WEBVTT

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Hello, everybody.

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It's great to be here.
Thank you very much.

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I'm going to talk about
how quantum biology can save the world

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and the threats to the world -
in the immediate future,

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not worrying about
the Omega Point like Frank

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but in the next 100 to 1,000 years -

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overcrowding, hatred, wars, terrorism -
all basically due to overpopulation -

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disease, lack of food and energy,
pollution and warming,

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lack of purpose and meaning -

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kind of an existential crisis:
who are we and why are we here?

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The world under threat
appears to be divided into two realms

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described by two different sets
of physical laws.

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The quantum - which is cut off
a little bit, oh no, it's not -

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which is immaterial,
coexisting possibilities,

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non-local, unified, connected,

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has some ultimate truth -
although we don't know what it is yet -

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deeper levels of reality,

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and in many senses: spirit-like.

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The classical world,

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the billiard-ball universe
that we live in right now -

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appear to, entirely, but not so -

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is material, Newtonian, definite,
macroscopic, local, predictable,

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disconnected, postmodern,
and somewhat boring, actually.

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(Laughter)

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Now, what is life?

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If you approach life
from classical physics,

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you see that biology
is a set of self-organizing functions.

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There's no secret to life.

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Brain activities
are equivalent to computers.

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Consciousness is epiphenomenal illusion
with no causal power.

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That's the party line
in standard neuroscience and philosophy.

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Accordingly, Thomas Huxley said years ago,

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"We're merely conscious automata,
helpless spectators," like Pac-Man.

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That's the story we get

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from classical physics'
approach to the brain.

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Now, applying quantum physics to biology,

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first by Erwin Schrödinger,
who came up with Schrödinger's equation,

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Schrödinger's cat,
Schrödinger's book "What Is Life?" -

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where he suggested that quantum effects
play key roles in living systems -

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and Schrödinger's protein,
which was proven in 2007,

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showing that protein
can be in quantum superposition

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of two or more different states
at the same time.

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He suggested, and many of us
have followed to suggest,

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that quantum features,
non-local entanglement,

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superposition, unity,

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quantum coherence, quantum information,
a kind of quantum vitalism,

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may play key roles
in biological functions,

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such as cell division, mitosis,

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how the centrioles guide
the chromosomes' separations,

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which has to be perfect
or else can lead to cancer.

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Healing - maybe have some kind of
non-local component.

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And also, consciousness.

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As Walters mentioned,

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Roger Penrose and I have developed
a theory of consciousness called Orch OR -

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I don't have time to go into it now.

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It basically proposes quantum computation

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in brain neuron microtubules
inside neurons.

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So rather than
neuron-to-neuron communication,

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we're looking at a deeper
level inside neurons

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to give a global sense of consciousness
through quantum mechanics,

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which results in real-time causality

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and free will.

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We avoid the problem of epiphenomenal;

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it gives consciousness real-time control

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and a potential connection
to fundamental space-time geometry,

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quantum space-time geometry,
through Roger's objective reduction.

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This is consistent
with Eastern spiritual traditions.

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Although Roger doesn't like
to talk about it,

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I've taken the liberty of observing
the implications of what he said

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and what we've said for consciousness,

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for Eastern philosophy
and other spiritual traditions.

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But the skeptics said, "Living systems
are too warm, wet and noisy.

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Quantum coherence
is destroyed by decoherence."

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Decoherence.

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But in the last five years,

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multiple lines of evidence
starting with photosynthesis

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have shown that quantum coherence occurs
in warm biological systems, routinely.

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The plants, the food we eat,
all depend on quantum coherence.

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Plants absorbing photons,
converting to chemical energy,

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utilizing quantum coherence.

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Also, recently, honored Bandyopadhyay

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at the National Institute
of Material Sciences in Japan

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has shown that there
is megahertz coherence,

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quantum conductance,
and topological qubits

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in microtubules at room temperature.

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Very exciting work.

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Quantum biology papers, conferences
are popping up like flowers in the spring.

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Sessions at the American Physical Society,

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recently at Google - the Google Workshop
on Quantum Biology, and elsewhere.

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How is this going to save the world?

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Let's go back to our threats to the world
and consider the first one:

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overcrowding, hatred, wars and terrorism.

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That's a tough one.
We'll save that for last.

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We'll come back to that.

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Okay, disease. Jeff mentioned
a little bit about this.

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But if life is a quantum system,

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we can ask, "How is quantum coherence
optimized in a healthy state?"

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We have a different endpoint to shoot for.

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We can consider disease as decoherence,

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disease as a process that tends
to destroy quantum coherence,

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which is the optimal form
of living systems.

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Also, a real-time molecular code
for memory, cognition, and consciousness

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can be co-opted for therapy.

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So, in the microtubules that I mentioned

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there's an information code that tells
motor proteins where to deliver proteins,

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precursors for synapses, tile proteins.

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And when this goes bad,
we have Alzheimer's disease.

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A molecule called CaMKII
seems to take synaptic information

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and deposit it in microtubules
in a memory code.

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I think this is going to be the equivalent
in real-time coding of the DNA code

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that was discovered by Watson and Crick.

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When we can take advantage of it,
we'll be able to treat diseases

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by interfacing and connecting
to the real-time molecular code

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inside the cells.

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Okay, the next question:
how can quantum biology save the world?

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Lack of food and energy.

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Highly efficient quantum conductance
converting sunlight to chemical energy

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used in photosynthesis,
which has been proven,

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should be able
to be emulated in substances

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like graphenes and fullerenes

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to revolutionize molecular 
agriculture and solar power.

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Mohan Sarovar, UC Berkeley,
is working in this direction;

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he's one of the people
working in photosynthesis.

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Okay, pollution and warming.

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The same answer:

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extremely efficient, clean solar energy
with quantum conductance

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can potentially help us a lot
in terms of pollution and warming.

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OK, what about lack
of purpose and meaning?

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Who are we and why are we here?

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Well, if quantum consciousness is correct,

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for example, if Penrose's idea is correct,

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we are literally ripples

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in the fine structure
of space-time geometry,

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which can resonate -

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levels of consciousness can resonate
from the Planck scale,

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the bottom level of the Universe,
multiple hierarchical levels to the brain.

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This is consistent
with Eastern philosophy

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and also indicates that afterlife,
reincarnation, and out-of-body experiences

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that we've heard about are plausible.

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The quantum soul.

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This may be scientifically feasible.

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Here's a picture
of an out-of-body experience.

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I work in medicine, in anesthesiology;
we hear stories about this all the time.

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Statistical examinations
of people having cardiac arrest

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show it's a real effect,

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and the near-death experience


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is something that really
needs to be studied.

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Okay, let's go to the tough one:
overcrowding, hatred, wars, and terrorism.

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I would suggest these are caused largely
by internal drives for conscious feelings:

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sexual pleasure, fear, anger, salvation.

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It's a bit simplified,

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but what if conscious quantum coherence
in the brain could be optimally tuned?

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For example, by ultrasound
at resonant frequencies

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for brain microtubules.

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What if, instead of needing
to have aggression or sexual attitudes,

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that somebody could have pleasure
without going to all the trouble?

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For example, a recent -

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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Thank you.

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A recent approach is using
transcranial ultrasound

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which vibrates microtubules
at resonant frequencies.

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Jamie Tyler, Arizona State University,
just got a big grant from the military

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to study ultrasound brain machine
interfaces for military applications

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with the promise for many application
in medicine and psychiatry.

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We at the University of Arizona
are applying this

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to chronic pain and memory
and some other problems.

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I would mention
that many of these issues -

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the near-death
and out-of-body experiences,

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the backward time effects that can rescue
consciousness from epiphenomenalism,

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and transcranial therapies:

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transcranial magnetic,
transcranial electrical,

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and transcranial ultrasound therapies -

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will be discussed at this conference
in Stockholm next May,

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Toward a Science of Consciousness.

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Roger Penrose and Deepak Chopra
on the same program.

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Another possibility
for this last problem is:

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What if consciousness could be uploaded

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or quantum teleported
even to artificial media,

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made of graphene, fullerene,
or microtubule arrays?

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With near infinite possibilities

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for enhanced, enlightened states
of consciousness and pleasure.

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This could be - and it would have to be
to be able to work -

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to be better than sex.

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Now, is that possible?

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Well, this kind of goes back
to an idea of Descartes,

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who said, "Perhaps, as far as we know,
we are merely a brain in a vat,

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fed information by an evil genius."

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For example, this brain who thinks
he or she is walking outside in the sun.

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So maybe in the future
we'll have some kind of graphene arrays

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with some kind of conscious experience -

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maybe something like this,
maybe you can come up with own;

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it's just a suggestion -

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where perhaps, when our bodies give out,

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we can upload or download
our consciousness

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to some alternative medium

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and exist independently

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or just do it for fun.

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So, to conclude
I want to say that I believe

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that quantum biology
is literally the secret of life,

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and its understanding may save the world.

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Thank you very much.

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(Applause)