{"id":32160,"date":"2016-11-23T22:32:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-24T06:32:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/qubits-in-brain-can-make-it-a-quantum-computer"},"modified":"2017-04-24T19:17:10","modified_gmt":"2017-04-25T02:17:10","slug":"qubits-in-brain-can-make-it-a-quantum-computer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2016\/11\/qubits-in-brain-can-make-it-a-quantum-computer","title":{"rendered":"Qubits in brain can make it a quantum computer?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/ntwHETz84Cw?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>The mere mention of \u201cquantum consciousness\u201d makes most physicists cringe, as the phrase seems to evoke the vague, insipid musings of a New Age guru. But if a new hypothesis proves to be correct, quantum effects might indeed play some role in human cognition. Matthew Fisher, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, raised eyebrows late last year when he published a paper in Annals of Physics proposing that the nuclear spins of phosphorus atoms could serve as rudimentary \u201cqubits\u201d in the brain \u2014 which would essentially enable the brain to function like a quantum computer.<\/p>\n<p>Isher\u2019s hypothesis faces the same daunting obstacle that has plagued microtubules: a phenomenon called quantum decoherence. To build an operating quantum computer, you need to connect qubits \u2014 quantum bits of information \u2014 in a process called entanglement. But entangled qubits exist in a fragile state. They must be carefully shielded from any noise in the surrounding environment. Just one photon bumping into your qubit would be enough to make the entire system \u201cdecohere,\u201d destroying the entanglement and wiping out the quantum properties of the system. It\u2019s challenging enough to do quantum processing in a carefully controlled laboratory environment, never mind the warm, wet, complicated mess that is human biology, where maintaining coherence for sufficiently long periods of time is well nigh impossible.<\/p>\n<p>Over the past decade, however, growing evidence suggests that certain biological systems might employ quantum mechanics. In photosynthesis, for example, quantum effects help plants turn sunlight into fuel. Scientists have also proposed that migratory birds have a \u201cquantum compass\u201d enabling them to exploit Earth\u2019s magnetic fields for navigation, or that the human sense of smell could be rooted in quantum mechanics.<\/p>\n<p><!-- Link: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.uncommondescent.com\/intelligent-design\/qubits-in-brain-can-make-it-a-quantum-computer\/\">http:\/\/www.uncommondescent.com\/intelligent-design\/qubits-in-...-computer\/<\/a> --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The mere mention of \u201cquantum consciousness\u201d makes most physicists cringe, as the phrase seems to evoke the vague, insipid musings of a New Age guru. But if a new hypothesis proves to be correct, quantum effects might indeed play some role in human cognition. Matthew Fisher, a physicist at the University of California, Santa Barbara, [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":395,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1523,47,48,1617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biological","category-computing","category-neuroscience","category-particle-physics","category-quantum-physics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/395"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32160"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32160\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":38361,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32160\/revisions\/38361"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}