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Max Tegmark
Also known as: Tegmark
Facts (20)
Sources
Panpsychism - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org 7 facts
claimMax Tegmark argues that comparing physics to fields like economics or population dynamics is a disanalogy because, while population dynamics may be grounded in people, those people are ultimately grounded in "purely mathematical objects" such as energy and charge.
claimResearchers have criticized Max Tegmark's estimate of decoherence rates and presented a revised calculation that yields a range of decoherence rates within the realm of physiological relevance.
referenceMax Tegmark discusses the ultimate nature of reality in his 2014 book, 'Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality'.
perspectiveMax Tegmark disagrees with the conclusion that consciousness is an intrinsic property of matter, arguing instead that the universe is not just describable by mathematics but is mathematics itself.
claimMax Tegmark argues that the brain is likely not a quantum computer in his 2000 paper 'Why the brain is probably not a quantum computer' published in Information Sciences.
claimMax Tegmark asserts that the universe is, in a fundamental sense, made of nothing.
measurementMax Tegmark calculated the decoherence rates of neurons and concluded that the brain is a classical rather than a quantum system, and that quantum mechanics does not relate to consciousness in any fundamental way.
Quantum Approaches to Consciousness plato.stanford.edu Nov 30, 2004 4 facts
measurementA revised version of Max Tegmark's model of quantum decoherence in the brain provides decoherence times of 10 to 100 microseconds, which proponents of the Penrose-Hameroff model argue can be extended to the neurophysiologically relevant range of 10 to 100 milliseconds under specific assumptions.
claimMax Tegmark concludes that the lifetime of tubulin superpositions is too short to be significant for neurophysiological processes in microtubules because typical microtubule processes occur on the order of milliseconds.
claimMax Tegmark (2000) criticized the possibility that quantum states can survive long enough in the thermal environment of the brain to be relevant for consciousness.
measurementMax Tegmark estimates the decoherence time of tubulin superpositions due to interactions in the brain to be less than 10^-12 seconds.
Quantum Theory of Consciousness - Scirp.org. scirp.org 3 facts
perspectiveThe authors of 'Quantum Theory of Consciousness' disagree with Max Tegmark's proposal that the brain is a classical system because they believe it ignores the order, correlation, and coherence that dominate the brain and life.
perspectiveMax Tegmark argues that the degrees of freedom in the human brain related to cognitive processes should be modeled as a classical system rather than a quantum system, implying that classical neural network simulations are fundamentally correct.
measurementMax Tegmark estimates that decoherence time scales for ions involved in the propagation of action potentials are 10 to 20 orders of magnitude smaller than the relevant time scales of neural dynamics.
Non-physicalist Theories of Consciousness cambridge.org Dec 20, 2023 2 facts
claimMax Tegmark argued in 2000 that the brain is too 'warm, wet and noisy' to maintain quantum coherence for meaningful amounts of time.
perspectiveSome ontic structural realists, such as Max Tegmark, have embraced Pythagoreanism, which includes the consequence that every mathematically possible universe physically exists.
PANPSYCHISM (Philosophy of Mind Series) - Amazon.com amazon.com 1 fact
perspectiveThe author argues that Max Tegmark's implication that mathematical models are concrete realities is absurd, as it would mean all mathematical models have an equal claim to being concrete realities.
(PDF) Quantum Mechanics and Consciousness - Academia.edu academia.edu 1 fact
referenceMax Tegmark argued for the importance of quantum decoherence in brain processes in his 2000 paper published in Physical Review E.
Quantum Approaches to Consciousness plato.stanford.edu Nov 30, 2004 1 fact
claimHagan et al. (2002) argued that a corrected version of Max Tegmark's model provides decoherence times for tubulin superpositions up to 10 to 100 microseconds, and potentially up to 10 to 100 milliseconds under specific assumptions of the Penrose-Hameroff scenario.
Consciousness-Induced Quantum State Reduction - Nova Spivack novaspivack.com Jun 2, 2025 1 fact
claimPenrose (1989) and Hameroff & Penrose (2014) proposed biophysical models linking consciousness to objective collapse mechanisms involving microtubules, though Tegmark (2000) challenged these models regarding biological feasibility and experimental verification.