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• @suzannealdrich@hachyderm.io 2026-09-19 21:13

  @masek@infosec.exchange @thomasfuchs@hachyderm.io I’m positive that there is not nearly enough state space to achieve intelligence at this point in computing. If you are familiar with the orchestrated objective reduction theory of consciousness, which hypothesizes a microtubule-based quantum computing mechanism for consciousness, we’d need 10^27 ops per second to achieve that bandwidth of compute. “Artificial intelligence (AI) and neural network researchers calculated brain capacity based on 100 billion neurons as fundamental units, each with a thousand synapses, switching 100 times per second, to be roughly 10^16 operations per second. When a computer could achieve 10^16 operations per second, they claimed, it would do whatever brains do, including production of consciousness. I annoyed them by saying relevant information processing extended inward, to intra-neuronal microtubules. I talked about paramecium, single cell organisms which could swim nimbly, find food and mates, avoid obstacles and predators, learn, and have sex, all without synapses, using their microtubules. For information capacity we calculated a billion tubulins per neuron switching at, for example, 10 megahertz, giving 10^16 operations per second *per neuron*, 10^27 ‘ops/sec’ in the brain. This pushed the AI target for brain equivalence in computers far into the future. ‘Simulate a paramecium before worrying about a brain!’, I insisted — I became unpopular among AI people, and remain so.” – Stuart Hameroff, “Consciousness, Microtubules, & ‘Orch OR’ – A ‘Space-time Odyssey’” https://consciousness.arizona.edu/sites/default/files/Hameroff%20JCS%202014%20ASpace-time%20Odyssey_3.pdf

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