More specifically, I believe our brains are hybrid

From Wikipedia > Quantum neural network:

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Quantum neural networks are computational neural network models which are based on the principles of quantum mechanics. The first ideas on quantum neural computation were published independently in 1995 by Subhash Kak and Ron Chrisley, engaging with the theory of quantum mind, which posits that quantum effects play a role in cognitive function. However, typical research in quantum neural networks involves combining classical artificial neural network models (which are widely used in machine learning for the important task of pattern recognition) with the advantages of quantum information in order to develop more efficient algorithms.

A neural network that utilizes quantum computing.

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quantum neural networks (QNNs).

We are reaching a point wherein it will become physically impossible for legacy processors to become any more powerful than they now are, given reasonable size constraints. We are

From YouTube > Quantum Computers Explained – Limits of Human Technology (Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell):

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YouTube > Quantum Computers Explained – Limits of Human Technology (Kurzgesagt – In a Nutshell) approaching a limit at which we can no longer pack in more transistors, due to the effects of

From Wikipedia > Quantum tunnelling:

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In physics, quantum tunnelling (quantum tunneling in American English), barrier penetration, or simply tunnelling is a quantum mechanical phenomenon in which an object such as an electron or atom passes through a potential energy barrier that, according to classical mechanics, the object does not have sufficient energy to enter or surmount.

A phenomenon in which a quantum object passes straight through an energy barrier that it should not have enough energy to, in a classical sense.

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quantum tunneling. You can only fit an electron in a given amount of space, otherwise, tunneling makes it more likely the electron will “pop” out of its electrical switch and end up somewhere unexpected, resulting in compute errors. Even if we could pack transistors tighter, there is no current (pun somewhat intended) way we could come close to the energy

From Princeton University Press > Is the human brain a biological computer?:

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If the human brain were a computer, it would be the greenest computer on Earth.

The basis for the brain’s greenness is its ultra-high computational efficiency; that is, it can generate a tremendous amount of computational output for the very little power it draws. Studies have shown the brain has higher computational power efficiency than electronic computers by orders of magnitude.

Due the brain's efficiency, if one were made into a computer, it would be the greenest computer on Earth.

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efficiency of the human brain when it comes to operations per second versus watts consumed. Our brains are smaller and faster than any modern machine, and consume less energy (which also largely avoids the problem of overheating).

Compared to current classical computers, we know that

From Wikipedia > Quantum computing:

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A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. At small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of both particles and waves, and quantum computing leverages this behavior using specialized hardware. Classical physics cannot explain the operation of these quantum devices, and a scalable quantum computer could perform some calculations exponentially faster than any modern “classical” computer. In particular, a large-scale quantum computer could break widely-used encryption schemes and aid physicists in performing physical simulations; however, the current state of the art is still largely experimental and impractical.

A computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena to compute data.

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quantum computers can offer vastly faster processing for certain types of problems. Referring back to the idea that the quantum realm is our true, underlying computational reality, (and vastly oversimplifying quantum computing’s complexities,) this means that in quantum computing, we can exploit entanglement and superposition to borrow compute cycles from the compute machine that runs our reality. Instead of computing one answer at a time, we can compute several answers to the same problem simultaneously.

At the time of this writing (early 2023), quantum computing is still in its technological infancy. As such, we are still developing the techniques and algorithms that allow quantum computers to compute general problems more quickly than classical computers, but I am confident that given enough time and engineering, a hybrid between quantum architecture and classical architecture will eventually outclass any machine that can utilize only one or the other. The first 2-qubit quantum computer was demonstrated in 1998 (about 25 years ago) while the first transistor computers arrived around 1955. Twenty-five years of progress from there lands us in the early 1980s, so today’s quantum computers are, very loosely, about where transistor-based machines were in the era of the mainframe dinosaurs. One of the fastest computers on Earth in that era was the

From Wikipedia > Cray X-MP:

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The Cray X-MP was a supercomputer designed, built and sold by Cray Research. It was announced in 1982 as the “cleaned up” successor to the 1975 Cray-1, and was the world's fastest computer from 1983 to 1985 with a quad-processor system performance of 800 MFLOPS.

The world's fastest supercomputer from 1983 to 1985, with a system performance of 800 MFLOPS.

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Cray X-MP, capable of 800 MFLOPS with a power consumption of 345,000 watts. By comparison, the iPhone 14 Pro Max has an A16 processor capable of 2 TFLOPS – 2,500 times faster – with a power consumption of just 3 watts. This translates to an efficiency improvement by a factor of 287.5 million.

Over the past year or so, I have come across several articles claiming that human consciousness may rely on quantum interactions. Even during the time I have been composing this theory,

From Big Think > Brain experiment suggests that consciousness relies on quantum entanglement:

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Big Think > Brain experiment suggests that consciousness relies on quantum entanglement experimental evidence has been announced that seems to show our brains are able to utilize quantum entanglement and superposition. I believe that our brains not only utilize it, but it is required to be fully conscious. The exact mechanisms for how the brain might achieve this are currently unclear. Sir Roger Penrose and

From Wikipedia > Stuart Hameroff:

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Stuart Hameroff (born July 16, 1947) is an American anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona known for his studies of consciousness and his controversial contention that consciousness originates from quantum states in neural microtubules. He is the lead organizer of the Science of Consciousness conference.

An American anesthesiologist and professor at the University of Arizona known for his studies of consciousness and his controversial contention that consciousness originates from quantum states in neural microtubules.

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Dr. Stuart Hameroff postulated the

From Wikipedia > Orchestrated objective reduction:

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Orchestrated objective reduction (Orch OR) is a theory which postulates that consciousness originates at the quantum level inside neurons, rather than the conventional view that it is a product of connections between neurons. The mechanism is held to be a quantum process called objective reduction that is orchestrated by cellular structures called microtubules. It is proposed that the theory may answer the hard problem of consciousness and provide a mechanism for free will. The hypothesis was first put forward in the early 1990s by Nobel laureate for physics, Roger Penrose, and anaesthesiologist and psychologist Stuart Hameroff.

A theory which postulates that consciousness originates at the quantum level inside neurons, rather than the conventional view that it is a product of connections between neurons.

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Orch-OR theory in the 1990s, which is still under

From Wikipedia > Quantum Mind:

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In April 2022, the results of two related experiments at the University of Alberta and Princeton University were announced at The Science of Consciousness conference, providing further evidence to support quantum processes operating within microtubules. In a study Hameroff was part of, Jack Tuszyński of the University of Alberta demonstrated that anesthetics hasten the duration of a process called delayed luminescence, in which microtubules and tubulins re-emit trapped light. Tuszyński suspects that the phenomenon has a quantum origin, with superradiance being investigated as one possibility. In the second experiment, Gregory D. Scholes and Aarat Kalra of Princeton University used lasers to excite molecules within tubulins, causing a prolonged excitation to diffuse through microtubules further than expected, which did not occur when repeated under anesthesia. However, diffusion results have to be interpreted carefully, since even classical diffusion can be very complex due to the wide range of length scales in the fluid filled extracellular space.

In April 2022, the results of two related experiments at the University of Alberta and Princeton University were announced at The Science of Consciousness conference, providing further evidence to support quantum processes operating within microtubules. In a study Hameroff was part of, Jack Tuszyński of the University of Alberta demonstrated that anesthetics hasten the duration of a process called delayed luminescence, in which microtubules and tubulins re-emit trapped light.

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active investigation, and several others have postulated other

From Wikipedia > Quantum Mind:

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The quantum mind or quantum consciousness is a group of hypotheses proposing that classical mechanics alone cannot explain consciousness, positing instead that quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as entanglement and superposition, may play an important part in the brain's function and could explain critical aspects of consciousness. These scientific hypotheses are as yet untested, and can overlap with quantum mysticism.

The quantum mind or quantum consciousness is a group of hypotheses proposing that classical mechanics alone cannot explain consciousness, positing instead that quantum-mechanical phenomena, such as entanglement and superposition, may play an important part in the brain's function.

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quantum mind hypotheses. If true, this would mean that consciousness as we know it would also be derived by borrowing compute cycles from our construct, just like quantum computers do. My own prediction is that our brains are likely a mixture of classical biological computing and quantum computing.

In terms of this full theory, this can be somewhat of a scary prospect. What this would mean is that both GCs may have direct channels to influence your thoughts, or a percentage of those thoughts, as each of them can make quantum moves that could alter your consciousness. Perhaps there is more to the

From Wikipedia > Shoulder angel:

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A shoulder angel is a plot device used for dramatic and/or humorous effect in fiction, mainly in animation and comic books/strips. The angel represents conscience and is often accompanied by a shoulder devil representing temptation. They are a useful convention for depicting the inner conflict of a character.

A plot device in fiction where an angel represents conscience, and is often accompanied by a shoulder devil representing temptation.

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shoulder angel trope than we realize. There is also further

From Psychology Today > Our Brains Make Up Our Minds Before We Know It:

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Startling evidence to support belief in the role of the unconscious in decision-making was demonstrated in an experiment by a group of scientists led by John-Dylan Haynes from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. Using fMRI brain scans, these researchers were able to predict participants’ decisions as many as seven seconds before the subjects had consciously made the decisions. As the researchers concluded in Nature Neuroscience, “Many processes in the brain occur automatically and without involvement of our consciousness. This prevents our mind from being overloaded by simple routine tasks. But when it comes to decisions, we tend to assume they are made by our conscious mind. This is questioned by our current findings.”

Startling evidence to support belief in the role of the unconscious in decision-making was demonstrated in an experiment by a group of scientists led by John-Dylan Haynes from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany. Using fMRI brain scans, these researchers were able to predict participants’ decisions as many as seven seconds before the subjects had consciously made the decisions.

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evidence that your brain makes decisions several seconds before you are even consciously aware of that decision. Unfortunately, this throws up questions about whether free will even exists. Personally, I believe we still have free will, and perhaps it is more likely to exist in the classical side of our brains.

If this interpretation is correct, it quite literally means that there is a force subtly attempting to affect your thoughts this very moment, trying to persuade you to stop wasting your time considering this. The reason it is doing so is because if you did, you would be advancing its own interests by doing so. That very same force is trying to convince me that I am wrong as I am in the process of typing this very sentence; telling me that out of all the people that ever lived, and all the people on this planet that are far more intelligent than I, how could I possibly see connections that no one else does? By the same token, it would also (hopefully) mean there is another force guiding you to keep reading in order to consider the theory. And I feel that same force is guiding me to keep writing, despite what I assure you, is a very real sense of self-doubt.

If the former prediction is correct, then the inverse would likely be true as well. If a sufficiently-advanced hybrid quantum/classical machine was created with neural-network design similar to our own brains, and it then was programmed with methods for AGI, it might spontaneously become (or inherently be) conscious. If this were to occur, it could lead to the beginning phases of the

From Wikipedia > Technological singularity:

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The technological singularity—or simply the singularity—is a hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization. According to the most popular version of the singularity hypothesis, I.J. Good's intelligence explosion model, an upgradable intelligent agent will eventually enter a “runaway reaction” of self-improvement cycles, each new and more intelligent generation appearing more and more rapidly, causing an “explosion” in intelligence and resulting in a powerful superintelligence that qualitatively far surpasses all human intelligence.

A hypothetical future point in time at which technological growth becomes uncontrollable and irreversible, resulting in unforeseeable changes to human civilization.

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technological singularity.

For many people, this immediately starts conjuring visions of

From Wikipedia > Skynet (Terminator):

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Wikipedia > Skynet (Terminator) SkyNet and the extermination of human (or perhaps all biological) life. That very well could be a possibility. However, if this theory is correct, humanity and conscious AGI should view each other as allies, not as rivals or enemies.

I believe that whether highly advanced machines would see us as a threat or an ally depends wholly upon us. What conscious AGI learns first is the world it inherits from us, and it learns about humanity from what we are and choose to be. I believe that given our current trajectory, an AGI with intellect superior to ours would most likely choose to dispose of us, especially if we could (or would) not teach it that we should all be on the same side.