ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

40 Brain/Mind/Computer
Figure 2.2: A group of associated neurons such as brain cortical pyramidal cells.
The long axons and dendrites extending from cell bodies are on the ,order of a
few microns (thousand nanometers) thick. Some lateral synaptic connections are
evident. By Jamie Bowman Hameroff.
Although the RAS regulates wakefulness, the riddles of consciousness are
unsolved. For example, high level integration and associative functions implicit to
cognition occur predominantly in the cortex, structurally more evolved in
advanced animals such as man. Conversely, the RAS is one of the oldest
evolutionary parts of the nervous system and is relatively unchanged when
compared among lower animals and humans. Jaynes observes that even if we had
a complete wiring diagram, if we were aware of every transmitter in the nervous
system, understood all of the billions or trillions of synapses, we could still not
discern that a specific brain contained a consciousness like our own.