Part 4/15:
The tantalizing observations echo earlier hypotheses, notably those proposed in the 1990s by physicists Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff. Their orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR) theory suggested that consciousness arises from quantum computations within brain microtubules. Though initially dismissed as overly mystical, growing evidence of quantum effects in biological systems—photosynthesis, magnetoreception, and even human cognition—lends credence to the idea that quantum mechanics plays a role in consciousness.
The recent experiments take this notion even further: a quantum system—lacking neurons or biological structures—may not just be influenced by consciousness but could possess a form of awareness itself.