Stuart Hameroff has the best integrated view of consciousness and quantum theory that I have ever come across
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| The pioneer in Quantum Consciousness |
Stuart Hameroff first became interested in the problem of consciousness as an undergraduate at the University of Pittsburgh. In 1972 while in medical school at Hahnemann Medical College in Philadelphia, he began to study how protein polymer networks within living cells, the cytoeskeleton (including microtubules), can process information and control biomolecular activities. After medical school and internship, Hameroff completed residency in the Department of Anesthesiology at the University of Arizona under Dr. Burnell Brown, who convinced him that understanding anesthetic mechanisms could unlock the enigma of consciousness. Joining the faculty in 1977, he researched a number of areas in anesthesiology but eventually focused on his primary interests: consciousness, anesthetic mechanism and cytoskeletal microtubules.
In the early 1990īs the study of consciousness became increasingly popular, and he was strongly influenced by Roger Penroseīs The Emperorīs New Mind, 1989, and Shadows of the Mind, 1994, Oxford Press, concerning the possible role of quantum effects in consciousness. They began collaborating on a specific model, Orchestrated objective reduction, in which quantum coherent superposition in brain microtubules disturbs space-time, via quantum gravity, to cause wave function self-collapse, and instantaneous now events comprising a stream of consciousness.
In addition to his research in consciousness studies, Hameroff co-organized an international multidisciplinary conference in 1994, Toward a Scientific Basis for Consciousness, held at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The second conference was organized with the help of the Journal of Consciousness Studies, David Chalmers, Chistof Koch, Marilyn Schlitz, Petra Stoerig and Keith Sutherland in 1996. A third conference took place in 1998. And the fourth one is scheduled for April 2000: "Toward a Science of Consciousness". These Tucson conferences indeed trascend disciplinary boundaries and raise questions from areas throughout the sciences and humanities.
Over the years since 1994, Hameroff has been active in promoting the Orch-OR model of consciousness through his web site, conferences and lectures. He was the lead organizer of the first Tucson consciousness meeting in 1994 that brought together approximately 300 people interested in consciousness for the first time (e.g., David Chalmers, Christof Koch, Bernard Baars, Roger Penrose, Benjamin Libet). This conference is widely regarded as a landmark event within the field of consciousness studies, and by bringing researchers from various disciplines together lead to various useful synergies, resulting indirectly, for instance, in the formation of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, and more directly in the creation of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, of which Stuart Hameroff is now the director. The Center for Consciousness Studies hosts meetings on study of consciousness every two years, as well as sponsoring seminars on consciousness theory.
Hameroff appeared as himself in the documentary film: What the bleep do we know? or "What tнe ♯$*! Do ωΣ (k)πow!?" (2004). He also participated in the first Beyond Belief conference, where his theories were sharply criticized by Lawrence Krauss, among others. It is really in his appearance in What the bleep that I first gained access to his views and had subsequently listened to him in various webcasts as well as his contribution on the DVD serious "Consciousness".
I believe Stuart Hameroff will be recognized in the future as being ahead of his time and a pioneer on his field. Quantum physics is the key to understanding consciousness and Stuart seems to grasp the enormity of that reality better than anybody I have come across.
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