01/23/2019
CFP: The physics of mind and consciousness, or how Mother Nature has been beating Moore’s law for billions of years.
April 19-22 2019
Clayton Hotel Ballsbridge
Dublin, Ireland
www.foundationsofmind.org
Deadline for papers: February 15, 2019
Acceptance notification: March 13, 2019
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Using a mere 20 Watts of power, the human brain successfully accomplishes tasks every second that are still significantly beyond the reach of supercomputers. This conference, which will help launch a large-scale research program, explores whether there is new physics involved in brain computations. The burden of explaining mind has fallen on physics, due to lack from other scientific disciplines of any kind of computational view of mind with sufficient formal adequacy to handle elementary arithmetic.
Moore’s Law—the principle that the speed and capability of computers can be expected to double every two years, thanks to increases in efficacy of ever-increasing miniaturization of internal hardware components—has not been able to continue at such a pace. Since the year 2000, the rate of miniaturization has been slowing down, with chipmakers falling behind schedule. Intel Transistors less than 10 nm face misfires, due to limitations intrinsic to single atoms of boron. It is fair to say that the advent of graphical processing units added extra power that CPUs did not have, and that were not anticipated in Moore's Law. It is also well within the realms of possibility that the use of higher order tensors will lead to even more computationally powerful processors. As it happens, the main themes of the most recent two Foundations of Mind conferences have explored this. In “The New A.I. Scare” conference that we ran in San Francisco in November 2017, we discussed the extent of genuine technological development as distinct from hype in driving the new profile of Artificial Intelligence. In our conference on Fields which we ran in Siena in 2018, we discussed how the progression from CPUs to GPUs echoed Paul Dirac's innovation in considering space as an infinity of harmonic oscillators. What this Foundations of Mind conference will discuss is taking these ideas further still, as we dare to think that perhaps there is a processing mode associated with consciousness that is of a different category to anything we can currently conceive of machines doing.
We will examine the various ways Nature found around similar problems in natural systems, as axons of less than 150 nm in width led to misfires in the ion channels, and the physics thereof will be the central theme of this conference. The apparently obvious solution—that of simply increasing the number of neurons—would make childbirth impossible. We are particularly interested in finding new physics that establishes a basis by which the brain and world interact in a manner such that the brain can operate so efficiently, and also can provide models that indicate how brain metabolic demand is eased.
From a materialistic perspective, the brain might be considered to be the observer in quantum physics. We need to look at the physics of how the brain achieves observer status using organic material, which Nobel prizewinner Frank Wilczek identified as the outstanding problem in quantum mechanics. We also need to understand how formalisms in quantum mechanics and post quantum mechanics can emulate how trans-Turing computability is achieved by organic material. Finally, we will examine the most daring single idea in current science: how the process of observation not only allows solution of hitherto computationally explosive problems, but inculcates subjectivity in a manner predictable by physical law.
A conference on the physics of mind and consciousness with 5 threads
This conference will explore the physics of mind and consciousness, in accordance with the five threads described below. This conference will be held at the Clayton Hotel, Dublin Ireland, April 19-22 2019, Easter weekend. Conference rooms have already been reserved for this event. All our previous conferences have been published in peer-reviewed journals (Cosmos and History, www.cosmosandhistory.org), and receive over 150 thousand downloads per year. We plan to disseminate research presented at this conference in the same way. Apart from stars in the relevant academic areas involved like Paul Werbos, the inventor of deep learning, Menas Kafatos, Henry Stapp, and Giuseppe Vitiello—all of whom have appeared at our past events—we are also inviting young academics, who are also part of our Foundations of Mind group, to continue this interdisciplinary research into the next generations.
Thread 1: Quantum observation, subjectivity and the unreasonable effectiveness of mathematics
The independent discovery of the principles of quantum observation by Heisenberg and Schrodinger in the 1920s perhaps provides the quintessential example of what Nobelist Eugene Wigner referred to as, “the unreasonable effectiveness of Mathematics in the physical sciences.” Through using independent formalisms, they arrived at a precise description of a realm in which cognition has its intuitions confounded. In 1926, Schrodinger proved that the two formalisms were equivalent. This new type of mathematical physics is at the core of this proposal.
We are looking to see if the same can be proved for different takes on the problem of subjectivity, or qualia; specifically, the fact that there is something it is like to be me, and of course to be you! The first schema is the most famous; the Penrose adaptation of quantum gravity, which attempts to explain consciousness as the result of “orchestrated objective reduction.” This, if true, is undoubtedly new physics, synthesizing general relativity and quantum mechanics. Moreover, as Penrose and his followers argue, biological systems are thus capable of mental operations beyond the capacity of Turing machines. This latter fact would explain how a 20 Watt 'meat machine' can surpass supercomputers in computing power.
The second subtopic that we would like to examine is the classical work by Henry Stapp, following von Neumann. Here a role of absolute free will is posited when the subject can decide what to observe, and through Voluntary Action, how intensely to observe it. As we shall see, Stapp’s new vision on the consequences of Tomonaga-Schwinger quantum field theory might allow for signals to be transmitted faster than light, which would represent new physics with massive technological consequences. This we discuss again below in thread 4.
The third formalism we would like to examine comes out of the work of David Bohm, which we explore it in thread 5. In this case, the new physics is an adapted Lagrangian.
The fourth formalism we would like to examine derives from the later work of the great Walter Freeman. Freeman argued that the energy intensity of neural activity in itself gave rise to subjective states. While this seems at first sight plainly wrong, the fact remains that after Landauer we now know there are intricate links between information and energy.
Thread 2: Neural codes and mathematics
In his 1958 book, “The computer and the Brain,” von Neumann suggested that whatever language the brain was using, it must consist of less arithmetic and logical depth than standard mathematics. It is fair to say that 60 years later we have not advanced much from there. This thread is an attempt to make a fresh start.
There exists extensive evidence that meanings—rather than codes—are implemented by modulations on carrier waves for sensorimotor behaviour. Conversely, the codes themselves at this sensory and perceptual level may be something equivalent to a Fourier transform implemented by adjusting delays of signals between neurons. We have implemented c++ and MATLAB simulations of this process.
When it comes to human symbolic behaviour, the situation is even more complex. What deep learning and its apparent successes offer is not a code, but simply massively distributed and impenetrable computation. We argue that while the mathematics may be emulated in the cortex by coordinate free flows, the meanings will be determined by the organism acting in the world. The mathematical physics involved is new, with unprecedented use of concepts from category theory to provide a model of the world itself including observers who can understand it.
Thus we are willing to conclude that ultimately the demands by the environment are at too high a level of abstraction to be reflected like a mirror in putative neural codes.
Thread 3: the Physics of Mesoscopic and Macroscopic Neurodynamics
In the last decade of his life, the neuroscientist Walter Freeman began to explore the use of quantum field theory in new ways. Some of the themes Freeman introduced remain
unresolved, but may be harbingers of a new paradigm. They indicate how brain metabolic demand might be eased, thus explaining its small 20W demand, and how the notion of fields initially deriving from Maxwell might be applicable to the brain. We propose exploring the following;
1. Metabolism and entropy in Neurodynamics. Freeman explored the use of the Carnot and Rankine cycles in cortical models. In particular, the anomalies in frequency corresponding to “null spikes” and phase transitions might with benefit be viewed in the context of dissipation. The goal is to develop a framework to encompass a claim that the initial “Gas” sensory level in transduced into a lower entropy “liquid” Bose-Einstein condensate. If even a fraction of this can be established, the health consequences are enormous. The critical metabolic system in humans depends on both an energy and entropy gradient. If there is in fact a cortical process that releases low entropy energy, we need to find it!
2. Deriving the vector field of the Bose-Einstein condensate from EEG data. Gaussian curvature is one method that might be used. Given what amounted to an obsession about the paramount importance of fields in Freeman’s later experimental work and other statements, this needs to be investigated.
Thread 4: Faster than light transfer of information?
Stapp’s adaptation of Tomonaga-Schwinger also allows the possibility of information being transmitted faster than light or, more specifically, the possibility of disentangling spins faster than light. It is his view that Tomonaga-Schwinger allows “Alice and Bob”, separated by arbitrarily huge distances, to be at the same NOW and indeed to be linked by energy-carrying particles. It is clear that Stapp’s hypothesis, if true, has massive consequences for communications technologies and essentially makes the P=NP issue (a major unsolved problem in computer science) irrelevant. Given the many billions invested by the “Flash boys” to render access to information faster in financial trades, the possible commercial value of this thread needs no further emphasis. This physics, the product of Henry Stapp, a man in his 90’s who worked under Segre and Laurence and as a colleague of Wheeler, Pauli and Heisenberg, all Nobelists (or deserving of being Nobelists) in physics, is new and consequential.
Thread 5: Post quantum mechanics as a synthesis of the other threads
The failure of any science to yet produce a computational view of mind with formal adequacy sufficient to handle even elementary arithmetic has meant that the burden of explaining mind has fallen on physics by default. Using David Bohm’s early work, a wholly deterministic version of quantum mechanics can be derived from an adapted Lagrangian. This time the new physics is a wholescale model of mind and world, including an objective description of what it is to observe a classical or quantum state. Clearly, the level of abstraction is very high, with fiber bundles being one of the favoured theories, and this is new physics. In this case subjectivity is a back reaction to the pilot wave posited by Bohm, to recapitulate thread 1; neural codes can be elided by proper physics models. To allude to threads 2 and 3; classical computing is handled by Aharonov “history” waves but the presence of “destiny” waves allows super-Turing computability to emerge. Indeed, we would be able to transcend Moore’s law!
About University of Ireland
www.UniversityofIreland.org
In 2010 the Irish state announced that it was scrapping its national university. In response, the University of Ireland was registered as a business name in Alameda County, California. We immediately started online courses, which we announced in a seminar at UC Berkeley on February 1, 2012. While still at Stanford, the founder hosted the first international Foundations of Mind conference in July 2012, publishing a monograph and conference proceedings over the next 14 months.
While the online courses have morphed also into a residential summer school, held each year, a parallel research track initially covering cognitive science was launched at UC Berkeley in March 2014, called Foundations of Mind (FoundationsOfMind.org). It has morphed into one of the most downloaded, viewed and prolific groups in the history of the discipline, averaging over 150 thousand downloads per year. Moreover, in response to the necessity of defining the concept of “mind” appropriately widely, many of the publications feature analysis of physics and biology concepts.
Our personnel include a Nobel laureate in physics, many faculty members from UC Berkeley and other top academies, including Paul Werbos, ex-National Science Foundation director and the inventor of “deep learning.” We are truly international; at our last conference in San Francisco, we had 11 different nationalities presenting.
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Contributors are invited to write on the above or related themes, even
in disagreement with the assumptions implicit.
Submission Format:
Please submit a 5k ms in word/Libreoffice to
[email protected] by February 15, 2019. We allow contributors
maintain copyright without payment. Our download rate is an order of
magnitude higher than for a typical journal; while our top papers get
over 30 downloads a day, the average is over 1,000 a year, with the
pace maintained for over a decade so far.
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