do the operations of the conscious mind emerge out of the specific interactions involving billions of neurons? This book seeks answers to these questions on the underlying assumption that consciousness can be understood using the intellectual potential of modern physics and other sciences. There are a number of theories of consciousness, some based on classical physics while others require the use of quantum concepts. The latter ones have drawn criticism from the parts of the scientific establishment while simultaneously claiming that classical approaches are doomed to failure. The contributing authors present a spectrum of opinions from both sides of this on-going scientific debate, allowing readers to decide for themselves which of the approaches are most likely to succeed.

About the Author

Professor Jack Tuszynski received his M.Sc. with distinction in Physics from the University of Poznan (Poland) in 1980. He received his Ph.D. in Condensed Matter Physics from the University of Calgary in 1983. He held a Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Calgary Chemistry Department in 1983. He was an Assistant Professor at the Department of Physics of the Memorial University of Newfoundland from 1983 to 1988, and at the University of Alberta Physics Department from 1988 to 1990. He joined the University of Alberta Physics Department in 1993. He is on the editorial board of the Journal of Biological Physics.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 503 pages
• Publisher: Springer; 1 edition (August 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 3540238905
• ISBN-13: 978-3540238904
• Product Dimensions: 9.4 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,421,996 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mind, Brain and the Quantum: The Cutting Edge of the Science of Consciousness, January 22, 2007

By 

Dr. Richard G. Petty (Atlanta) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Emerging Physics of Consciousness (The Frontiers Collection) (Hardcover)

I think that most of us would agree that consciousness remains one of the major unsolved problems in science. Though there are still some scientists and philosophers who think that it is no more than a grand illusion created by a series of neural reflexes, common sense, personal insight and observation really tell us otherwise.

So how do the feelings and sensations that make up conscious experience arise from the actions of neurons and their associated synaptic and molecular processes? Or is there enough evidence to indicate that the mind is not a product of neural activity, but is instead a universal field that is constrained by the brain?

This fine book proposes that consciousness can be understood using the insights of modern physics and other sciences.

The book is divided into 14 chapters:

1. The path ahead by Jack A. Tuszynski and Nancy Woolf
2. Consciousness and quantum physics: empirical research on the subjective reduction of the state vector by Dick J. Bierman and Stephen Whitmarsh
3. Microtubules in the cerebral cortex: role in memory and consciousness by Nancy J. Woolf
4. Towards experimental tests of quantum effects in cytoskeletal proteins by Andreas Mershin and Hugo Sanabria and John H. Miller and Dharmakeerthna Nawarathna and Efthimios M. C. Skoulakis and Nikolaos E. Mavromatos and Alexadre A. Kolomenskii and Hans A. Schuessler and Richard F. Luduena and Dimitri V. Nanopoulos
5. Physicalism, chaos and reductionism by Alwyn Scott
6. Consciousness, neurobiology and quantum mechanics: the case for a connection by Stuart Hameroff
7. Life, catalysis and excitable media: a dynamic systems approach to metabolism and cognition by Christopher James Davia
8. The dendritic cytoskeleton as a computational device: a hypothesis by Avner Priel and Jack A. Tuszynski and Horacion F. Cantiello
9. Recurrent quantum neural network and its applications by Laxmidhar Behera and Indrani Kar and Avshalom C. Elitzur
10. Microtubules as a quantum Hopfield network by Elizabeth C. Behrman and K. Gaddam and J. E. Steck and S.R. Skinner
11. Consciousness and quantum brain dynamics by Gordon Globus
12. The CEMI field theory: seven clues to the nature of consciousness by Johnjoe McFadden
13. Quantum cosmology and the hard problem of the conscious brain by Chris King
14. Consciousness and logic in a quantum computing universe by Paola Zizzi

Each chapter begins with a brief summary that is most valuable if any of the topics is unfamiliar. Most of the chapters contain some original research data as well as a comprehensive discussion, summary and references.

Virtually all the authors have been widely published elsewhere and this book represents their current views about consciousness. Considering the number of eminent experts in the book, there is a remarkable uniformity of style.

There is some mathematics in a few of the chapters, but nothing too complex.

The intention of the book was clearly to present many different views of the consciousness problem, and as such it succeeds extremely well. It does not come to a final answer, but is instead a summary of where we are in understanding the physics of consciousness.

The book highlights the important fact that consciousness is a highly interdisciplinary issue. We do not have all the answers, but we are asking better questions. And some world-class scientists are finding a way out of the empty impasse of trying to reduce consciousness to an epiphenomenon of neural activity.

The book needs a little understanding of mathematics and the basics of quantum mechanics. But it is otherwise not a difficult read.

If you are interested in consciousness and its interaction with the physical and biological worlds, this is an excellent book that I recommend highly.

14 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The uneven quality of emerging physics, February 6, 2007

By 

T. Schumann (San Luis Obispo, California United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Emerging Physics of Consciousness (The Frontiers Collection) (Hardcover)

The articles involving exposition of scientific progress are pretty good. The articles attempting philosophy are not so good. Some of the authors attempt to impress the reader instead of enlightening the reader.