Physics and Consciousness

As per Sir Roger Penrose (from his book Shadows of the Mind, 1994):

"A scientific world-view which does not profoundly come to terms with the problem of conscious minds can have no serious pretensions of completeness. Consciousness is part of our universe, so any physical theory which makes no proper place for it falls fundamentally short of providing a genuine description of the world. I would maintain that there is yet no physical, biological, or computational theory that comes very close to explaining our consciousness and consequent intelligence: but that should not deter us from striving to search for one."

"In Part I (of the book) I argued (in the particular case of mathematical understanding) that the phenomenon of consciousness can arise only in the presence of some non-computational physical processes taking place in the brain. One must presume, however, that such (putative) non-computational processes would *also* have to be inherent in the action of the same material, satisfying the same physical laws, as are the inanimate objects of the universe. We must therefore ask two things. First, why is it that the phenomenon of consciousness appears to occur, as far as we know, *only* in (or in relation to) brains - although we should not rule out the possibility that consciousness might be present also in other appropriate physical systems? Second, we must ask how could it be that such a seemingly important (putative) ingredient as non-computational behavior, presumed to be inherent - potentially, at least - in the actions of all material things, so far has entirely escaped the notice of physicists?"

Now whether Prof. Penrose is on the right track or not in his investigations, time will tell.

I simply want to add: In whatever little exposure I have had to eastern systems of knowledge, the word consciousness has come up again and again and again... I think the east has dealt with the subject of consciousness in some detail.

It might be worthwhile for physicists to examine what eastern systems of knowledge might have to say about the nature of consciousness and physical reality and see if they find some answers / leads there.

It might be worth noting that the Upanishads have also been referred to by Erwin Schrodinger.

My suggestion of course would probably face stiff resistance from what I call "The Cult of "We must only and only look to the west for all our answers"" :).

Hopefully the reference to the Upanishads by Erwin Schrodinger deters this cult a little bit :) and we look at what eastern systems of knowledge might have to say. That's all I am saying: that we have a look and see if might learn something, that's all... :)