ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

Toward Ultimate Computing 25
A method of recording and reconstructing wavefronts associated with
interference patterns is call “holography,” a technology whose mechanism has
inspired numerous speculations of “holographic” brain function and
consciousness. Holography is a method of information storage employing
coherent beams of electromagnetic radiation. It was invented in the late 1940’s by
Denis Gabor (1948) who won the Nobel prize, and achieved technical importance
with the arrival of the laser as a convenient source of coherent light in the 1950’s.
A hologram is a permanent record of the pattern of interference between two
sources of coherent light (or any coherent waveforms) in localized regions of
space, usually a photographic film plate. Subsequent reference waves unlock the
patterns from storage. The record of both the original interfering waves are stored
and the relevant information used as an address to retrieve patterns. Each portion
of the hologram contains information about each part of both original interfering
waves. Consequently reillumination of any small fragment of a hologram will
recreate the entire image stored there, losing only focus or clarity. Holograms thus
store image files in a “distributed” manner, much like the brain is thought to
function, and are also “fractal,” in that small portions are scaled down versions of
the whole. By exposing a hologram to time varying sets of interfering waves, it
can function as a distributed memory. These properties led to a flurry of
holographic brain models (Westlake, 1970; Longuet-Higgins, 1968; Pribram,
1971). Among these, van Heerdon (1968) discussed methods of optical
information storage in solids using coherent light. Van Heerdon pointed out that
such systems can store large amounts of information although they require a
calibrating system to maintain exact phase relations between waves.
Requirements for well tuned filters or coherent resonators to maintain phase
relations between patterns in the spatial domain remain a major question
regarding holographic models of brain function and memory. Consequently the
biological existence of holograms has been questioned, based on the assumption
that the coherence and phase relation would have to be provided at the cellular or
neural level. However, nanoscale coherence may have the required spatial and
temporal periodicity to generate cytoplasmic holograms. Photo-refractive crystals
can produce dynamic, real time holography (Gower, 1985). Conformational
dynamics of the cytoskeleton could tune and generate coherent standing waves
and interference patterns of calcium gradient fields, sol-gel states, and structure of
the cytoskeletal microtrabecular lattice (Chapters 6 and 8). Dynamic and
deterministic intracellular patterns would be useful in biological activities of all
sorts. Holographic models of consciousness including a cytoskeletal approach
will be described further in later chapters.
1.5.3 Macrons
The evolution of form and information from chaos has been termed
“morphogenesis” and related to philosophical literature from many cultures.
Mathematician Ralph Abraham (1976) has compared mathematical descriptions
of the dynamic evolution of biological form to the Rigveda, I-Ching, Kabala, and
Heraclitus. Using the catastrophe theory of Rene Thom (1973) and an
observational device, the macroscope of Hans Jenny, Abraham has studied
collective vibrational patterns which occur widely in nature and which he calls
“macrons.” Abraham describes physical, chemical, and electrical categories of
macrons which may be further subdivided according to the material state of the
macron medium. For example, physical macrons may occur within a solid,
isotropic liquid, liquid crystal, or gas. Abraham cites one example of a solid
macron: if a flat metal plate is vibrated transversely by an external force such as
coupled electromechanical transducers, a vibrational pattern may be observed as a