Book recommendation

[Bill Taylor]

For anyone who still pays attention to my thoughts, I earnestly
recommend the following book for your urgent attention.   It is...

"Physics In Mind"  (A Quantum View of the Brain),
by  Werner R Loewenstein,     (published 2013).

[You will note the publishing year is 2013 - I actually got it
from our city library last year, so it's really up to the minute.
I was hoping to review it here in 2013 itself, but christmas and
everyday life intervened, as so often, and I missed the chance!]

So, this is the book that *should* have been the sequel to FoR,
rather than the disappointigly waffly BoI.  This book is knee-deep
in the nitty-gritty of Quantum theory, evolution, epistemology,
and brain physiology; and makes a good start on the way to
bringing them all together.  It involves a lot of scientific
detail, some quite recent, about chemicals, molecules,
and decoherence, (some of it unavailable to Deutsche).

Much of the book mirrors what I have vaguely thought for a long time,
but with clarification and supporting detail.  It will not appeal to
those who prefer to do their philosophy of science in more polemic
and humanities-oriented ways.

It is also ruthlessly materialistic, and makes more sense about
consciousness than most philosophy books on the topic put together!
It is also (unwittingly) sternly anti-phenomenologistic, so will
not appeal to those inclining toward phenomenology.  It is also
rather anti-computationalist, if that "ism" is taken to be the idea
that ideal computation is the basis of consciousness.  There is
much in the book about computing, bio- and quantum computing etc,
observing that computation cannot be in any sense primary,
being harshly constrained by evolution at every turn.

The whole book is steeped in the paradigm of evolution, mostly
biological evolution.  He highlights the importance of very early
molecular evolution, in particular nature's "discovery" of the
miracle compounds chlorophyll and rhodopsin.  These chemicals,
in leaves and eyes respectively, are at the cutting edge, such
as it is, between the macro- and quantum worlds.  Each of them
is capable of handling single photons, (which he highlights as
units of information), and transforming/transporting it to/as
signals before decoherence can set in, almost miraculously for
warm wet environments.  He highlights decoherence as the fastest
physical effect known, acting at near light speed for the most part.

So, I hope that I've wetted appetites and helped steer
a course toward further enlightenment; for those who take
a somewhat sceptical approach to philosophy-of-science matters,
as I do.  As a final teaser, I include a couple of delicious quotes
in my sig line...

-- Wonder-filled William

**  It is difficult to argue with those who have not yet learned
**  to keep their own myths in check.

##  Epistemology has come of age and joined the ranks of science.