Scientists Look To Learn Consciousness By Entangling Human Brains With Quantum Computers

“The question of what generates conscious experience has mesmerized thinkers since the dawn of humanity, yet its origins remain a mystery,” is how the abstract of a research paper written by a diverse team of researchers begins.

While a wide range of experts, philosophers, and scholars have pondered over the question for millennia, the answer has always been a tough cookie to crack.

However, the last few years have increased the interest in solving this age-old question, owing to the development of large language models (LLMs), artificial intelligence (AI) models, and generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models that try to solve queries, provide answers and behave as humans do.

Yet, the telling factor remains human consciousness, which is different from intelligence, and what enables it remains an itch that can’t be scratched.

However, this is what the researchers are looking to propel through their research paper, which comes with a novel proposal: Conscious experience arises whenever a quantum mechanical superposition forms.

Essentially, quantum mechanical superposition is the principle where a quantum system exists in multiple states simultaneously until measured.

The paper, titled “Testing the Conjecture That Quantum Processes Create Conscious Experience”, includes the work of researchers from Google Quantum AI (USA), Read Family Foundation (UK), UC Santa Barbara (USA), Leiden University (The Netherlands), University of Buckingham (UK), and Allen Institute (USA).

Going back to 1989, British mathematician and Nobel Prize in Physics winner Roger Penrose proposed that quantum entanglement is involved in consciousness and quantum processes are essential in forming the physical substrate of consciousness.

As per the paper, “This idea is attractive because the equations of quantum mechanics tell us that at any moment in time, an object, myself or the world at large, exists in a superposition of many configurations. Yet, in any given moment, we only experience one.”


However, to test their theories, the researchers assume that Penrose is wrong in his suggestion that consciousness arises at the point of superposition collapse, which instead occurs when it’s formed.
Here, the researchers postulate that the way to test this theory is to try to expand human consciousness by using an interface between our brains and a quantum computer.

“In an experimentum crucis, one would establish a physical link between a human brain and a quantum computer that would enable coherent interactions and mediate entanglement,” reads an excerpt from the research paper. “If our conjecture is accurate, this should enable richer conscious experiences of the combined system, requiring more descriptive bits than the experiences the human reports without the link.”

“Before the systems are coupled, their respective states exist in separate state spaces, known as Hilbert spaces, of dimension N and M, respectively. After they are made to interact, the wave function describing the combined system |𝜓𝐶𝑦𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑔〉 resides in an 𝑁×𝑀 -dimensional Hilbert space,” the paper reads further.

“We conjecture that a superposition forming in this higher dimensional state space would be experienced by the subject as a richer experience as compared to a superposition state forming in the lower N-dimensional Hilbert space describing the isolated brain of the subject.”

This was further explained by Hartmut Neven, the lead of Google's Quantum AI lab, who is a researcher on the paper.

"Let’s say we have 'N' qubits in our brain and 'M' qubits in an external quantum computer, with the letters referring to a certain number of qubits. If a person could entangle their brain with this quantum computer, they could create an expanded quantum superposition involving 'N+M' qubits."

“If we now tickle this expanded superposition to make it collapse, then this should be reported by the person participating in this experiment as a richer experience. That’s because in their normal conscious experience, they typically need 'N' bits to describe the experience, but now they need 'N+M' bits to describe it.”

“I call this the 'expansion protocol', as it would allow us to expand consciousness in space, time and complexity.”

What do you think about the research team’s theories? Do you think this is a question that must be answered with urgency?

Let us know in the comments below!