ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

Prelude 5
0 Prelude
What is this book, and why has it been written by an anesthesiologist This
book is a view of the co-evolution of consciousness and technology-past, present
and future.
This book has been written by an anesthesiologist because of a confluence of
two fascinations. The first is the nature of consciousness, which anesthesiologists
routinely erase and restore in their patients. The second is a fifteen year trail of
notions that would not go away. While a third year medical student in 1972, I
spent a summer research elective in a cancer laboratory. For some reason I
became fascinated and fixated by one particular question. When cells divided, the
chromosomes were separated and daughter cell architecture established by wispy
strands called mitotic spindles (“microtubules”) and cylindrical organelles called
centrioles. Somehow, the centrioles and spindles “knew” when to move, where to
go, and what to do. The uncanny guidance and orientation mechanism of these
tiny biomolecular structures seemed to require some kind of motorized
intelligence. At about the same time, electron microscopy techniques were
revealing the interior of all living cells to be densely filled with wispy strands,
some of which were identical to mitotic spindles. Interconnected in dynamic
parallel networks, these structures were thought to serve a purely supportive, or
mechanical structural role and were collectively termed the “cytoskeleton.”
But several factors suggested that the cytoskeleton was more than the
structural “bones” of the cell: they manipulated dynamic activities, orchestrating
complex and highly efficient processes such as cell growth, mitosis and transport.
Another factor was a lack of any other candidate for “real time” dynamic
organization within cells. Long term blueprints and genetic information clearly
resided in DNA and RNA, and membranes performed dynamic functions at cell
surfaces. However, a mechanism for the moment to moment execution,
organization, and activities within cells remained unknown. Where was the
nervous system within the cell Was there a biological controller This book is
based on the premise that the cytoskeleton is the cell’s nervous system, the
biological controller/computer. In the brain this implies that the basic levels of
cognition are within nerve cells, that cytoskeletal filaments are the roots of
consciousness. The small size and rapid conformational activities of cytoskeletal
proteins are just beyond the resolution of current technologies, so their potential
dynamics remain unexplored and a cytoskeletal controlling capability untested.
Near future technologies will be able to function in the nanoscale (nano = 10 -9 ;
nanometer = one billionth meter, nanosecond = one billionth second and will
hopefully resolve these questions. If indeed cytoskeletal dynamics are the texture
of intracellular information processing, these same “nanotechnologies” should
enable direct monitoring, decoding and interfacing between biological and
technological information devices. This in turn could result in important
biomedical applications and perhaps a merger of mind and machine: Ultimate
Computing.
A thorough consideration of these ideas involves a number of disciplines, all
of which are at least tangentially related to anesthesiology. These include
biochemistry, cognitive science, computer science, engineering, mathematics,
microbiology, molecular biology, pharmacology, philosophy, physics,
physiology, and psychology. As an expert in none, but a dabbler in all, I hope true
experts in these fields will find my efforts never-the-less interesting.
Starting from a cytoskeletal perspective, this book flings metaphors at the
truth. Perhaps one or more will land on target, or at least come close.