The Physics of Consciousness: The Quantum Mind and the Meaning of Life [Paperback]

Walker's book is not just another "Tao of Physics", not merely another anxious new age gathering of science about the skirts of wishful metaphysics. It combines some of the better points of both, though, to present two startling ideas. Walker's application of these two ideas is to weaving together the strange edges of `out there' reality, as described by modern quantum physics, with the quicksilver ghost in the machine, the `in there' of your consciousness. I've seen a few books that attempt this by basically claiming "it sure is spooky out there" and "its pretty strange in here" and using little more that wishful thinking to posit a link. Walker does more.

The two ideas that Walker's book startled me with can seem simple when stated - you may think you've already thought them. He builds a case for claiming that parts of the biochemistry of the brain are driven by processes, not at the level of chemistry, but at that of quantum physics. Along with this he proposes a mechanism for extending the magnitude of intra-brain communication between neurons to suggest a combinatorial explosion in the already dauntingly large number of possible connections and states in the brain. Around these two ideas he then considers what consciousness might be and hints at linkages between inner to outer.

This idea of looking biochemical processes at the quantum level took me by surprise. If, like me, you've explored layperson's introductions to the strange reality characterized by quantum physics, you probably thought of that realm as fundamentally separate from chemistry. After all, its quarks and tachyons and oddly behaving particles and forces and fields are orders of magnitude smaller than that of even an atom, and are rarely described in aggregate - just isolated particles doing odd things. How amazing, then to rise up a level and to look at neuro-chemical processes, mediated by single electrons, and consider the impact of quantum elements on those electrons and those processes. Walker does this quite effectively after an extensive introduction to and overview of the physics and the neuro-chemistry.

The second powerful idea, the operational details of which I'll leave to your reading, expands the already demonstrably huge potential of the human brain by many orders of magnitude. Consider the example of 50 people at a party, clustered in twos and threes. At any given time there could be at most 25 or 30 conversations. The opportunity for individuals (and good hosts) to move between groups expands the numbers of interpersonal contacts enough that it could develop into a `good party' over the course of the evening. Now what would happen if all 50 could speak to all the rest and hear what they were saying? The number of potential conversations explodes to a very large number. Of course the opportunity for chaos is tremendous - but if, somehow, properly coordinated, the prospect for powerful networking is all the greater. Walker proposes such a mechanism for the brain; a way in which each neuron can communicate not merely with the 5 or 20 or even 100 to which it is interconnected, but to any of the other billions.

The failings of the book are few, but worth mentioning. Walker appears to want to build his `story' from the outset, around a tale of a lost love (really!). This may be true, or merely a styling that seeks to tie very airy ideas to real folks. Certainly we wonder at such things more often than we do at the workings of neurons. So I kept reading those interspersed segments thinking they would satisfy some other element of the argument, but they never did. Unless you find them engaging you can skip them and stick to the main argument(s). Of course Walker may have just added these bits to give a breather from the heavier going of, especially, the physics. Roughly the first 60% of the book is a pretty serious look at this piece of the argument and it can be slow going at times. I'm a fairly brainy guy, but I have to admit that I would struggle now to recall and outline the details of this piece of the argument. Its important to move beyond mere "faith" in even a `scientific' claim that things are "spooky" in the world of quantum physics - but once you are convinced by the science you can move ahead with the revised knowledge that things are "demonstrably spooky."

The elements that Walker does not belabor gain force by mere suggestion. Important among these is the ultimately-developed notion that some of the counter-factual things that quantum physics states as reality, and their demonstrated association with an important role for observers, are bound through this proposed quantum element of brain chemistry and consciousness. From here we are free, I suppose, to tie-in our own favorite unexplained phenomena - Walker doesn't push it. Although he somewhat overmentions his credentials I don't think he is, actually, a practicing physicist. His back-cover vitae notes, instead, his leadership of a `cancer institute' and we can assume he is professionally interested in mind-body issues and healing. Good for him. This book may take you there or elsewhere - it led me to lots more reading about "consciousness" - but I'm sure it will move you, someway, into valuable explorations of both inner and outer. Enjoy.

They figure, the world makes sense. It's out there. We're in here. We'll just measure a little better, write the equations better, and it will all make sense... But the one thing they've never been able to explain is, if all this stuff is just stuff, who's thinking about it and doing the physics? How can a universe of rocks hold a place for consciousness?

Evan Harris Walker goes where more and more physicists are going, but where most fear to tread. Living legends like Freeman Dyson have seen it. Legends long gone like Erwin Schrodinger have seen it. It's the fact that when you finish going down, down, down, splitting all the particles that can be split, writing equations for the ultimate reality, you come face to face with.... you.

There is no matter. There is no structure. All that you see, all that you touch, is pure consciousness. Consciousness condenses the "real" physical world from an unreachable realm of potentiality, in which many things are true at once.

Walker explains, how this is so, how it must be so, and how the most amazing discovery, non-locality, means that (as Schrodinger said) there is only ONE consciousness. Anywhere and everywhere. And you're it. So am I, and so is she. So are we all, and so is it all.

That's not formless mysticism or a bad acid trip. It's in the equations. It's true. It's realer than what we used to call reality. But, as Richard Feynman once said, physicists don't WANT to think about what quantum theory really means.

Well, Evan Harris Walker has.

Buy this book.

To get through this awkward tangle requires some patience and more than a little familiarity with quantum physics and neuroscience. A healthy prior exposure to cosmology, evolution, and epistomology is also useful. But with that background in place, Walker's thesis is nothing short of extraordinary to contemplate. The author's exploitation of a personal tragedy from his young adulthood weaves a personal thread into this tapestry. Some might complain about this intrusion, and it does complicate the development. But it also lends a deep (if idiosyncratic) humanity that this reader eventually found oddly satisfying.

Walker goes as far with the philosophy of reality as any Western scientific thinker has been willing to go. It's the most contemporary general proof for an ultimate consciousness, a Platonic "first cause," this reader has ever enjoyed. And it's good enough to merit serious attention. The Physics of Consciousness deserves a place alongside recent explorations such as The Moral Animal (R. Wright) and The Fifth Miracle (P. Davies) as serious contemplations for students of Big Ideas. Just be prepared to be patient with it. And brush up on your quantum mechanics.