🚀 go-pugleaf

Marvin Minsky (minsky@media.mit.edu) wrote:
: In article <adh.34.000CFD75@cx.dnv.no> adh@cx.dnv.no (Arne Dehli Halvorsen) writes:

: >Has it been settled that Godel's theorem is less valid for analog systems?
: >...
: >traditional computer. Realizing the quantum hardware is a different matter...)

: Not quite.  Any old computer can factor prime numbers, but it takes a
: long time, of the order of something like n * (Log N) **2 or so, if we
: don't use Rabin's much faster but not absolutely reliable algorithm.
: The proposed quantum computer is theoretically faster.

: However, it depends on the superposition of the order of N
: simultaneous potential multiplications and, to get the correct answer
: in the case of a prime, the implicit NOT detector must reject the
: noise of all those superposed 'possible' paths.  I don't know if it's
: yet known how to build such a machine with the requisite isolation
: from the rest of the universe.  But I firmly doubt that any such
: protected environment could be found inside the noisy environment of a
: brain. Has Penrose or anyone else suggested why this might be
: possible?

Yes. Penrose is working with Stewart Hameroff on this. The quantum system
isolated from the environment that they are positing is the ordered
water molecules within the microtubules. They are suggesting
Fr\"ohlich-type large-scale quantum-coherent oscillations within the
microtubules. They estimate the time-scale of self-collapse is about 1/2
second in systems of 10^4 neurons.

My take is 'not proven.' 

--
Harry Erwin
Internet: herwin@gmu.edu 
Just a dumb graduate student working on Katchalsky network models....
(And if you believe that, I have a ranch in California to sell you.)