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Stuart Hamero

Stuart Hamero

Born

16 July 1947 (age 67)

Bualo, New York, USA

Residence

Tucson, Arizona, USA

Citizenship

United States

Nationality

American

Fields

Anesthesiologist

Institutions

University of Arizona

Alma mater

University of Pittsburgh (B.S.)

Hahnemann University Hospital (M.D.)

Known for

Consciousness studies

Inuences

Roger Penrose

Stuart Hamero (born July 16, 1947) is an anesthesiologist and

professor at the University of Arizona known for his studies of
consciousness.

Contents
Career
Hypotheses
Toward a Science of Consciousness
Film
References
Further reading
External links

Career
Hamero received his BS degree from the University of Pittsburgh and
his MD degree from Hahnemann University Hospital, where he studied
before it became part of the Drexel University College of Medicine. He
took an internship at the Tucson Medical Center in 1973. From 1975
onwards, he has spent the whole of his career at the University of
Arizona, becoming professor in the Department of Anesthesiology and
Psychology and associate director for the Center for Consciousness
Studies, both in 1999, and nally Emeritus professor for
Anesthesiology and Psychology in 2003.

Hypotheses
At the very beginning of Hamero's career, while he was at
Hahnemann, cancer-related research work piqued his interest in the
part played by microtubules in cell division, and led him to speculate

that they were controlled by some form of computing. It also

suggested to him that part of the solution of the problem of
consciousness might lie in understanding the operations of
microtubules in brain cells, operations at the molecular and
supramolecular level.

[1]

The operations of microtubules are remarkably complex and their role

pervasive in cellular operations; these facts led to the speculation that
computation sucient for consciousness might somehow be occurring
there. These ideas are discussed in Hamero's rst book Ultimate
Computing (1987).[2] The main substance of this book dealt with the
scope for information processing in biological tissue and especially in
microtubules and other parts of the cytoskeleton. Hamero argued
that these subneuronal cytoskeleton components could be the basic
units of processing rather than the neurons themselves. The book was
primarily concerned with information processing, with consciousness
secondary at this stage.
Separately from Hamero, Roger Penrose had published his rst book
on consciousness, The Emperor's New Mind.[3] On the basis of Gdel's
incompleteness theorems, he argued that the brain could perform
functions that no computer or system of algorithms could. From this it
could follow that consciousness itself might be fundamentally
non-algorithmic, and incapable of being modeled as a classical Turing
machine type of computer. By contrast, the idea that it could be
explained mechanistically was prevalent in the eld of Articial
Intelligence at that time.
Penrose saw the principles of quantum theory as providing an
alternative process through which consciousness could arise. He
further argued that this non-algorithmic process in the brain required
a new form of the quantum wave reduction, later given the name
objective reduction (OR), which could link the brain to the fundamental
spacetime geometry. At this stage, he had no precise ideas as to how
such a quantum process might be instantiated in the brain. Moreover,
Penrose's ideas were widely criticized by neuroscientists, logicians and
philosophers, notably Grush and Churchland.[4]

Hamero was inspired by Penrose's book to contact Penrose regarding

his own theories about the mechanism of anesthesia, and how it
specically targets consciousness via action on neural microtubules.
The two met in 1992, and Hamero suggested that the microtubules
were a good candidate site for a quantum mechanism in the brain.
Penrose was interested in the mathematical features of the microtubule
lattice, and over the next two years the two collaborated in formulating
the orchestrated objective reduction (Orch-OR) model of
consciousness. Following this collaboration, Penrose published his
second consciousness book, Shadows of the Mind.[5]
This more developed version of their ideas was also widely attacked,
and notably by the physicist Max Tegmark, who calculated that
quantum states in microtubules would survive for only 10 13 seconds,
too brief to be of any signicance for neural processes.[6] Hamero
and the physicists Scott Hagan and Jack Tuszynski replied to Tegmark
arguing that microtubules could be shielded against the environment
of the brain. To date, there is no experimental conrmation of these
proposed methods of shielding, but Hamero has proposed tests that
could falsify the theory.

[7]

In January 2014 Hamero and Penrose announced that a discovery of

quantum vibrations in microtubules by Anirban Bandyopadhyay of the
National Institute for Materials Science in Japan

[8]

conrms the

hypothesis of Orch-OR theory.[9]

Over the years since 1994, Hamero has been active in promoting the
Orch-OR model of consciousness through his web site, [10] conferences
and lectures.

Toward a Science of Consciousness

Hamero was the lead organizer of the rst Tucson Toward a Science
of Consciousness meeting in 1994 that brought together
approximately 300 people interested in consciousness studies (e.g.,
David Chalmers, Christof Koch, Bernard Baars, Roger Penrose,
Benjamin Libet). Hamero remains co-organizer, with Chalmers, of this

inuential conference, which still takes place annually. The rst

conference is widely regarded as a landmark event within the eld of
consciousness studies, and by bringing researchers from various
disciplines together led to various useful synergies, resulting indirectly,
for instance, in the formation of the Association for the Scientic Study
of Consciousness, and more directly in the creation of the Center for
Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, of which Hamero
is now the director. The Center for Consciousness Studies hosts
meetings on the study of consciousness every two years, as well as
sponsoring seminars on consciousness theory.
Hamero participated in the rst Beyond Belief conference, where his
theories were sharply criticized by Lawrence Krauss, among others.

[11]

Film
Hamero appeared as himself in the documentary lm What te $*!
Do (k)ow!? (2004). He serves as producer, writer and scientic
advisor to an independent feature lm called Mindville. Mindville is a
feature-length motion picture that combines live action with animation
and eects to present a journey into the mysteries of human
consciousness.

References
1. Danaylov, Nikola, ed. (12 Sep 2013). Stuart Hamero on
Singularity 1 on 1: Consciousness is More than Computation! .
Singularity Weblog. Retrieved 24 March 2014. "Consciousness is the
most important thing there is!"
2. Hamero, Stuart (1987), Ultimate Computing, Elsevier ISBN
978-0444702838
3. Penrose, Roger (1989) The Emperor's New Mind Oxford University
Press
4. Grush, Rick & Churchland, Patricia (1995) "Gap's in Penrose's
Toilings," Journal of Consciousness Studies, 2(1), pp. 1029
5. Penrose, Roger (1994) Shadows of the Mind Oxford University Press

6. Tegmark, Max (2000) "Importance of quantum coherence in brain

processes," Physical Reviews E, 61, pp. 41944206
7. Hagan, Hamero & Tuszynski (2002) "Quantum computation in
brain microtubules? Decoherence and biological feasibility," Physical
Review E, 65, 061901.
8. "Anirban Bandyopadhyay on ResearchGate" . Retrieved
2014-02-22.
9. "Discovery of quantum vibrations in 'microtubules' inside brain
neurons supports controversial theory of consciousness" .
ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2014-02-22.
10. http://www.quantumconsciousness.org/
11. "TSN: Session 4" . The Science Network. Retrieved 2012-08-13.

Further reading
Stuart Hamero (2006) "Consciousness, neurobiology and quantum
mechanics," In: The Emerging Physics of Consciousness, (Ed.)
Tuszynski, J.
Stuart Hamero with Conrad Schneiker, Ultimate Computing:
Biomolecular Consciousness and Nanotechnology, Elsevier-North
Holland, 1987. This work predates the quantum Orch-OR hypothesis;
still of interest. Online at author's site
Hamero, Kaszniak, Scott, (eds), Toward a Science of Consciousness,
MIT Press, ISBN 0-262-08249-7, LoC OP411.T68 1996. papers from
the rst Tucson conference on study of consciousness. Further
volumes in the series exist.
Roger Penrose, Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing
Science of Consciousness, Oxford, ISBN 0-19-853978-9, LoC
Q335.P416 1994. This discusses the Orch-OR theory.

External links
Hamero's "Quantum Consciousness" site
Center for consciousness studies homepage
Quantum-Mind
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