Justin Riddle Podcast

In episode 17 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle explores the theory that your mind is composed of conscious beings in a nested hierarchy. Is your mind a single narrative flow or is it a conversation between competing viewpoints? Do you create your thoughts or do they spring into your mind fully formed? How much control do you have over your body and perception? In the Nested Obser...

In episode 16 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle describes how slow-wave electromagnetic fluctuations in the brain are the closest correlate to human cognition. Does this mean that these neural oscillations at the scale of entire brain regions and networks of brain regions are somehow able to support our consciousness? Historically, these oscillations were viewed as “steam off the...

In episode 15 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle speculates on the notion of time travel within quantum mechanics. In quantum computation, the circuits that you design to process your information must be time reversible. This leads to a curious situation where space and time are reversible within the confines of a quantum computation. While we have already discussed times where ent...

In episode 14 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle spells out the orchestrated objective reduction theory of consciousness by Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose. Biology requires a central processing unit to integrated information across the cell. While quantum computation offers unique solutions to biology’s problems, the warm wet noisy environment of the brain does not lend itself e...

In episode 13 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle discusses how microtubules are the most likely candidate to be a universal quantum computer that acts as a single executive unit in cells. First off, computer scientists are trying to model human behavior using neural networks that treat individual neurons as the base unit. But unicellular organisms are able to do many of the things...

In episode 12 of the quantum consciousness series, Justin Riddle explores what it means to create a theory of everything. Theories in physics explain natural phenomena; and yet, the two most predominant theories, general relativity and quantum mechanics, are fundamentally incompatible at the moment. How do we gravitize quantum mechanics or quantize gravity in order to bridge this apparent divide?...

In episode 11 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle pitches a novel model of quantum computers as undergoing Bayesian learning to generate a model of how the world works and to guide future behavior. To get started, we talk about the act of observation in the double-slit experiment. When you look at which slit the photon traveled through then the wave function was destroyed and the ph...

In episode 10 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle explains that mathematics does not have a firm foundation in first order logic. While it seems intuitive that mathematics should be able to be described by simple principles, there is no simple way to explain how humans can comprehend mathematics. What happens when we try to use first order logic to explain how first order logic work...

In episode 9 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle discusses metaphysical models that rely on three aspects. The topics for today include: how the mind creates a mapping between syntax and semantics, Plato’s allegory of the cave and its relationship to the Matrix film trilogy, and a discussion of ways that the entanglement web and David Bohm’s pilot-wave might serve as a scientific ba...

In episode 8 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle asks the question: will we see a revival of mind-body dualism in the coming age of quantum computers interacting with digital computers? To explore this topic, Rene Descartes process of methodological doubt is explained. First, we must doubt the physical world a merely a dream. Second, we must doubt our sense of logic and rationality...

In episode 7 of Quantum Consciousness, Justin Riddle introduces the fundamental mysteries surrounding metaphysics. What is reality? Do you exist? Are concepts real independently of humans or are they creatively constructed? The topics for discussion are behavioralism, functionalism, and the emergence of "physicality" from a universe of wave-functions.

In episode 6 of Quantum Consciousness, Justin Riddle explores the nature of quantum computers and compares their function to digital computers. How does quantum computation vastly outperform digital computation? Why is digital computation still required? Can quantum computers run exponentially large search algorithms in polynomial time? Will we have to merge our conscious minds with our technology...

In episode 5 of Quantum Consciousness, Justin Riddle answers the question, what is a digital computer? An understanding of how digital computers work is essential to discussing consciousness. Fundamental to the digital computer is the creation of solid states within a universe teeming with quantum fluctuations. Topics for today: Alan Turing's model of a computer, David Marr's three levels of analy...

In episode 4 of Quantum Consciousness, Justin Riddle discusses prevalent interpretations or "theories" of quantum mechanics. First is the many worlds hypothesis that claims we live in a multiverse. The problem is there is no point of making choices when all possible realities occur. There is no collapse of the wave function and superpositions are different universes. Alternatively, when systems in...

In the third episode of Quantum Consciousness, Justin Riddle discusses three principles of quantum mechanics and how they relate to the three-world model. First, the measurement principle describes how a wave-function is reduced into a discrete physical state. Second, the superposition principles reveals that a system enters into a probability distribution of multiple states between measurements....

In episode 2 of Quantum Consciousness, Justin Riddle presents Roger Penrose's three world model: Physical, Mental, and Platonic. The three world model proposes a domain for the observations and measurements made regarding the external world (Physical), a domain for the private and personal subjective experience that constitutes the narrative flow of your mind (Mental), and a transpersonal domain f...

In this introduction to quantum consciousness, Justin Riddle presents six arguments that quantum consciousness is an important theory of mind. To summarize, (1) People identify as the latest technology and so most people believe that they are a digital computer. Time to update those models of self, because.... (2) Quantum computers are here. We wouldn't want the brick of metal in our pocket to hav...