1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:02,240 Speaker 1: I want you to picture, just for a second, the 2 00:00:02,399 --> 00:00:05,360 absolute cutting edge of human engineering. 3 00:00:05,240 --> 00:00:06,839 Speaker 2: Oh, like the really big stuff. 4 00:00:06,960 --> 00:00:11,800 Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, the kind of technological triumph that completely defines 5 00:00:11,839 --> 00:00:15,039 our era right now. So imagine the smartest minds of 6 00:00:15,080 --> 00:00:18,160 places like Google or IBM and all these top tier 7 00:00:18,199 --> 00:00:20,719 research universities all over the planet, right, the. 8 00:00:20,719 --> 00:00:23,039 Speaker 2: People with basically unlimited budgets exactly. 9 00:00:23,079 --> 00:00:25,879 Speaker 1: I mean they are pouring hundreds of millions of dollars 10 00:00:25,920 --> 00:00:29,000 into building these quantum computers. And to make these machines 11 00:00:29,039 --> 00:00:33,960 actually function, to just keep them stable for a fleeting 12 00:00:34,000 --> 00:00:37,520 fraction of a second, they have to build these massive 13 00:00:37,920 --> 00:00:40,520 room sized dilution refrigerators, which is. 14 00:00:40,640 --> 00:00:42,880 Speaker 2: You know, a monumental engineering feed. 15 00:00:42,640 --> 00:00:45,119 Speaker 1: On its own, It really is. Because they are forced 16 00:00:45,159 --> 00:00:48,000 to cool these superconducting quantum chips down to zero point 17 00:00:48,119 --> 00:00:51,200 zero one five kelvin. I mean we were talking about 18 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:53,799 minus four hundred and fifty nine degrees. 19 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:56,320 Speaker 2: Fahrenheit that is, I mean, that's an environment colder than 20 00:00:56,359 --> 00:00:58,600 the actual vacuum of deep space, right. 21 00:00:58,759 --> 00:01:01,320 Speaker 1: And it doesn't stop there. They have to seal these 22 00:01:01,399 --> 00:01:04,680 chips inside intense vacuums and like layer them in all 23 00:01:04,680 --> 00:01:06,239 this heavy radiation shielding. 24 00:01:06,519 --> 00:01:10,239 Speaker 2: Yeah, they have to damp in literally every conceivable physical vibration. 25 00:01:09,920 --> 00:01:14,920 Speaker 1: In the room exactly and block out any stray electromagnetic noise. Yeah, 26 00:01:14,959 --> 00:01:18,680 all of that incredible brute force isolation just to coax 27 00:01:18,719 --> 00:01:22,599 a handful of artificial quibits into maintaining a quantum state 28 00:01:22,680 --> 00:01:25,040 long enough to run like a single calculation. 29 00:01:25,200 --> 00:01:27,719 Speaker 2: It's honestly exhausting just thinking about it totally. 30 00:01:28,159 --> 00:01:30,560 Speaker 1: But now I want you to just look out your 31 00:01:30,599 --> 00:01:33,239 window at an ordinary blade of grass, or look at 32 00:01:33,239 --> 00:01:36,319 an oat plant, or you know, honestly, just look down 33 00:01:36,319 --> 00:01:37,280 at your own hands. Right now. 34 00:01:37,359 --> 00:01:38,159 Speaker 2: How are you going with this? 35 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:42,959 Speaker 1: Well, what if that exact same mind bending engineering problem, 36 00:01:43,040 --> 00:01:45,239 the one that requires Google to build a sub zero 37 00:01:45,359 --> 00:01:49,640 vacuum fortress, what if that was fundamentally solved by nature 38 00:01:50,120 --> 00:01:51,159 billions of years ago. 39 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:54,200 Speaker 2: I mean, if that's true, it demands a complete structural 40 00:01:54,239 --> 00:01:56,560 rewrite of how we understand biology itself. 41 00:01:56,640 --> 00:01:59,319 Speaker 1: And that is exactly why we are here today. Welcome 42 00:01:59,359 --> 00:02:01,959 to Thrilling Threads. We are so incredibly glad you are 43 00:02:02,040 --> 00:02:02,959 joining us for this. 44 00:02:03,200 --> 00:02:05,359 Speaker 2: It's going to be a really wild ride today. 45 00:02:05,280 --> 00:02:08,800 Speaker 1: It really is. Okay, let's unpack this. Our mission for 46 00:02:08,840 --> 00:02:12,639 this analysis is to go through this absolutely staggering stack 47 00:02:12,680 --> 00:02:14,360 of recent papers that just drop. 48 00:02:14,439 --> 00:02:16,960 Speaker 2: Yeah, and these aren't just fringe blogs. These are from 49 00:02:16,960 --> 00:02:19,439 the most rigorous scientific journals on the planet. 50 00:02:19,560 --> 00:02:24,919 Speaker 1: Right, We're looking at breakthrough research from Nature, from Science Advances, 51 00:02:25,080 --> 00:02:30,039 and from Oxford Academic and the core revelation connecting all 52 00:02:30,080 --> 00:02:33,680 of this peer reviewed work is going to fundamentally shift 53 00:02:33,719 --> 00:02:36,360 the paradigm of how you view yourself and. 54 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:39,439 Speaker 2: Really how you view the entire biosphere you inhabit. 55 00:02:39,599 --> 00:02:42,039 Speaker 1: Exactly because the bottom line we are exploring today is 56 00:02:42,120 --> 00:02:46,840 this ordinary proteins inside living cells are running massive quantum 57 00:02:46,840 --> 00:02:49,080 computations at room temperature, which. 58 00:02:48,879 --> 00:02:51,400 Speaker 2: For the longest time, the established laws of physics suggested 59 00:02:51,879 --> 00:02:54,319 was just a literal impossibility. 60 00:02:53,639 --> 00:02:57,080 Speaker 1: Oh totally impossible. So to really grasp the magnitude of 61 00:02:57,120 --> 00:02:59,919 what biology is doing here, we have to look mechanistically 62 00:03:00,199 --> 00:03:04,199 at why human made quantum computers are so incredibly fragile. 63 00:03:03,879 --> 00:03:05,759 Speaker 2: Right, And it all really comes down to this concept 64 00:03:05,800 --> 00:03:07,439 called decoherence ecoherence. 65 00:03:07,479 --> 00:03:09,520 Speaker 1: Okay, break that down for us. I think that sounds 66 00:03:09,520 --> 00:03:10,479 super intimidating. 67 00:03:10,759 --> 00:03:14,240 Speaker 2: It does, but it's basically the great enemy of quantum computing. 68 00:03:15,039 --> 00:03:17,919 So to understand why it happens, we have to look 69 00:03:18,280 --> 00:03:20,599 at what a quantum state actually is, right, like. 70 00:03:20,560 --> 00:03:23,439 Speaker 1: The difference between a regular computer bit and a quantum 71 00:03:23,439 --> 00:03:24,439 bit exactly. 72 00:03:24,840 --> 00:03:27,240 Speaker 2: So in your laptop, a classical bit is just a 73 00:03:27,240 --> 00:03:30,479 physical switch. It's either a one or a zero. But 74 00:03:30,560 --> 00:03:35,240 a quantum bit or equibit can exist in a superposition. 75 00:03:34,759 --> 00:03:37,919 Speaker 1: A superposition that's where it's like both at the same time. 76 00:03:38,199 --> 00:03:41,360 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a complex probability wave where it is basically 77 00:03:41,400 --> 00:03:45,400 both one and zero simultaneously. And what's wild is that 78 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:47,360 multiple quibits can become entangled. 79 00:03:47,520 --> 00:03:50,759 Speaker 1: Oh, entanglement, that's the spooky action at a distance stuff. 80 00:03:50,840 --> 00:03:54,879 Speaker 2: Exactly. It means their wave functions are inextricably linked across space. 81 00:03:55,680 --> 00:03:58,759 And this is what allows for that massive exponential leap 82 00:03:58,840 --> 00:04:00,000 in processing. 83 00:03:59,520 --> 00:04:01,960 Speaker 1: Power, because you aren't just calculating one path at a 84 00:04:02,000 --> 00:04:03,439 time anymore, right, You. 85 00:04:03,319 --> 00:04:08,360 Speaker 2: Are calculating every possible path simultaneously within that entire wave function. Right. 86 00:04:08,400 --> 00:04:11,240 But and here's the catch. The wave function is essentially 87 00:04:11,280 --> 00:04:15,840 a really really delicate phase relationship. So it's fragile, incredibly fragile. 88 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:20,680 The very moment that quantum system interacts with a chaotic 89 00:04:20,800 --> 00:04:22,319 outside environment. 90 00:04:22,160 --> 00:04:24,639 Speaker 1: It breaks, like if a stray photon hits it. 91 00:04:24,800 --> 00:04:27,480 Speaker 2: Yeah, stray photon, or even if it just gets jostled 92 00:04:27,480 --> 00:04:30,680 by the thermal vibration of a neighboring atom, that phase 93 00:04:30,759 --> 00:04:32,439 relationship gets totally. 94 00:04:32,079 --> 00:04:34,720 Speaker 1: Scrambled and the whole thing just collapses exactly. 95 00:04:35,000 --> 00:04:38,560 Speaker 2: The wave function collapses, the superposition is completely destroyed, and 96 00:04:38,600 --> 00:04:43,720 the system just reverts back to boring classical deterministic physics. 97 00:04:44,079 --> 00:04:46,639 That process of collapse, that is decoherence. 98 00:04:46,759 --> 00:04:50,079 Speaker 1: Okay, wow. So if the collapse of the wave function 99 00:04:50,199 --> 00:04:53,759 is triggered by environmental interaction, and especially by heat, which 100 00:04:53,839 --> 00:04:57,079 is really just the kinetic energy of atoms vibrating around. 101 00:04:56,839 --> 00:04:59,160 Speaker 2: Right, Heat is just atomic jiggling. 102 00:04:58,920 --> 00:05:02,000 Speaker 1: Then a living biolog cell seems like the absolute worst, 103 00:05:02,079 --> 00:05:05,839 most hostile environment imaginable for a quantum state. I think 104 00:05:05,879 --> 00:05:09,319 about it. A cell is essentially a microscopic boiling suit. 105 00:05:09,480 --> 00:05:11,279 Speaker 2: Oh, it's incredibly chaotic. 106 00:05:11,079 --> 00:05:13,680 Speaker 1: It's warm, it's wet, it's packed with ions creating all 107 00:05:13,680 --> 00:05:17,079 this electrical noise, and you've got thousands of these massive 108 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:20,120 protein molecules just constantly slamming into each other. 109 00:05:20,399 --> 00:05:22,680 Speaker 2: It's basically a war zone at the molecular level. 110 00:05:22,759 --> 00:05:27,120 Speaker 1: Right. So, if keeping a human made quibot stable requires 111 00:05:27,199 --> 00:05:30,079 cooling it to a fraction of a degree above absolute 112 00:05:30,160 --> 00:05:34,600 zero just to stop all that atomic vibration. How on 113 00:05:34,680 --> 00:05:38,800 Earth does a biological cell operating at like ninety eight 114 00:05:38,800 --> 00:05:41,800 degrees fahrenheit manage to protect a quantum state. 115 00:05:42,160 --> 00:05:44,240 Speaker 2: Well, this is where we really have to abandon all 116 00:05:44,279 --> 00:05:47,680 of our human engineering biases, because in our laboratories, what 117 00:05:47,680 --> 00:05:49,000 do we do. We build thick. 118 00:05:48,800 --> 00:05:50,319 Speaker 1: Walls, We isolate things. 119 00:05:50,399 --> 00:05:53,759 Speaker 2: Exactly, we try to conquer thermal noise by just freezing 120 00:05:53,800 --> 00:05:56,120 it out. But nature has had four and a half 121 00:05:56,160 --> 00:05:57,720 billion years to experiment with this. 122 00:05:57,920 --> 00:05:59,759 Speaker 1: That is a lot of trial and error, it is. 123 00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:03,959 Speaker 2: And what's fascinating here is that biology doesn't fight the chaos. 124 00:06:04,120 --> 00:06:06,160 It actually mathematically integrates it. 125 00:06:06,240 --> 00:06:07,560 Speaker 1: Wait, it uses the chaos. 126 00:06:07,639 --> 00:06:10,879 Speaker 2: Yes, the researchers at Oxford in the University of Chicago 127 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:15,240 demonstrated that certain biological structures utilize a mechanism we can 128 00:06:15,279 --> 00:06:16,519 call molecular shielding. 129 00:06:16,600 --> 00:06:18,399 Speaker 1: Molecular shielding, but it's so much. 130 00:06:18,279 --> 00:06:21,360 Speaker 2: More active than just like a physical barrier. You know 131 00:06:21,399 --> 00:06:24,240 how Proteins are basically these long chains of amino. 132 00:06:23,879 --> 00:06:27,240 Speaker 1: Acids, right, and they fold up into those crazy complex 133 00:06:27,319 --> 00:06:28,639 three dimensional shapes. 134 00:06:28,800 --> 00:06:32,519 Speaker 2: Exactly. What the researchers found is that certain proteins fold 135 00:06:32,639 --> 00:06:36,759 in highly specific ways, where their hydrophobic cores create these 136 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:39,759 tiny geometrically isolated pockets. 137 00:06:39,519 --> 00:06:41,720 Speaker 1: Like little safe rooms inside the protein. 138 00:06:41,920 --> 00:06:45,120 Speaker 2: Yeah, they act almost like microscopic Faraday cages. But the 139 00:06:45,120 --> 00:06:48,160 crazy part is they aren't just blindly blocking the noise. 140 00:06:48,279 --> 00:06:48,920 Speaker 1: And what do they do. 141 00:06:49,279 --> 00:06:53,879 Speaker 2: The unique vibrational frequencies of the surrounding protein scaffold actually 142 00:06:54,000 --> 00:06:57,800 tune out the destructive thermal wavelengths, but at the same 143 00:06:57,839 --> 00:07:02,319 time they allow specific to constructive resonant frequencies to pass 144 00:07:02,399 --> 00:07:02,879 right through. 145 00:07:03,079 --> 00:07:05,720 Speaker 1: Oh wow, that is a brilliant distinction. So it isn't 146 00:07:05,759 --> 00:07:08,959 a static wall at all. It's more like a dynamic resonant. 147 00:07:08,519 --> 00:07:10,680 Speaker 2: Filter, exactly, a highly tuned filter. 148 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:14,839 Speaker 1: So the protein structure is essentially absorbing the chaotic, random 149 00:07:14,959 --> 00:07:17,920 thermal heat of the cell and filtering it down into 150 00:07:17,959 --> 00:07:19,959 a specific rhythmic vibration. 151 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:22,720 Speaker 2: You got it, And that rhythmic vibration is actually used 152 00:07:22,720 --> 00:07:24,000 to sustain the quantum state. 153 00:07:24,079 --> 00:07:26,040 Speaker 1: Wait, really, the heat is sustaining it? 154 00:07:26,319 --> 00:07:30,560 Speaker 2: Yeah, it's an active stabilization process. In quantum mechanics, it's 155 00:07:30,560 --> 00:07:34,639 known as the quantum Zeno effect or continuous resonant driving. 156 00:07:34,680 --> 00:07:37,519 Speaker 1: Okay, continuous resonant driving. That sounds intense. 157 00:07:37,639 --> 00:07:40,759 Speaker 2: It is the thermal noise of the cell is channeled 158 00:07:40,759 --> 00:07:44,040 by the geometry of the protein to continuously kick the 159 00:07:44,120 --> 00:07:47,600 quantum system back into a state of coherence right as 160 00:07:47,639 --> 00:07:48,839 it's about to decohere. 161 00:07:48,959 --> 00:07:51,879 Speaker 1: That is unbelievable. It's like trying to balance a house 162 00:07:51,920 --> 00:07:54,399 of cards on a roller coaster, but using the vibration 163 00:07:54,519 --> 00:07:56,399 of the tracks to keep the cards standing. 164 00:07:56,560 --> 00:07:59,279 Speaker 2: That is the perfect analogy. So the very heat and 165 00:07:59,399 --> 00:08:03,839 vibration that instantly destroys a google superconducting quibot is actually 166 00:08:03,839 --> 00:08:07,720 being harnessed by the biological protein. It's the resonant fuel 167 00:08:07,920 --> 00:08:09,639 keeping its own quantum state alive. 168 00:08:09,879 --> 00:08:11,920 Speaker 1: Okay, my mind is a little bit blown right now. 169 00:08:11,959 --> 00:08:13,160 How do they even prove this? 170 00:08:13,399 --> 00:08:16,240 Speaker 2: Well, the Oxford and Chicago teams prove this by taking 171 00:08:16,399 --> 00:08:20,240 ordinary fluorescent proteins, like the exact same ones extracted from 172 00:08:20,319 --> 00:08:23,879 jellyfish that scanned biology labs use every single day as 173 00:08:23,959 --> 00:08:25,120 glowing genetic markers. 174 00:08:25,240 --> 00:08:26,240 Speaker 1: The jellyfish proteins. 175 00:08:26,279 --> 00:08:30,240 Speaker 2: Yes, yeah, and they demonstrated that the fluorophores inside these proteins, 176 00:08:30,560 --> 00:08:36,240 we're functioning as entangled quibbots inside living, warm bacterial cells. 177 00:08:36,039 --> 00:08:40,639 Speaker 1: Which completely forces a radical re evaluation of our baseline 178 00:08:40,639 --> 00:08:44,000 assumptions about life. I mean, if a basic fluorescent protein 179 00:08:44,039 --> 00:08:47,360 from a jellyfish is acting as a shielded quantum bit, 180 00:08:47,879 --> 00:08:49,440 what is the upper limit of this? 181 00:08:50,039 --> 00:08:51,960 Speaker 2: That is the billion dollar question. 182 00:08:52,000 --> 00:08:55,639 Speaker 1: Right because if biology is running quantum computations, there has 183 00:08:55,720 --> 00:08:58,960 to be a dedicated hardware architecture for it. Especially when 184 00:08:58,960 --> 00:09:01,080 you get into more complex organisms. 185 00:09:00,639 --> 00:09:02,759 Speaker 2: You would definitely expect to see specialized hardware. 186 00:09:02,879 --> 00:09:05,840 Speaker 1: Exactly like in a silicon chip, the hardware is a 187 00:09:05,840 --> 00:09:10,440 semiconductor lattice. So what is the actual physical material running 188 00:09:10,440 --> 00:09:12,840 these calculations in a plant or you know, in the 189 00:09:12,879 --> 00:09:13,480 human body. 190 00:09:13,600 --> 00:09:15,919 Speaker 2: For that exact mechanism, we have to turn to a 191 00:09:16,080 --> 00:09:19,720 really landmark twenty twenty five paper. It was published in 192 00:09:19,759 --> 00:09:22,720 Science Advances by a physicist named Philip Kurrent. 193 00:09:22,879 --> 00:09:25,600 Speaker 1: Okay Current's paper. I read through this and it is fascinating. 194 00:09:25,879 --> 00:09:31,120 Speaker 2: It really is. Kerrent identified a specific biological molecule that 195 00:09:31,200 --> 00:09:35,080 acts as the primary quantum hardware in living systems, and 196 00:09:35,200 --> 00:09:37,600 it's an aromatic amino acid called trip to fan. 197 00:09:37,960 --> 00:09:40,799 Speaker 1: Wait, trip to fan as in the amino acid everyone 198 00:09:40,840 --> 00:09:43,759 blames for making you sleepy after eating Thanksgiving turkey. 199 00:09:43,960 --> 00:09:47,960 Speaker 2: Yes, the exact same Thanksgiving Turkey trip to Fan. 200 00:09:48,120 --> 00:09:49,960 Speaker 1: That is hilarious. Who would have thought? 201 00:09:50,120 --> 00:09:53,039 Speaker 2: I know, right, But physicists are now looking at as 202 00:09:53,039 --> 00:09:58,240 atomic structure, specifically it's indole ring with entirely. 203 00:09:57,919 --> 00:10:01,440 Speaker 1: New scrutiny because there's something special about that ring structure exactly. 204 00:10:01,960 --> 00:10:05,519 Speaker 2: This ring structure features a cloud of delocalized pie electrons, 205 00:10:05,960 --> 00:10:09,159 and these electrons are incredibly sensitive to ultraviolet light and 206 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:10,360 electromagnetic fields. 207 00:10:10,399 --> 00:10:12,240 Speaker 1: Okay, so it's a very sensitive molecule. 208 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:15,159 Speaker 2: Very but Kerrent found that the real magic doesn't happen 209 00:10:15,200 --> 00:10:17,120 when trip devan is just floating around freely in. 210 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:18,600 Speaker 1: The cell right in eats structure. 211 00:10:18,759 --> 00:10:23,000 Speaker 2: Yes, the quantum computation only emerges when these triptopan molecules 212 00:10:23,159 --> 00:10:27,799 are arranged in a highly specific repeating geometry inside the cell. 213 00:10:28,120 --> 00:10:31,879 Speaker 1: And that specific geometry is found inside these things called microtubules. 214 00:10:31,919 --> 00:10:33,919 Speaker 2: Correct, exactly, microtubules. 215 00:10:34,120 --> 00:10:38,360 Speaker 1: I've always seen these described as basically the skeletal system 216 00:10:38,519 --> 00:10:41,960 of the cell. Like they are these long, hollow, cylindrical 217 00:10:42,039 --> 00:10:44,559 tubes made of a protein called tubulin. 218 00:10:44,720 --> 00:10:47,080 Speaker 2: Yeah, they literally give a cell its shape and they 219 00:10:47,120 --> 00:10:50,080 act as little railway tracks for transporting materials around. 220 00:10:50,279 --> 00:10:52,960 Speaker 1: But they're also everywhere, right, like ubiquitous. 221 00:10:53,080 --> 00:10:57,879 Speaker 2: Oh completely, every plant, every animal, and crucially, every single 222 00:10:57,919 --> 00:11:00,799 one of the roughly eighty six billion neurons in the 223 00:11:00,879 --> 00:11:06,360 human brain is packed with the dense network of these microtubules. 224 00:11:06,440 --> 00:11:09,240 Speaker 1: Okay, so that structural ubiquity is definitely key here. 225 00:11:09,320 --> 00:11:14,000 Speaker 2: It is because when tubulin proteins assembled to these microtubule cylinders, 226 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:17,440 the trip to fan molecules embedded within them end up 227 00:11:17,440 --> 00:11:20,000 being spaced out at exact nanimeter intervals. Us. 228 00:11:20,000 --> 00:11:22,159 Speaker 1: It's not random, it's a highly ordered structure. 229 00:11:22,279 --> 00:11:26,480 Speaker 2: Right. They form this perfect repeating helical lattice, and current 230 00:11:26,559 --> 00:11:29,320 discovered that when you hit this lattice with energy, the 231 00:11:29,399 --> 00:11:33,519 trip to fan molecules don't just absorb and emit light individually. 232 00:11:33,080 --> 00:11:34,960 Speaker 1: Because they're too perfectly spaced for that. 233 00:11:35,120 --> 00:11:39,279 Speaker 2: Exactly, because of their precise geometric spacing, their electron clouds 234 00:11:39,320 --> 00:11:43,600 literally couple together. They undergo a massive quantum entanglement phenomenon 235 00:11:43,679 --> 00:11:45,759 known as Dick superradiance. 236 00:11:45,919 --> 00:11:49,120 Speaker 1: Okay, superradiance that is one of those concepts in quantum 237 00:11:49,159 --> 00:11:52,320 electro dynamics that just sounds incredibly abstract when you first 238 00:11:52,320 --> 00:11:52,759 hear it. 239 00:11:52,759 --> 00:11:54,679 Speaker 2: It definitely sounds like sci fi jargon. 240 00:11:54,879 --> 00:11:59,200 Speaker 1: It really does, but the mechanics of it are absolutely fascinating. 241 00:11:59,480 --> 00:12:02,159 Instead of using that old cliche of you know, a 242 00:12:02,320 --> 00:12:05,799 choire suddenly singing in perfect unison, let's look at it 243 00:12:05,840 --> 00:12:08,200 through the lens of classical synchronization. 244 00:12:08,399 --> 00:12:10,440 Speaker 2: Oh, like the pendulum clocks, Yes. 245 00:12:10,399 --> 00:12:13,519 Speaker 1: Exactly, like that famous pendulum clock experiment. If you mount 246 00:12:13,600 --> 00:12:17,840 one hundred ticking pendulum clocks on a single flexible wall 247 00:12:18,200 --> 00:12:21,440 and you just start them all swinging completely randomly, it's 248 00:12:21,519 --> 00:12:22,879 just chaotic noise. 249 00:12:22,720 --> 00:12:23,759 Speaker 2: Right, they're all out of phase. 250 00:12:23,960 --> 00:12:27,519 Speaker 1: But over time, the tiny amounts of kinetic energy transferring 251 00:12:27,559 --> 00:12:31,000 through that flexible wall cause the pendulums to actually influence 252 00:12:31,039 --> 00:12:34,799 each other, and eventually, through that shared resonance, all one 253 00:12:34,919 --> 00:12:39,759 hundred pendulums will spontaneously lock into perfect synchronized swinging. 254 00:12:40,159 --> 00:12:42,080 Speaker 2: It's mesmerizing to watch videos of that, by the. 255 00:12:42,080 --> 00:12:45,320 Speaker 1: Way, it really is. And super radiance is essentially the 256 00:12:45,399 --> 00:12:48,200 quantum equivalent of that, but happening at the speed of light. 257 00:12:48,519 --> 00:12:52,039 Speaker 2: That is a really excellent mechanistic analogy. So in quantum 258 00:12:52,039 --> 00:12:56,440 super radiance, the pendulums or the clocks are the delocalized 259 00:12:56,480 --> 00:12:58,879 electrons in that trip to fen lattice. 260 00:12:58,960 --> 00:13:00,320 Speaker 1: Okay, and what's the flexible wall. 261 00:13:00,639 --> 00:13:03,720 Speaker 2: The wall is the electromagnetic field that they all share. 262 00:13:04,039 --> 00:13:06,919 So when they sync up, the millions of separate trip 263 00:13:06,919 --> 00:13:11,720 defen molecules completely stop behaving as individual separate particles. 264 00:13:11,879 --> 00:13:12,840 Speaker 1: Wait, they merge. 265 00:13:12,919 --> 00:13:15,879 Speaker 2: Yeah, their wave functions physically merge. They become a single, 266 00:13:16,159 --> 00:13:19,759 unified macroscopic quantum entity that. 267 00:13:19,759 --> 00:13:21,840 Speaker 1: Is terrifying and beautiful all at once. 268 00:13:21,919 --> 00:13:24,759 Speaker 2: I know. They start absorbing and emitting photons not randomly 269 00:13:24,840 --> 00:13:28,519 but collectively with a squared intensity, and its speeds that 270 00:13:28,559 --> 00:13:30,080 are just mathematically breathtaking. 271 00:13:30,200 --> 00:13:32,480 Speaker 1: Okay, let's get into those speeds, because here's where it 272 00:13:32,519 --> 00:13:35,759 gets really interesting, where currents paper moves from just fascinating 273 00:13:35,759 --> 00:13:38,320 biology into like extreme physics. 274 00:13:38,440 --> 00:13:38,960 Speaker 2: Oh definitely. 275 00:13:39,000 --> 00:13:42,960 Speaker 1: If we look at normal human neurobiology, a neuron firing 276 00:13:43,000 --> 00:13:46,320 an action potential, which is the electrical pulse that travels 277 00:13:46,360 --> 00:13:47,840 down the axon, which is what. 278 00:13:47,720 --> 00:13:49,919 Speaker 2: We classically think of is the speed of human thought. 279 00:13:50,120 --> 00:13:52,919 Speaker 1: Right, that operates at a maximum of about one thousand 280 00:13:53,000 --> 00:13:56,080 times per second. So one thousand operations per second is 281 00:13:56,120 --> 00:14:00,000 the baseline of our biological hardware under the old paradise. 282 00:14:00,279 --> 00:14:02,039 Speaker 2: Correct, that's the classical speed limit. 283 00:14:02,200 --> 00:14:05,039 Speaker 1: So what is the clock speed of this new trip 284 00:14:05,039 --> 00:14:06,799 to fan super radiant network. 285 00:14:07,320 --> 00:14:10,840 Speaker 2: Well, Current's measurements show that the quantum super radiant processes 286 00:14:10,919 --> 00:14:15,399 inside these microtubule networks are operating at between one trillion 287 00:14:15,679 --> 00:14:17,799 and ten trillion operations per second. 288 00:14:18,000 --> 00:14:20,399 Speaker 1: I just I need a second to process that. We're 289 00:14:20,519 --> 00:14:24,320 jumping from one thousand operations per second to ten trillion. 290 00:14:24,519 --> 00:14:26,039 Speaker 2: It's an unfathomable leap. 291 00:14:26,320 --> 00:14:28,960 Speaker 1: That isn't just a hardware upgrade. That is a fundamental 292 00:14:29,000 --> 00:14:32,639 phase shift in how we understand biological information processing. 293 00:14:32,720 --> 00:14:33,279 Speaker 2: Absolutely. 294 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:35,639 Speaker 1: But you know what struck me most in Current's paper 295 00:14:35,879 --> 00:14:39,360 wasn't just that raw number of ten trillion, because big 296 00:14:39,440 --> 00:14:43,039 numbers are just big numbers. It was his observation that 297 00:14:43,120 --> 00:14:46,480 this processing speed is actually pushing up against the absolute 298 00:14:46,559 --> 00:14:48,799 theoretical limits of physics itself. 299 00:14:48,919 --> 00:14:52,200 Speaker 2: Yes, specifically the Marglis Levitten limit. 300 00:14:52,679 --> 00:14:54,679 Speaker 1: Exactly. Can you explain that limit for us? 301 00:14:54,919 --> 00:14:55,240 Speaker 2: Sure? 302 00:14:55,360 --> 00:14:55,440 Speaker 1: So? 303 00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:59,000 Speaker 2: The Marglist levit In limit is a foundational principle in 304 00:14:59,120 --> 00:15:03,159 quantum information theory. It basically dictates the maximum rate in 305 00:15:03,200 --> 00:15:06,440 which any physical system can move from one quantum. 306 00:15:06,039 --> 00:15:08,279 Speaker 1: State to another based on how much energy it has. 307 00:15:08,360 --> 00:15:11,120 Speaker 2: Right exactly, It's based on the amount of energy available 308 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:14,639 to that system. So it is the hard unbreakable physical 309 00:15:14,720 --> 00:15:18,799 ceiling for computation in our entire universe. Wow, you literally 310 00:15:18,879 --> 00:15:20,960 cannot build a computer, whether you build it out of 311 00:15:21,000 --> 00:15:25,080 silicon or a superconducting aluminum, or even biological tissue that 312 00:15:25,120 --> 00:15:28,559 calculates faster than this limit allows for a given energy state. 313 00:15:28,919 --> 00:15:31,799 Speaker 1: And Kurrent found that biology is hitting that limit. 314 00:15:31,960 --> 00:15:34,840 Speaker 2: Yes, Current's data indicates that the trip to fan networks 315 00:15:34,879 --> 00:15:38,720 inside living cells are operating within two orders of magnitude 316 00:15:38,720 --> 00:15:40,360 of this absolute universal limit. 317 00:15:40,440 --> 00:15:41,480 Speaker 1: That is staggering. 318 00:15:41,679 --> 00:15:45,279 Speaker 2: It is. It means life isn't just stumbling along using inefficient, 319 00:15:45,360 --> 00:15:49,519 sloppy chemistry. It actually optimized its information processing to the 320 00:15:49,639 --> 00:15:52,399 very edge of what the laws of physics will permit. 321 00:15:52,679 --> 00:15:56,759 Speaker 1: It makes complete sense why SETH. Lloyd, who is a 322 00:15:56,840 --> 00:16:00,279 massive pioneer of quantum computing over at MIT. It makes 323 00:16:00,320 --> 00:16:02,799 sense why he publicly praised this research so much. 324 00:16:02,960 --> 00:16:04,799 Speaker 2: Yes, commentary on this was really pointed. 325 00:16:04,960 --> 00:16:08,159 Speaker 1: It was Lloyd pointed out that we as humans have 326 00:16:08,279 --> 00:16:12,399 been incredibly arrogant. We look at our massive supercomputers and 327 00:16:12,440 --> 00:16:15,360 we think, oh, we have mastered computation, and then we 328 00:16:15,399 --> 00:16:19,440 look at a patch of moss as this primitive, slow 329 00:16:19,519 --> 00:16:20,519 moving organism. 330 00:16:20,639 --> 00:16:22,679 Speaker 2: Right, just a simple little green thing on a rock. 331 00:16:23,279 --> 00:16:27,440 Speaker 1: But Lloyd explicitly stated that the computational power performed by 332 00:16:27,480 --> 00:16:31,720 living biological systems is vastly more powerful than anything artificial 333 00:16:31,759 --> 00:16:33,559 we have ever created. Period. 334 00:16:33,679 --> 00:16:36,879 Speaker 2: The quantum architecture of a single leaf is literally running 335 00:16:36,879 --> 00:16:39,679 calculations that would crash our most advanced mainframes. 336 00:16:39,759 --> 00:16:41,080 Speaker 1: It's just a humbling realization. 337 00:16:41,240 --> 00:16:43,799 Speaker 2: Honestly, it is deeply humbling. Yeah, and it actually becomes 338 00:16:43,840 --> 00:16:47,120 even more humbling when you apply that local single cell 339 00:16:47,159 --> 00:16:50,159 calculation to a global historical scale. 340 00:16:50,080 --> 00:16:53,799 Speaker 1: Right, because Current didn't just stop at measuring a single microtubule. 341 00:16:53,960 --> 00:16:56,679 Speaker 2: No, he wanted to understand the cosmic footprint of this 342 00:16:56,759 --> 00:16:57,960 biological computation. 343 00:16:58,120 --> 00:16:58,799 Speaker 1: So what did he do. 344 00:16:59,039 --> 00:17:02,840 Speaker 2: He ran a calculation to estimate the total quantum computational 345 00:17:02,879 --> 00:17:08,000 capacity of all carbon based life across Earth's entire four 346 00:17:08,039 --> 00:17:09,759 point five billion year history. 347 00:17:09,880 --> 00:17:11,920 Speaker 1: I spent a lot of time looking at his methodology 348 00:17:11,960 --> 00:17:14,960 for this, because, honestly, it sounds almost impossible to calculate. 349 00:17:15,000 --> 00:17:18,200 Speaker 2: It's a massively complex extrapolation, it really is. 350 00:17:18,599 --> 00:17:22,359 Speaker 1: But he essentially took the super radiant processing speeds, so 351 00:17:22,519 --> 00:17:26,119 those trillions of operations per second, and he multiplied it 352 00:17:26,160 --> 00:17:29,839 by the estimated density of microtubules in cellular life. 353 00:17:29,680 --> 00:17:32,759 Speaker 2: Right, and then extrapolated that across the estimated biomass of 354 00:17:32,799 --> 00:17:34,000 Earth over deep. 355 00:17:33,839 --> 00:17:38,640 Speaker 1: Time exactly, so he included every single bacterium in the 356 00:17:38,680 --> 00:17:42,079 primordial oceans, every fungus in the soil, every blade of grass, 357 00:17:42,119 --> 00:17:45,240 every forest, every insect, and every mammal that has ever lived. 358 00:17:45,319 --> 00:17:47,160 Speaker 2: The scope of it is just wild. 359 00:17:47,319 --> 00:17:50,480 Speaker 1: And what was the mathematical result of that extrapolation? Because 360 00:17:50,519 --> 00:17:53,000 it's genuinely difficult to conceptualize, It is. 361 00:17:53,359 --> 00:17:57,480 Speaker 2: Current estimated that the combined cumulative quantum computational power of 362 00:17:57,480 --> 00:18:01,799 life on Earth across its entire history, actually approaches the 363 00:18:01,839 --> 00:18:05,559 computational capacity of the observable universe itself. 364 00:18:05,839 --> 00:18:07,640 Speaker 1: I want to pause and make sure we are translating 365 00:18:07,680 --> 00:18:10,599 that clearly for you listening, Because the concept of the 366 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:14,640 universe having a computational capacity is kind of wild. It 367 00:18:14,640 --> 00:18:16,759 comes from theoretical physics, right. 368 00:18:16,839 --> 00:18:20,720 Speaker 2: Yes, from ideas like the Beckenstein bound and the holographic principle. 369 00:18:20,880 --> 00:18:24,039 Speaker 1: Right. These ideas suggest that the universe itself can actually 370 00:18:24,119 --> 00:18:27,640 be quantified by how much information it can store and process. 371 00:18:27,920 --> 00:18:32,960 Speaker 2: Exactly. The universe is, in a way an information system. 372 00:18:32,559 --> 00:18:35,839 Speaker 1: And Kurrent is stating that the collective biological processing of 373 00:18:35,880 --> 00:18:40,119 our single tiny planet over four billion years, rivals the 374 00:18:40,160 --> 00:18:42,759 total informational capacity of the cosmos. 375 00:18:42,839 --> 00:18:45,920 Speaker 2: We definitely must be incredibly precise here, though, to avoid 376 00:18:45,960 --> 00:18:50,400 stepping into pure mysticism or pseudoscience. 377 00:18:49,640 --> 00:18:51,319 Speaker 1: Oh for sure, we need to ground this. 378 00:18:51,599 --> 00:18:54,440 Speaker 2: Right, because Kurrent is not claiming that the Earth's biosphere 379 00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:57,599 is the universe, or that life is literally projecting the 380 00:18:57,640 --> 00:19:01,359 cosmos like a hologram. Okay, good, This is a rigorous 381 00:19:01,400 --> 00:19:05,839 mathematical comparison of information processing bounds. What he is demonstrating 382 00:19:05,880 --> 00:19:09,920 is that biology's cumulative computation operates on a scale that 383 00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:13,119 is undeniably cosmologically significant. 384 00:19:13,400 --> 00:19:15,960 Speaker 1: Right. We are so used to thinking of life as 385 00:19:16,000 --> 00:19:19,200 this rare, fragile little mold growing on a wet rock 386 00:19:19,319 --> 00:19:21,680 in the vast dead emptiness of space. 387 00:19:21,599 --> 00:19:27,799 Speaker 2: Exactly, But mathematically, the biosphere is an incredibly dense, immensely 388 00:19:27,920 --> 00:19:32,880 powerful quantum computing engine that registers on a universal scale. 389 00:19:33,079 --> 00:19:36,920 Speaker 1: It's no wonder. Kurrent himself departed from that standard, dry 390 00:19:37,079 --> 00:19:39,359 academic language when he reviewed his own data. 391 00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,279 Speaker 2: Yeah, scientists rarely use emotional language in these papers, but 392 00:19:42,359 --> 00:19:42,720 he did. 393 00:19:42,799 --> 00:19:46,599 Speaker 1: He literally called the finding on inspiring. He noted how 394 00:19:46,640 --> 00:19:49,880 profoundly moving. It is that biology gets to play such 395 00:19:49,880 --> 00:19:53,000 a monumental role in the physical mechanics of reality. 396 00:19:53,279 --> 00:19:57,079 Speaker 2: When a hard nosed quantum physicist starts invoking words like awe, 397 00:19:57,480 --> 00:19:59,599 you know the paradigm is fundamentally shifting. 398 00:20:00,000 --> 00:20:02,480 Speaker 1: I mean, when a quantum physicist starts using words like awe, 399 00:20:02,599 --> 00:20:05,599 doesn't that fundamentally shift how we view the hierarchy of life. 400 00:20:06,119 --> 00:20:07,920 We usually look at a bleed of grass, it's just 401 00:20:08,039 --> 00:20:11,599 simple biology, but mathematically it's a node in a universal 402 00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:12,720 scale supercomputer. 403 00:20:13,079 --> 00:20:15,839 Speaker 2: It absolutely changes how we interact with the natural world. 404 00:20:16,359 --> 00:20:18,319 If you walk through a forest today, you aren't just 405 00:20:18,359 --> 00:20:21,799 walking through a collection of slow chemical reactions anymore. You 406 00:20:21,839 --> 00:20:28,559 are literally standing inside a massively parallel room temperature quantum supercomputer. 407 00:20:28,720 --> 00:20:33,039 Speaker 1: It's breathtaking and recognizing that this architecture exists is obviously 408 00:20:33,079 --> 00:20:36,160 the first step. But science is rapidly moving to the 409 00:20:36,200 --> 00:20:37,880 second step, which is harnessing it. 410 00:20:38,000 --> 00:20:40,240 Speaker 2: Yes, that's where things get. 411 00:20:40,119 --> 00:20:42,880 Speaker 1: Really practical, because if we can't build a quantum computer 412 00:20:42,960 --> 00:20:45,799 that works at room temperature, but a random oat plant can, 413 00:20:46,440 --> 00:20:47,839 how do we bridge that gap? 414 00:20:48,000 --> 00:20:49,920 Speaker 2: Well, the bridge is actually being built right now at 415 00:20:49,920 --> 00:20:53,720 Oxford University. Through this methodology called directed evolution. 416 00:20:53,920 --> 00:20:56,359 Speaker 1: Okay, directed evolution, how does that work? 417 00:20:56,480 --> 00:20:59,440 Speaker 2: So the researchers understood that human minds and even our 418 00:20:59,480 --> 00:21:02,839 current AI systems simply lack the capacity to design a 419 00:21:02,839 --> 00:21:06,079 protein from scratch that can fold perfectly enough to shield 420 00:21:06,079 --> 00:21:07,039 a quantum state. 421 00:21:06,920 --> 00:21:09,640 Speaker 1: Because it's just too complicated, way too complicated. 422 00:21:09,960 --> 00:21:14,279 Speaker 2: The spatial requirements, the vanderwalls forces, the resonant frequency tuning. 423 00:21:14,640 --> 00:21:17,240 It is just too complex to engineer from the top down. 424 00:21:17,400 --> 00:21:18,599 Speaker 1: So what's the workaround. 425 00:21:18,799 --> 00:21:20,680 Speaker 2: We don't need to build it from scratch because the 426 00:21:20,680 --> 00:21:23,160 oat plant already has the blueprint. So they just took 427 00:21:23,200 --> 00:21:25,480 a protein from a simple oatplant and subjected it to 428 00:21:25,559 --> 00:21:26,319 directed evolution. 429 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:29,640 Speaker 1: Ah, So they let nature do the heavy lifting exactly. 430 00:21:30,079 --> 00:21:34,039 Speaker 2: They introduced rapid accelerated mutations in the lab, and they 431 00:21:34,119 --> 00:21:38,559 essentially selected generation after generation for proteins that exhibited longer 432 00:21:38,599 --> 00:21:41,079 and more stable quantum coherence times. 433 00:21:41,119 --> 00:21:45,599 Speaker 1: Wow. So they essentially put the protein on this intense 434 00:21:45,640 --> 00:21:46,720 evolutionary treadmill. 435 00:21:46,799 --> 00:21:47,720 Speaker 2: That's a great way to put it. 436 00:21:47,799 --> 00:21:51,000 Speaker 1: They artificially sped up millions of years of natural selection 437 00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:54,160 into just a few weeks, and they were selecting strictly 438 00:21:54,519 --> 00:21:56,519 for quantum efficiency, right, and the. 439 00:21:56,440 --> 00:21:59,519 Speaker 2: Final result of that directed evolution is a brand new 440 00:22:00,079 --> 00:22:03,440 engineered biological structure that they named MAG two. 441 00:22:03,839 --> 00:22:05,200 Speaker 1: MAG two. And what does it do. 442 00:22:05,640 --> 00:22:09,359 Speaker 2: Mag two is a biological quantum sensor, and because its 443 00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:13,359 quantum state is so perfectly shielded yet so exquisitely sensitive 444 00:22:13,359 --> 00:22:17,440 to specific external stimuli, it can actually detect single magnetic 445 00:22:17,440 --> 00:22:20,000 field changes at the foundational cellular level. 446 00:22:20,160 --> 00:22:20,960 Speaker 1: That's incredible. 447 00:22:21,039 --> 00:22:25,039 Speaker 2: It is literally a microscopic, living quantum magnetometer. 448 00:22:25,400 --> 00:22:27,480 Speaker 1: You know. Gabriel Abraham's who is one of the lead 449 00:22:27,519 --> 00:22:30,519 researchers on that MAG two project, he summarized this whole 450 00:22:30,519 --> 00:22:34,440 approach so beautifully. He said, quote nature found a way 451 00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:34,880 for us. 452 00:22:35,839 --> 00:22:38,240 Speaker 2: That quote really perfectly captures it. 453 00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,039 Speaker 1: It does, and it highlights a massive shift in the 454 00:22:41,039 --> 00:22:45,240 philosophy of science because since the Industrial Revolution, the human 455 00:22:45,240 --> 00:22:49,000 approach has always been one of mechanical domination, right well, completely. 456 00:22:48,839 --> 00:22:52,119 Speaker 2: We isolate, we extract, we burn things, we build. 457 00:22:52,079 --> 00:22:55,559 Speaker 1: Huge metal boxes to try and impose our will on physics. 458 00:22:55,799 --> 00:22:58,559 But we hit a hard wall with quantum mechanics because 459 00:22:58,599 --> 00:23:01,319 the quantum realm is just too delicate for brute force. 460 00:23:01,599 --> 00:23:02,920 Speaker 2: Can't bully equiv. 461 00:23:02,599 --> 00:23:05,880 Speaker 1: It exactly, you can't bully ekibit. So the development of 462 00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:08,799 mag Tu really shows that the future of advanced technology 463 00:23:08,880 --> 00:23:12,759 isn't about conquering nature anymore. It is about collaborating with 464 00:23:12,799 --> 00:23:15,599 the ancient embedded intelligence of biology. 465 00:23:16,000 --> 00:23:18,240 Speaker 2: If we connect this to the bigger picture, it is 466 00:23:18,279 --> 00:23:23,240 a massive transition from synthetic engineering to biological partnership. We're 467 00:23:23,319 --> 00:23:27,000 finally learning to actually speak the quantum language that organic 468 00:23:27,079 --> 00:23:28,480 life has been using for eons. 469 00:23:28,839 --> 00:23:31,519 Speaker 1: It's like trying to invent the wheel from scratch, struggling 470 00:23:31,559 --> 00:23:34,200 for decades in a lab and then walking outside and 471 00:23:34,240 --> 00:23:37,119 realizing your backyard is just full of ferraris that just 472 00:23:37,200 --> 00:23:38,279 need the keys turned. 473 00:23:38,599 --> 00:23:40,079 Speaker 2: That is exactly what it feels like. 474 00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:43,960 Speaker 1: And while engineering sensors out of oat plants is revolutionary 475 00:23:43,960 --> 00:23:48,559 for technology, the implications become far far more intimate when 476 00:23:48,559 --> 00:23:50,240 we turn that lens inward. 477 00:23:50,200 --> 00:23:52,359 Speaker 2: Because we have to talk about the human brain. 478 00:23:52,519 --> 00:23:56,400 Speaker 1: Yes, we do, because, as we established earlier, this exact 479 00:23:56,440 --> 00:24:01,240 same quantum architecture, these microtubule networks backing millions of trip 480 00:24:01,279 --> 00:24:06,160 to fan molecules, is extremely dense inside the human brain, which. 481 00:24:06,000 --> 00:24:08,400 Speaker 2: Brings us to one of the most heavily debated and 482 00:24:08,440 --> 00:24:11,880 honestly controversial theories in the entire history of neuroscience. 483 00:24:11,920 --> 00:24:15,119 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, this has been a battleground for decades. We 484 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:17,960 are talking about the work of Sir Roger Penrose and 485 00:24:18,119 --> 00:24:19,799 doctor Stewart Hamarov. 486 00:24:19,480 --> 00:24:22,559 Speaker 2: Right, And just for context, Penrose is a legendary Oxford 487 00:24:22,640 --> 00:24:25,880 mathematician who actually share the Nobel Prize in physics with 488 00:24:26,000 --> 00:24:28,400 Stephen Hawking for his work on black holes. 489 00:24:28,440 --> 00:24:30,319 Speaker 1: So he's not a lightweight, not at all. 490 00:24:30,480 --> 00:24:33,759 Speaker 2: And Hammerof is an anesthesiologist from the University of Arizona, 491 00:24:34,119 --> 00:24:37,359 and together over thirty years ago they proposed a theory 492 00:24:37,400 --> 00:24:41,799 called orchestrated objective reduction or orc or ARE. 493 00:24:41,920 --> 00:24:44,759 Speaker 1: Orch or ARE. Okay, let's dive into this. What is 494 00:24:44,799 --> 00:24:46,039 the core idea here? 495 00:24:46,319 --> 00:24:49,240 Speaker 2: Well, the audacity of orch or really cannot be overstated. 496 00:24:49,480 --> 00:24:53,880 Classical neuroscience posits that consciousness is essentially just an emergent 497 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:55,519 property of complex computation. 498 00:24:55,839 --> 00:24:58,839 Speaker 1: Right under the classical view, a neuron firing is basically 499 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,319 just a biological way transmitting an electrical signal. 500 00:25:02,079 --> 00:25:05,119 Speaker 2: Exactly, And the assumption is that if you wire enough 501 00:25:05,119 --> 00:25:07,839 of them together, like the eighty six billion in the 502 00:25:07,880 --> 00:25:11,359 human brain, the sheer algorithmic complexity of all those wires 503 00:25:11,400 --> 00:25:14,359 firing just somehow gives rise to consciousness. 504 00:25:14,400 --> 00:25:17,480 Speaker 1: It's a purely deterministic classical physics. 505 00:25:17,119 --> 00:25:21,079 Speaker 2: Model, yes, But Penrose and Hammeroff argue that classical physics 506 00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:25,400 fundamentally lacks the mechanisms to produce subjective experience. You can't 507 00:25:25,400 --> 00:25:27,519 get an inner life from the complex. 508 00:25:27,119 --> 00:25:29,039 Speaker 1: Calculator, right, So what did they propose? 509 00:25:29,359 --> 00:25:33,200 Speaker 2: They hypothesize that the electrical firing of neurons is merely 510 00:25:33,240 --> 00:25:37,440 the macro level output. The actual seat of consciousness, they argued, 511 00:25:37,799 --> 00:25:41,839 lies deep inside the neuron, within the quantum computations happening 512 00:25:41,920 --> 00:25:43,240 inside the microtubules. 513 00:25:43,400 --> 00:25:47,400 Speaker 1: And for three decades the mainstream scientific community just fiercely 514 00:25:47,480 --> 00:25:48,559 rejected this, didn't they. 515 00:25:48,599 --> 00:25:52,359 Speaker 2: Oh, they tore it apart. Prominent physicists publish paper after 516 00:25:52,400 --> 00:25:56,279 paper claiming to completely debunk orch or R, and. 517 00:25:56,400 --> 00:25:59,359 Speaker 1: The primary argument against it was always decoherence, right. 518 00:25:59,200 --> 00:26:03,400 Speaker 2: Always, they ran these calculations suggesting that the warm, wet 519 00:26:03,519 --> 00:26:06,680 environment of the brain would cause any quantum state in 520 00:26:06,720 --> 00:26:10,559 a microtubule to collapse in a fraction of a fentosecond. 521 00:26:09,880 --> 00:26:12,160 Speaker 1: Which is way too fast to influence in neural firing, 522 00:26:12,319 --> 00:26:14,119 let alone generate human consciousness. 523 00:26:14,240 --> 00:26:19,039 Speaker 2: Exactly the establishment viewed biological quantum processing as a literal 524 00:26:19,119 --> 00:26:20,559 physical impossibility. 525 00:26:20,640 --> 00:26:23,839 Speaker 1: But that consensus was built on the assumption that biological 526 00:26:23,880 --> 00:26:27,920 molecules obey the same thermal degradation rules as are naked 527 00:26:28,119 --> 00:26:30,599 human made quibts in those giant refrigerator. 528 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:32,599 Speaker 2: That was their fatal flaw, right. 529 00:26:32,680 --> 00:26:35,400 Speaker 1: So what changed Because there is a brand new paper 530 00:26:35,440 --> 00:26:38,839 out in the Oxford academic journal Neuroscience of Consciousness. 531 00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:41,880 Speaker 2: Yes, and what that twenty twenty five paper did was 532 00:26:42,000 --> 00:26:45,400 synthesize all the new data we've been discussing today, the 533 00:26:45,400 --> 00:26:50,400 molecular shielding, the continuous resonant driving, the dick superradiance of 534 00:26:50,440 --> 00:26:51,720 the tryptofan lattices. 535 00:26:51,880 --> 00:26:53,519 Speaker 1: They brought it all together, they did. 536 00:26:53,920 --> 00:26:58,200 Speaker 2: The paper reviewed the experimental proof that microtubules do indeed 537 00:26:58,279 --> 00:27:01,759 support sustained quantum states at room temperature. 538 00:27:01,799 --> 00:27:02,920 Speaker 1: And what was their conclusion. 539 00:27:03,279 --> 00:27:06,799 Speaker 2: The authors concluded that the foundational premise of orch or R, 540 00:27:07,359 --> 00:27:11,119 the quantum microtubual substrate of consciousness, is no longer a 541 00:27:11,200 --> 00:27:14,599 theoretical fringe idea. It is experimentally supported. 542 00:27:14,720 --> 00:27:15,720 Speaker 1: That is massive. 543 00:27:15,799 --> 00:27:17,599 Speaker 2: It changes neuroscience forever. 544 00:27:17,720 --> 00:27:20,279 Speaker 1: So what does this all mean for us? The moment 545 00:27:20,319 --> 00:27:23,240 you introduce quantum mechanics as the substrate of the brain. 546 00:27:23,680 --> 00:27:26,400 You suddenly have the physical tools to solve the two 547 00:27:26,519 --> 00:27:30,960 most notoriously intractable problems in neuroscience and philosophy. 548 00:27:30,440 --> 00:27:32,920 Speaker 2: Right, the binding problem and the hard problem of consciousness. 549 00:27:33,039 --> 00:27:35,839 Speaker 1: Let's look at the binding problem first. If I am 550 00:27:35,880 --> 00:27:37,599 sitting in a cafe right now, and I'm looking at 551 00:27:37,599 --> 00:27:41,480 a cup of coffee, my brain is processing the color 552 00:27:41,480 --> 00:27:43,440 of the mug in the visual cortex at the back 553 00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:43,960 of my head. 554 00:27:44,160 --> 00:27:44,359 Speaker 2: Right. 555 00:27:44,799 --> 00:27:47,559 Speaker 1: The smell of the coffee is processed in the olfactory bulb. 556 00:27:48,160 --> 00:27:51,599 The heat of the ceramic is processed in the somatosensory cortex. 557 00:27:51,680 --> 00:27:55,319 Speaker 2: And those are geographically distinct regions of the brain exactly. 558 00:27:55,359 --> 00:27:58,920 Speaker 1: They are physically separated, and they process information at slightly 559 00:27:58,920 --> 00:28:03,720 different speeds. Yet I don't experience a fragmented, laggy sequence 560 00:28:03,799 --> 00:28:06,440 of like a shape and then a color and then 561 00:28:06,480 --> 00:28:07,039 a smell. 562 00:28:07,119 --> 00:28:11,680 Speaker 2: No, you experience a single, unified, instantaneous moment of coffee. 563 00:28:11,839 --> 00:28:15,599 Speaker 1: Right. And classical neuroscience really struggles to explain how these 564 00:28:15,640 --> 00:28:20,279 disparate electrical signals bind together so flawlessly. But quantum mechanics 565 00:28:20,279 --> 00:28:23,119 offers a direct physical mechanism for this, doesn't. 566 00:28:22,880 --> 00:28:24,880 Speaker 2: It, It absolutely does. It offers entanglement. 567 00:28:25,079 --> 00:28:25,559 Speaker 1: Entanglement. 568 00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:28,880 Speaker 2: Yes, when the trip to fan networks within the microtubules 569 00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:31,480 of those distant neurons inter a state of super radiance, 570 00:28:31,960 --> 00:28:34,759 they can become quanmly entangled, and as. 571 00:28:34,559 --> 00:28:38,240 Speaker 1: We know from physics, entangled particles behave as a single 572 00:28:38,400 --> 00:28:41,440 unified system regardless of the physical distance between them. 573 00:28:41,559 --> 00:28:44,440 Speaker 2: Exactly, a change in one part of the entangled state 574 00:28:44,640 --> 00:28:49,480 is instantaneously reflected in the hole. Therefore, the binding problem 575 00:28:49,720 --> 00:28:51,720 simply ceases to be a problem. 576 00:28:51,400 --> 00:28:53,079 Speaker 1: Because it's all one connected system. 577 00:28:53,279 --> 00:28:56,559 Speaker 2: Right. The unity of conscious experience is simply the macro 578 00:28:56,680 --> 00:29:01,480 level manifestation of a massive brain wae it entangled quantum state. 579 00:29:02,400 --> 00:29:06,359 The disparate sensory inputs are literally woven into a single 580 00:29:06,400 --> 00:29:07,799 physical wave function. 581 00:29:07,799 --> 00:29:11,119 Speaker 1: That is so elegant that that brings us to epiphenomenalism, 582 00:29:11,119 --> 00:29:13,119 which is often called the hard problem. 583 00:29:13,160 --> 00:29:14,319 Speaker 2: This is the really tricky one. 584 00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:16,880 Speaker 1: Yeah, why does it feel like anything to be alive? 585 00:29:17,000 --> 00:29:19,799 I mean, if we are just complex classical computers. A 586 00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,599 laptop doesn't feel the warmth of a process or under 587 00:29:22,599 --> 00:29:24,720 a heavy load, It just executes code. 588 00:29:24,559 --> 00:29:26,400 Speaker 2: Right, There's no inner experience in a MacBook. 589 00:29:26,480 --> 00:29:28,680 Speaker 1: So if I am just a biological laptop. Why do 590 00:29:28,759 --> 00:29:31,599 I have a subjective inner world? Now? I want to 591 00:29:31,640 --> 00:29:34,119 push back on the quantum explanation here on behalf of 592 00:29:34,119 --> 00:29:36,400 our listeners, because I think a lot of people might 593 00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:38,000 have the exact same hesitation. 594 00:29:38,200 --> 00:29:39,839 Speaker 2: Well, please do. It's a big leap to make. 595 00:29:40,000 --> 00:29:42,519 Speaker 1: If you tell me that my deepest feelings, my memories 596 00:29:42,559 --> 00:29:46,440 of my childhood, my ability to appreciate a beautiful sunset, 597 00:29:46,599 --> 00:29:49,519 If all that is literally just quantum wave functions collapsing 598 00:29:49,519 --> 00:29:53,440 inside tiny prokin tubes, doesn't that just replace one version 599 00:29:53,480 --> 00:29:57,119 of a biological robot with a smaller, more advanced quantum robot. 600 00:29:57,240 --> 00:29:57,880 Speaker 2: That is the fear. 601 00:29:57,960 --> 00:30:00,400 Speaker 1: Yes, I mean, if it's all just physics, where is 602 00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:03,559 free will? Are you saying my entire sense of self 603 00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:07,039 is just an illusion and we are incredibly advanced fleshtro. 604 00:30:06,960 --> 00:30:11,200 Speaker 2: It is a vital philosophical challenge, But the distinction between 605 00:30:11,240 --> 00:30:15,319 classical and quantum physics actually provides the beautiful answer to this. 606 00:30:15,480 --> 00:30:16,359 Speaker 1: Okay, I'm listening. 607 00:30:16,759 --> 00:30:21,839 Speaker 2: Classical physics is inherently deterministic. If you possess a supercomputer 608 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:25,359 powerful enough to know the exact starting position, the mass, 609 00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:28,359 and the velocity of every single atom in a classical universe. 610 00:30:28,880 --> 00:30:31,880 You can calculate the entire future of that universe with 611 00:30:32,039 --> 00:30:33,160 perfect accuracy. 612 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:36,480 Speaker 1: It's a closed loop of cause and effect, like billiard 613 00:30:36,519 --> 00:30:37,359 balls on a table. 614 00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:41,519 Speaker 2: Exactly. So, if the human brain operates purely on classical physics, 615 00:30:42,039 --> 00:30:46,400 then free will is indeed a mathematically approvable illusion. Every 616 00:30:46,480 --> 00:30:49,039 choice you have ever made was predetermined by the chemical 617 00:30:49,039 --> 00:30:51,799 state of your brain a millisecond prior. 618 00:30:51,640 --> 00:30:54,400 Speaker 1: Which is a pretty bleak outlook honestly, very bleak. 619 00:30:54,880 --> 00:30:59,960 Speaker 2: But quantum mechanics destroys determinism at the foundational quantum level. 620 00:31:00,400 --> 00:31:04,519 Reality is probabilistic. An electron doesn't have a defined position 621 00:31:04,599 --> 00:31:06,759 until it is measured. It exists as a wave of 622 00:31:06,799 --> 00:31:07,920 potential outcomes. 623 00:31:08,079 --> 00:31:11,359 Speaker 1: So by rooting consciousness in the quantum realm, Penrose and 624 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:14,160 hammer Off are actually rescuing the concept of free will 625 00:31:14,319 --> 00:31:16,960 from the deterministic trap of classical chemistry. 626 00:31:17,000 --> 00:31:20,519 Speaker 2: Precisely, in the Orchar model, the objective reduction, which is 627 00:31:20,519 --> 00:31:23,440 the OAR part of the acronym, refers to the precise 628 00:31:23,519 --> 00:31:27,319 moment the quantum superposition collapses into a definitive state. Okay, 629 00:31:27,480 --> 00:31:30,240 and Penrose argues that this collapse is not just random, 630 00:31:30,599 --> 00:31:33,960 nor is it strictly deterministic. He believes it is influenced 631 00:31:33,960 --> 00:31:37,000 by the foundational geometry of space time itself. Wow. This 632 00:31:37,079 --> 00:31:40,039 implies that your subjective awareness is not just some illusion 633 00:31:40,119 --> 00:31:44,000 generated by a biological machine. It is a fundamental feature 634 00:31:44,039 --> 00:31:48,200 of the universe. The inherent uncertainty and probabilistic nature of 635 00:31:48,240 --> 00:31:51,960 the quantum realm provide the exact physical wiggle room required 636 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:53,039 for genuine agency. 637 00:31:53,160 --> 00:31:56,960 Speaker 1: So your brain is basically a specialized quantum antenna structured 638 00:31:56,960 --> 00:32:00,920 to interface with the deepest layers of reality, appsing infinite 639 00:32:01,000 --> 00:32:03,680 possibilities into a single experienced reality. 640 00:32:03,799 --> 00:32:08,160 Speaker 2: Exactly, it leaves room for the subjective, irreducible nature of awareness. 641 00:32:08,839 --> 00:32:11,880 Your inner experience is tied to the deepest level of 642 00:32:11,880 --> 00:32:13,599 physical reality, which. 643 00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:16,759 Speaker 1: Means we are standing at the absolute boundary here between 644 00:32:16,799 --> 00:32:21,720 hard physics, evolutionary biology, and the deepest philosophical questions of existence. 645 00:32:21,799 --> 00:32:24,720 Speaker 2: We really are. It's an impartial philosophical crossroads. 646 00:32:24,279 --> 00:32:28,000 Speaker 1: As collision forces us to confront a massive, unavoidable question. 647 00:32:28,480 --> 00:32:31,160 We have established that the architecture for room temperature quantum 648 00:32:31,200 --> 00:32:33,480 computing is exquisitely complex. 649 00:32:33,559 --> 00:32:39,240 Speaker 2: Oh undeniably, it requires perfectly spaced nanimeter lattices, specific hydrophobic shielding, 650 00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:43,160 resonant frequency tuning. It's an engineering nightmare, right. 651 00:32:43,279 --> 00:32:47,440 Speaker 1: And biology solved this engineering nightmare billions of years before 652 00:32:47,519 --> 00:32:50,799 humans existed. But how did biology solve it? Where did 653 00:32:50,799 --> 00:32:54,200 the blueprint for this quantum architecture actually come from? 654 00:32:54,799 --> 00:32:58,759 Speaker 2: So the source material we are analyzing today presents two distinct, 655 00:32:59,160 --> 00:33:03,319 heavily debated frameworks for the origin of this biological quantum architecture. 656 00:33:03,359 --> 00:33:05,200 Speaker 1: And it is crucial that we examine both of these 657 00:33:05,319 --> 00:33:10,039 viewpoints with deep intellectual rigor and total impartiality, because this 658 00:33:10,119 --> 00:33:14,000 discovery is forcing scientists and thinkers alike to revisit the 659 00:33:14,039 --> 00:33:16,359 most foundational questions of origins. 660 00:33:16,759 --> 00:33:20,440 Speaker 2: Exactly, So, the first perspective is anchored in the immense 661 00:33:20,559 --> 00:33:23,920 optimizing power of deep time and undirected natural selection. 662 00:33:24,079 --> 00:33:26,839 Speaker 1: Let's expand on that evolutionary framework. First four and a 663 00:33:26,880 --> 00:33:29,359 half billion years is a stretch of time so vast 664 00:33:29,440 --> 00:33:31,799 that the human brain cannot intuitively grasp it. 665 00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:34,039 Speaker 2: Right, We just don't have the mental hardware to understand 666 00:33:34,079 --> 00:33:34,839 of billion years. 667 00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:37,720 Speaker 1: In this view, you don't really need a blueprint at all. 668 00:33:37,759 --> 00:33:41,160 You just need random mutation and a brutal, unyielding filter 669 00:33:41,319 --> 00:33:42,039 for survival. 670 00:33:42,319 --> 00:33:46,599 Speaker 2: Exactly, this perspective relies on the concept of a fitness landscape. 671 00:33:46,839 --> 00:33:49,720 So over billions of years, life has been subjected to 672 00:33:49,799 --> 00:33:55,000 an astronomical number of genetic mutations across an entire planetary scale. 673 00:33:55,200 --> 00:33:59,720 Organisms are essentially running a relentless parallel search algorithm for 674 00:33:59,720 --> 00:34:04,400 serve vible efficiency in a resource scarce environment. Any mucation 675 00:34:04,480 --> 00:34:07,839 that allows a cell to process information faster or utilize 676 00:34:07,920 --> 00:34:11,440 energy more efficiently confers a massive survival advantage. 677 00:34:11,599 --> 00:34:13,800 Speaker 1: So the argument here is that since the laws of 678 00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:17,159 quantum mechanics are the fundamental laws of the universe, it 679 00:34:17,239 --> 00:34:21,679 is a mathematical inevitability that blind, undirected evolution would eventually 680 00:34:21,719 --> 00:34:24,760 stumble upon the most efficient physical processes available. 681 00:34:24,880 --> 00:34:27,920 Speaker 2: Right, evolution didn't know it was building a quantum computer. 682 00:34:27,960 --> 00:34:31,239 It didn't have a goal. It simply blindly refined the 683 00:34:31,280 --> 00:34:35,519 geometry of proteins generation after generation until they inadvertently formed 684 00:34:35,599 --> 00:34:37,920 charity cages that shielded quantum states. 685 00:34:38,079 --> 00:34:41,800 Speaker 1: Because organisms with those proteins process stimuli faster and survive 686 00:34:41,880 --> 00:34:45,400 to reproduce the sheer scale of deep time basically guarantees 687 00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:46,719 the optimization of matter. 688 00:34:47,039 --> 00:34:50,519 Speaker 2: Yes, so in this view, the majestic complexity of a 689 00:34:50,599 --> 00:34:55,079 quantum shielding microtubule is simply the ultimate testament to the 690 00:34:55,159 --> 00:34:59,079 relentless algorithmic power of blind natural selection. 691 00:34:59,239 --> 00:35:02,559 Speaker 1: It is blind nature optimizing itself to the absolute physical 692 00:35:02,559 --> 00:35:03,639 limits of the universe. 693 00:35:04,320 --> 00:35:07,880 Speaker 2: Okay, so what is the counter perspective presented in the sources? Because, 694 00:35:07,920 --> 00:35:10,360 as you mentioned, there are physicists and thinkers who look 695 00:35:10,400 --> 00:35:13,159 at the exact same data and arrive at a radically 696 00:35:13,199 --> 00:35:14,880 different conclusion. Right. 697 00:35:15,079 --> 00:35:19,079 Speaker 1: The second perspective focuses heavily on the sheer mathematical improbability 698 00:35:19,400 --> 00:35:23,119 and the extreme foundational requirements of top down quantum architecture. 699 00:35:23,239 --> 00:35:25,079 Speaker 2: The irreducible complexity argument. 700 00:35:25,239 --> 00:35:29,039 Speaker 1: Yes, this view argues that the necessary conditions for molecular 701 00:35:29,079 --> 00:35:32,039 shielding and super radiance are just too complex to have 702 00:35:32,079 --> 00:35:34,519 arisen from gradual random mutations. 703 00:35:34,760 --> 00:35:37,639 Speaker 2: Because if a protein fold must be geometrically perfect to 704 00:35:37,679 --> 00:35:41,920 shield equibit, a partially folded protein offers no quantum survival 705 00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:43,960 advantage at all. Right, it just fails to hold the 706 00:35:44,039 --> 00:35:45,360 quantum state exactly. 707 00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:48,559 Speaker 1: It's either a functional Faraday cage or it isn't. Therefore, 708 00:35:48,599 --> 00:35:51,800 the incremental steps of evolutions struggle to explain that sudden 709 00:35:51,880 --> 00:35:55,199 leap to quantum coherence. So from this perspective. The fact 710 00:35:55,199 --> 00:36:00,239 that ordinary biomolecules possess this hidden, mathematically pristine quantum geometry 711 00:36:00,679 --> 00:36:03,320 implies an underlying embedded intelligence. 712 00:36:03,440 --> 00:36:06,840 Speaker 2: Yes, the source material notes that some thinkers view this 713 00:36:06,960 --> 00:36:10,960 architecture not as the result of blind physical laws, but 714 00:36:11,039 --> 00:36:14,679 as the deliberate signature of a creator, a designer who 715 00:36:14,840 --> 00:36:19,199 architected matter and embedded this immense computational capacity into the 716 00:36:19,239 --> 00:36:21,679 fundamental fabric of reality from the very beginning. 717 00:36:21,960 --> 00:36:24,280 Speaker 1: And it is our job today not to declare a 718 00:36:24,320 --> 00:36:27,920 winner in that specific debate, but to emphasize how profoundly 719 00:36:27,960 --> 00:36:29,719 important it is that we are even having it. 720 00:36:29,880 --> 00:36:32,480 Speaker 2: Absolutely the data demands that we ask these questions. 721 00:36:32,639 --> 00:36:35,840 Speaker 1: Whether you view the quantum computing architecture of your cells 722 00:36:35,880 --> 00:36:39,199 as the breathtaking blind triumph of evolution over deep time 723 00:36:39,679 --> 00:36:42,880 or the deliberate embedded design of a creator, the physical 724 00:36:42,880 --> 00:36:45,519 reality inside your body remains exactly the same. 725 00:36:45,639 --> 00:36:48,440 Speaker 2: It is a system that utterly defies our previous limits 726 00:36:48,440 --> 00:36:49,079 of imagination. 727 00:36:49,320 --> 00:36:52,079 Speaker 1: It really does, and it echoes the profound intuition of 728 00:36:52,199 --> 00:36:53,039 Urban Schrodinger. 729 00:36:53,119 --> 00:36:54,920 Speaker 2: Oh, yes, the nineteen forty four book. 730 00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,639 Speaker 1: Right in nineteen forty four, before we even understood the 731 00:36:58,719 --> 00:37:02,639 double helix structure, of DNA. Schrodinger wrote a book called 732 00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:06,400 What Is Life? And he argued that classical thermodynamics and 733 00:37:06,480 --> 00:37:09,960 chemistry were totally insufficient to explain the staggering order and 734 00:37:10,039 --> 00:37:11,480 behavior of living things. 735 00:37:11,559 --> 00:37:13,280 Speaker 2: He was so far ahead of his time. 736 00:37:13,119 --> 00:37:16,519 Speaker 1: He boldly predicted that to truly understand biology, we would 737 00:37:16,519 --> 00:37:19,360 have to discover new laws of physics operating within the 738 00:37:19,400 --> 00:37:19,960 living cell. 739 00:37:20,159 --> 00:37:24,159 Speaker 2: Schrodinger's intuition was unparalleled. He couldn't have known the specific 740 00:37:24,199 --> 00:37:27,280 mechanics of trip to fan and super radiants, or microtubule 741 00:37:27,320 --> 00:37:30,960 phase shielding, obviously, but he recognized that the stability of 742 00:37:31,000 --> 00:37:34,280 life required a foundation deeper than classical mechanics. 743 00:37:34,440 --> 00:37:37,599 Speaker 1: And eighty years later, the hard data has finally caught 744 00:37:37,679 --> 00:37:38,639 up with his intuition. 745 00:37:38,960 --> 00:37:42,760 Speaker 2: We're realizing that life is not merely a wet chemical machine. 746 00:37:43,159 --> 00:37:46,400 It is an active, structural, computational quantum system. 747 00:37:46,639 --> 00:37:50,400 Speaker 1: And this realization transitions us from philosophical debate to immediate 748 00:37:50,480 --> 00:37:53,159 practical implications for the future. I mean, this is where 749 00:37:53,159 --> 00:37:54,280 the theory hits the road. 750 00:37:54,480 --> 00:37:56,239 Speaker 2: Right, The next five years are going to be wild. 751 00:37:56,440 --> 00:38:00,800 Speaker 1: The boundary between quantum physics and biology isn't just blurring anymore. 752 00:38:01,039 --> 00:38:04,679 It has completely dissolved. If we are moving from passively 753 00:38:04,719 --> 00:38:08,800 observing nature to actively speaking its quantum language, how does 754 00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:11,400 that rewrite medicine and technology in the near term. 755 00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:14,519 Speaker 2: Well, the applications are going to be revolutionary. We are 756 00:38:14,599 --> 00:38:17,800 discussed bag to the biological quantum sensor. 757 00:38:17,559 --> 00:38:19,519 Speaker 1: Right right, the oat plant magnetometer. 758 00:38:19,719 --> 00:38:22,480 Speaker 2: So expand that concept. We are looking at the development 759 00:38:22,519 --> 00:38:25,920 of quantum biosensors that can be integrated directly into the 760 00:38:25,960 --> 00:38:29,719 human body. These sensors could monitor the quantum coherence of 761 00:38:29,760 --> 00:38:31,920 your cellular networks in real time. 762 00:38:32,159 --> 00:38:34,519 Speaker 1: Wait, monitor the coherence? Why is that important? 763 00:38:34,719 --> 00:38:39,199 Speaker 2: Because disease, whether it is an autoimmune disorder, Alzheimer's or cancer, 764 00:38:39,719 --> 00:38:43,119 often begins as a breakdown in cellular communication and metabolic 765 00:38:43,159 --> 00:38:45,000 efficiency at the most basic level. 766 00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:48,159 Speaker 1: Oh, I see, So these sensors could detect the decoherence 767 00:38:48,199 --> 00:38:52,000 of disease cells long before any physical or chemical symptoms 768 00:38:52,039 --> 00:38:52,920 actually manifest. 769 00:38:53,079 --> 00:38:56,480 Speaker 2: Exactly, we are talking about detecting illness at the absolute 770 00:38:56,480 --> 00:38:59,639 foundational layer of physical reality before it even becomes a 771 00:38:59,679 --> 00:39:00,760 chemical problem. 772 00:39:00,800 --> 00:39:03,039 Speaker 1: That is incredible, and I imagine treating it at that 773 00:39:03,119 --> 00:39:04,000 same layer. Two. 774 00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:08,480 Speaker 2: Yes, if we map the quantum resonant frequencies of these proteins. 775 00:39:08,920 --> 00:39:14,760 We're looking at the dawn of engineered quantum pharmacology quantum drugs. Basically, Yeah, 776 00:39:15,159 --> 00:39:18,480 instead of designing drug molecules based merely on their physical 777 00:39:18,519 --> 00:39:22,760 shape to block a chemical receptor, we could design pharmaceuticals 778 00:39:23,119 --> 00:39:24,480 using quantum principles. 779 00:39:24,559 --> 00:39:25,800 Speaker 1: How would that even work? 780 00:39:25,960 --> 00:39:30,239 Speaker 2: We could create molecules that emit specific resonant frequencies to 781 00:39:30,320 --> 00:39:35,000 re establish quantum coherence in failing cellular networks. This could 782 00:39:35,039 --> 00:39:38,800 potentially lead to treatments that are exponentially more effective, acting 783 00:39:38,880 --> 00:39:42,119 instantaneously with zero chemical side effects. 784 00:39:41,760 --> 00:39:44,599 Speaker 1: Because you aren't flooding the body with harsh chemicals. You're 785 00:39:44,639 --> 00:39:47,159 just retuning the quantum state of the cells. 786 00:39:47,280 --> 00:39:50,719 Speaker 2: You're just fixing the phase alignment. Yeah. Furthermore, it fundamentally 787 00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:53,480 rewrites the future of brain computer interfaces. 788 00:39:53,519 --> 00:39:56,280 Speaker 1: Oh, this is huge. Like the neural laced technologies people 789 00:39:56,280 --> 00:39:56,960 are working on. 790 00:39:57,000 --> 00:39:59,960 Speaker 2: Right currently, technology is trying to link the human brain 791 00:40:00,079 --> 00:40:04,199 to computers are relying on detecting macro level electrical impulses 792 00:40:04,679 --> 00:40:06,840 the classical firing of neurons. 793 00:40:06,559 --> 00:40:10,320 Speaker 1: Which, if Orchre is correct, is just the exhaust fumes 794 00:40:10,320 --> 00:40:12,760 of the actual computation exactly. 795 00:40:12,800 --> 00:40:15,360 Speaker 2: It is like trying to understand a complex symphony by 796 00:40:15,400 --> 00:40:18,559 measuring the vibrations of the concert hall walls. But if 797 00:40:18,599 --> 00:40:21,599 consciousness and neural processing are actually happening at the quantum 798 00:40:21,679 --> 00:40:24,039 level inside the microtubules. 799 00:40:23,280 --> 00:40:26,239 Speaker 1: Then future interfaces won't measure electricity at all. 800 00:40:26,440 --> 00:40:29,440 Speaker 2: No, there will be designed to entangle directly with the 801 00:40:29,480 --> 00:40:33,119 biological quibots in your brain. We are stepping into an 802 00:40:33,159 --> 00:40:36,519 era where we can interface seamlessly with the structural source 803 00:40:36,559 --> 00:40:37,239 code of the mind. 804 00:40:37,480 --> 00:40:40,480 Speaker 1: That is both incredibly exciting and slightly terrifying. 805 00:40:40,559 --> 00:40:42,679 Speaker 2: It definitely raises a lot of ethical questions, but the 806 00:40:42,719 --> 00:40:44,920 technological capability is on the horizon. 807 00:40:45,079 --> 00:40:48,239 Speaker 1: Well. We have covered an immense expanse of territory today. 808 00:40:48,320 --> 00:40:51,440 Speaker 2: We really have from absolute zero to the human brain. 809 00:40:51,519 --> 00:40:54,760 Speaker 1: We started by looking at the frozen brute force engineering 810 00:40:54,840 --> 00:40:58,159 of human quantum computers, and then we journey down into 811 00:40:58,159 --> 00:41:02,320 the microscopic architecture of the biological cell, revealing how protein 812 00:41:02,360 --> 00:41:06,960 folding creates these dynamic resonant shields to protect delicate quantum 813 00:41:06,960 --> 00:41:11,159 states from thermal chaos. We explored how the geometric arrangement 814 00:41:11,159 --> 00:41:16,159 of tryptofan molecules creates super radiant networks processing information at 815 00:41:16,360 --> 00:41:18,639 trillions of operations per second. 816 00:41:18,360 --> 00:41:21,800 Speaker 2: Pushing life to the absolute margulous levit and speed limit 817 00:41:21,840 --> 00:41:22,480 of the universe. 818 00:41:22,559 --> 00:41:26,719 Speaker 1: We explored the cosmological scale of this computation over Earth's history, 819 00:41:27,000 --> 00:41:30,559 and we delved into the profound possibility that this exact 820 00:41:30,679 --> 00:41:34,760 quantum architecture is the literal physical root of your conscious mind. 821 00:41:35,239 --> 00:41:38,760 Rescuing human agency from classical determinism is. 822 00:41:38,719 --> 00:41:44,280 Speaker 2: The ultimate realization that the biological organism is the most robust, sophisticated, 823 00:41:44,719 --> 00:41:48,480 and cosmically significant quantum computing system we have ever. 824 00:41:48,280 --> 00:41:50,679 Speaker 1: Discovered, and it has been operating perfectly inside of you 825 00:41:50,760 --> 00:41:53,199 since the moment you were born, which brings us to 826 00:41:53,199 --> 00:41:56,039 a final thought, an implication we haven't even touched on yet. 827 00:41:56,199 --> 00:41:58,880 If your brain is a quantum computer running on the 828 00:41:59,000 --> 00:42:02,440 entanglement of trillions of super radiant molecules, and the oak 829 00:42:02,480 --> 00:42:05,960 tree outside your window is also running massive quantum computations 830 00:42:06,000 --> 00:42:09,079 in its cellular structure, what happens when we zoom out? 831 00:42:09,360 --> 00:42:13,840 We know that quantum entanglement doesn't respect physical boundaries. If 832 00:42:13,920 --> 00:42:18,559 biological systems are fundamentally quantum systems, is it possible that 833 00:42:18,719 --> 00:42:20,840 entanglement exists between organisms? 834 00:42:21,079 --> 00:42:24,039 Speaker 2: Oh, macro entanglement That is a wild thought. 835 00:42:24,159 --> 00:42:29,119 Speaker 1: Could the flocking of birds, the synchronized massive mycelial networks 836 00:42:29,159 --> 00:42:32,320 beneath the forest floor, or even the intuitive connections between 837 00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:37,119 human beings be macro level expressions of biological quantum entanglement. 838 00:42:37,480 --> 00:42:40,719 Are we just isolated quantum computers or is the entire 839 00:42:40,760 --> 00:42:46,280 biosphere functioning as one heavily entangled planetary scale quantum network. 840 00:42:46,079 --> 00:42:48,519 Speaker 2: That changes everything about how we view ecology. 841 00:42:48,599 --> 00:42:50,400 Speaker 1: It does, and that is the question we want to 842 00:42:50,480 --> 00:42:53,599 leave you with today. If life on Earth is a continuous, 843 00:42:53,719 --> 00:42:57,199 interconnected quantum wave function, how does that change your understanding 844 00:42:57,239 --> 00:42:59,400 of your relationship to the natural world and the people 845 00:42:59,440 --> 00:43:01,440 around you. Does it change what it means to be 846 00:43:01,440 --> 00:43:02,440 an individual for you? 847 00:43:02,679 --> 00:43:03,960 Speaker 2: It's definitely something to ponder. 848 00:43:04,320 --> 00:43:06,760 Speaker 1: We want to know where you stand on this. Dive 849 00:43:06,800 --> 00:43:09,920 into the implications and leave a comment below with your thoughts. 850 00:43:10,480 --> 00:43:12,840 Thank you so much for joining us on thrilling Threads. 851 00:43:13,119 --> 00:43:16,639 Remember to keep questioning, stay intensely curious, and the next 852 00:43:16,639 --> 00:43:19,079 time you look at a simple plant, or simply look 853 00:43:19,159 --> 00:43:22,639 down at your own hands, remember the staggering truth you 854 00:43:22,760 --> 00:43:26,559 are looking at the most advanced universe spanning technology ever discovered. 855 00:43:26,559 --> 00:43:27,360 We'll see you next time.