ULTIMATE COMPUTING - Quantum Consciousness Studies

8 Toward Ultimate Computing
This one is about 450,000 nm long. H) 5,000,000 nm—one quarter of a human
thumbnail with 50 nematodes represented to scale. By Paul Jablonka.
Comingling of consciousness and computer technology is a prevalent dream.
Artificial intelligence based on brain/mind organization is a tentative step in this
direction, as is the proposed use of self assembling protein arrays as switching
circuits or “biochips.” The Japanese effort towards the “Sixth Generation
Computer” aims to “integrate biology and technology” by merging research in
artificial intelligence and the functions of living organisms (Corcoran, 1987). By
attempting to understand the conditions required to maintain biological
“homeostasis”, the Japanese are hoping to embark on a symbiosis between
intelligent biological structures and technological devices, and even predict an
“artificial brain”! One missing ingredient for such a Mind/Tech merger is an
understanding of the mechanism of consciousness. Most models of brain
organization consider nerve cells and their connections to be the brain’s
fundamental units of information processing. However, profoundly complex and
intelligent activities occur within nerve cells. Further, simple organisms like
single cell amoeba and paramecium perform complex tasks without benefit of
brain or nervous system. In this book we view the cytoskeleton—networks of
protein polymers which occupy and organize the interiors of all living cells
(Figure 1.2)—as a highly evolved information processing system operating at
nanoscale levels. Collective nanoscale activities of the cytoskeleton and related
structures can explain biological organization, information processing, and
consciousness, and be the target for the future evolution of technology.
Figure 1.2: Cytoskeleton within cells who have just divided. Intracellular
microtubules are visualized by immunostaining. Spherical areas are cell nuclei,
adjacent to which are the dense microtubule organizing centers (MTOC). With
permission from DeBrabander, Geuens, DeMey and Joniav (1986), courtesy of
Marc DeBrabander.
1.2 Evolution of Technology
Technological emulation of life since the 13th century has been reviewed by
author Claris Nelson (1985). Albertus Magnus is said to have create a life-like
mechanical servant out of metal, wood, glass, leather and wax that could open
doors and greet visitors. It was considered blasphemous work of the devil by
Magnus’ student Saint Thomas Aquinas who destroyed it. Science fiction writers
predicted computers and robots long before they existed. In 1879, Edward Page
Mitchell’s The Ablest Man in the World featured a mechanical brain and in