Stuart Alan Kauffman is an MD, a professor of bio sciences and a 1987 MacArthur Fellow and thus a certified genius.
Kauffman recently published a paper in arXiv entitled “Physics and Five Problems in the Philosophy of Mind“ wherein he attempts to address weighty questions about the philosophy of mind, mind-brain dualism, the source of free will and the definition of consciousness.
In his essay, the author takes the view that while the brain is a product of darwinian forces, the mind cannot be a physical thing, and is abiotic, having become a quantum computer. The quantum states of the mind then undergo de-coherence to acausally affect the “meat of the brain”. As for free will, it apparently arises from “quantum coherent-decohering-recohering” [sic] phenomena somewhere above the neck.
This is erudite nonsense…it sounds like a quest to find the soul’s location in the body, but dressed up and modernized with references to superposition and entanglement. It’s reminiscent of Deepak Chopra’s infamous quantum mechanical healing approach to medical care.
But because we’re not qualified in any of the author’s many fields of expertise, we’re forced to resort to ad hominem attacks such as suggesting that the MacArthur Foundation review and rescind the work of their selection committee, and submit his name for an Ig Nobel Prize nomination instead.
Physics and Five Problems in the Philosophy of Mind – Stuart Kauffman, arXiv July 12 2009
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I enjoyed the link to the Ig Nobel website. Very interesting award, and not quite the spoof I was expecting it to be.
I’m fascinated by the idea of the mind as standing outside of Darwinian forces–even if I don’t quite believe it.