ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

176 Models of Cytoskeletal Computing
Figure 8.9: Boolean switching matrix in microtubule lattice from Hameroff and
Watt (1982). Alpha and beta tubulin subunits in the MT lattice wall were
considered to be transiently occupied by quanta of charge/energy/conformation.
MAPs behaved as “left switches” or “sink” or “source” proteins. Sequences and
patterns of conformational states traveled through the MT lattice and via “sink”
and “source” inter-MT bridges throughout the cytoskeleton somewhat like a
pinball machine. The model demonstrated a capability for tubulin-MAP
“programming” of dynamic activities related to biological intelligence.
In subsequent papers, Hameroff, Smith and Watt (1984, 1986) utilized
principles of cellular automata to explain information processing in MT. As
described in Chapter 1, cellular automata are dynamical systems which can
generate and process patterns and information, and are capable of computing.
Cellular automata require a lattice structure of “like” neighbors with discrete
states and neighbor rules, and a universal “clock” to which all neighbors are
timed. Adopting Fröhlich’s model of coherent nanosecond dipole oscillations
coupled to conformational states as a clocking mechanism, the authors calculated
MT lattice neighbor Van der Waals dipole interactions as rules for an MTautomaton
computer simulation. Each tubulin dimer was considered to be in one
of two possible states at each nanosecond “generation.” The two states were
related to Fröhlich’s concept of dipole oscillation so that the dipole can be
oriented either toward the alpha tubulin end (“a,” Figure 8.2.13) or toward the