A new paper written by a theoretical physicist at Howard University claims that aneural eukaryotic cells could process information up to a billion times faster than typical biochemical processes.
This idea forms from the emerging evidence that biology and quantum mechanics may not be as mutually exclusive as scientists originally thought.
Although this idea requires rigorous experimentation to be proven, it might show that biological computation is much more powerful that even the greatest quantum computers.
What is the computational limit of biology? According to some technologists, the human brain is capable of 1016 computations per second, and if a super-advanced AI were to ever that threshold (and gain a whole host of other abilities), we’d enter hit what is known in tech circles as the singularity. However, a new article written by theoretical physicist Philip Kurian argues that this limit—and all other neuron-based estimations of life’s computational abilities—have woefully underestimated the true abilities of biological brains.
Kurian includes a controversial (but increasingly influential) idea in his calculations: that quantum processes in a biological system, when taken together, far exceed the computing power of even the most advanced quantum computer. Published in the journal Science Advances, this article expands on QBL’s recent discovery of cytoskeleton filaments exhibiting quantum optical features and recalculates the computational capacity of carbon-based life on Earth.
“This work connects the dots among the great pillars of twentieth century physics—thermodynamics, relativity, and quantum mechanics—for a major paradigm shift across the biological sciences, investigating the feasibility and implications of quantum information processing in wetware at ambient temperatures,” Kurian said in a press statement (“wetware” is a term for organic material in the human body analogous to hardware in a computer). “Physicists and cosmologists should wrestle with these findings, especially as they consider the origins of life on Earth and elsewhere in the habitable universe, evolving in concert with the electromagnetic field.”
Biology and quantum mechanics typically don’t mix, and for good reason. Artificial quantum systems generally require ultracold, approaching-absolute-zero temperatures to run, as qubits are incredibly sensitive to disturbances (this is why quantum computers also contain robust error correction measures). So, the warm and chaotic environment of, say, a human brain, is far from ideal for quantum processes.
However, for decades, some theories (that have slowly become less out there with age) have suggested that quantum processes could in fact be occurring in the brain. In some hypotheses, they could even be responsible for consciousness itself. Kurian’s paper focuses on the amino acid tryptophan, which is found in many proteins and can form large networks within structures like microtubules, amyloid fibrils, cilia, and neurons. Combined with QBL’s discovery last year, an idea has taken shape that aneural organisms may be able to use these quantum signals to process information.
Typically, biochemical signals involve neurons moving across cells, but in a quantum sense, tryptophan could be acting like quantum fiber optics. It would be able to perform operations in mere picoseconds, which would allow the cells to operate a billion times faster than chemical processing alone.
This revised limit may sound humbling, but if these aneural cells are using quantum signals to process information, that’s good news for both the quantum computing world and the world of artificial intelligence.
“And all this in a warm soup! The quantum computing world should take serious notice,” Kurian said in a press statement. “In the era of artificial intelligences and quantum computers, it is important to remember that physical laws restrict all their behaviors.”
Of course, much like many of the quantum theories of information processing and consciousness put forth in the past, Kurian’s ideas still need rigorous testing before they completely upend our understanding of biological computation. However, what seemed inconceivable decades ago—combing the quantum world with the biological one—is quickly become less so as we learn more about the subatomic biological world.
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