The 4* 1010 neurones of the brain, having 103 synapses, respectively, each of which has 102 levels of "strength", would give us a mental "universe" consisting of maximum 1015 elements.
This number is too small even if we consider the classic von Neumann estimate of 1020 bits as conscious information obtained during a lifetime. Taking into account that the amount of information reaching us from our environment through our external senses is estimated to be around 109 - 1010 bits/sec (see later on), this neuronal model becomes insufficient within 106 sec, i.e. within 10 days, even if we count only the information coming from the environment. We can use a finite state model of the brain, but we definitely need much more states than the neural model can provide. The phenomenon of creativity gives an even more stringent constraint on the number of states of the brain (Grandpierre, 1995a).
The simple, exclusively neural model of consciousness is also counter-indicated by some basic observations, e.g. the spontaneous excitation of neurones, when their
activity potential develops spontaneously, i.e. not from the sensorial input. It means that an underlying mechanism exists on which the brain activity is organised. Already Szent-Györgyi drew attention to the need of sub-molecular biology and the role of spontaneous electron transfer in the cell's life activity (Szent-Györgyi, 1968). He pointed out that cell division may be regulated by donor-acceptor interactions, processes in which electrons go spontaneously from one molecule to another.
Electrons are necessary also in regulating the organism as a wholeEvidences were given that the electrons are moved by the energy of light from one molecule to another (Szent-Györgyi, 1968). He remarked, that electrons are necessary also in regulating the organism as a whole, and as a physical carrier of thinking since there is a basic need for a fast enough process, much faster than the biomolecules can be (Szent-Györgyi, 1974). This essay here was inspired by his lecture, trying to apply and extend it. Recently Ladik defended Szent-Györgyi's views on the proteins as good electrical conductors by numerical quantum-chemical calculations. Free electrons are present within proteins and they are substantial in DNA-protein interaction, therefore in the genetic regulation, in
rapid signal transfer within biopolymers, and they play an important role in the self-regulation of the cell (Ladik, 1987, and more references therein). A new branch of science grew from the ideas of Szent-Györgyi,
bioelectromagnetism. There is a tremendous literature studying the ultraweak electromagnetic radiation from cells, the biophotons (Popp, Li and Gu, 1992; Bischof, 1995) and bioelectromagnetism (Adey, 1981; Becker, Selden, 1985; Oldfield, Coghill, 1988; Popp et al., 1989; Smith and Best, 1989, Smith, 1995).
Consciousness related to pre-spaceDavid Bohm expressed a view that in human consciousness, what actually happens in its ground level - beyond neural states representing results of only activity related to aware consciousness- may be very fast and related to pre-space, the implicate order behind space-time, to a creative factor, from which the whole phenomena and the space-time structure enfolds. These fast mental processes have characteristics common to microphysical processes (Bohm, 1986). Ultimately, thinking is related to the unconscious until its deepest ranges.
The problem of creativity is present in every field of science (Laszlo, 1995). He suggested that quantum-vacuum interactions play a significant role in the fields of cosmology, physics, biology and consciousness.
There are thoughts, which are related to the execution of some functions of the organism (Libet's experiments). These are related to some kind of action potentials above a certain specific threshold or amplitude. Non-executive thoughts, which do not trigger bodily changes, do not necessarily develop well defined action potentials. I have developed the idea that the conscious mind works with information processed by deeper mind levels, which are not embodied in activation potentials, but by more subtle changes in the brain. It is well known that the speed of information processing of the conscious mind in average conditions is estimated to be around C1=100 bit/s, while the information processed by deep mind may be estimated to be larger than the information reaching the organism from the external world through the outer senses, which is around C2=109 bit/s (see e. g. Elsasser, 1958, Griffith, 1970, Drischel, 1972, Woody, 1982, Silbernagl, Despopoulos, 1991, Scheffer, 1994). To have a feeling of these numbers, the often cited examples are the reading speed, estimated to be 50 bit/s if one needs 20 seconds to read a page of 1000 bits (one letter is around 4.5 bit, but there is a considerable redundancy in a page). One may assume that speed reading is an attempt to use the eye and conscious mind at full speed. An extreme speed reading champion reads less than 100 words per second, i.e. approximately 500 bit/s, because in an ordinary text you have less than 5 bits per word (Shannon, 1951). On the other hand, a TV screen mediates 106-7 bit/s, estimated by the number of pixels and their information content (Scheffer, 1994). The deep mind processes information from the outside world coming into the organism through external senses, and, parallel with it, the input data coming from the deeper mind levels. Our behaviour expresses around 107 bit/s through speaking, mimics and bodily movements. The ability to express information through speaking, being definitively slower than reading, is estimated to be around only 10 bit/s, if we take a time of 100 sec to read a page.
The all-or-nothing picture of the neurones representing 1 bit information expressed by their ability for activation (firing) or inhibition cannot store and process such a gigantic flow of information. Source: The Physics of Collective Consciousness by Attila Grandpierre
Regarding PRE-SPACE - Between locality and nonlocalityDavid Bohm, his co-worker Basil Hiley and other physicists of Birkbeck college, University of London, worked towards representing the implicate order in form of an appropriate algebra or other
pregeometry. They considered spacetime itself as part of an explicit order that is connected to an implicit order which they called pre-space. The spacetime manifold and properties of
locality and nonlocality then arise from an order in such pre-space.
PRE-SPACE and Scalar-WavesScalar Waves are electromagnetic potentials which left the 3D Dimensions and travel along the time axis as potentials. They are nonlocal and do not decay over time. What David Bohm explains as "pre-space" is indeed in the electromagnetical worldview a scalar dimension. We need to resurrect Nikola Tesla and David Bohm and put them in a room, with some beer and bretzel, and let them talk for a few hours. The result would be a paradigm-bomb.
