Loading...Penroseian quantum mechanics – sufficient gravity collapses the wave function
The Penrose Interpretation of quantum mechanics – predicts the relationship between quantum mechanics and general relativity, and proposes that a quantum state remains in superposition until the difference of space-time curvature attains a significant level
Penrose thinks that there is some real, physical “collapse” of a quantum superposition as objects grow big enough for gravity to become a significant part of the picture. Therefore: quantum mechanics might break down when confronted with gravity – when objects get big enough to “feel” significant gravitational force – so quantum mechanics needs modifying or reinterpreting.
Hmmm. remember that Penrose also suggested that quantum effects might be responsible for consciousness.
Having put the idea forward in his 1989 book The Emperor’s New Mind, Penrose and anaesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff went on to claim that protein strands in the brain called microtubules might host the superpositions of quantum vibrations demanded by their theory.