"Well, the brain is the organ that manifests consciousness, at least our consciousness, and, you know, it depends on who you ask. If you ask most scientists, neuroscientists, psychologists, and philosophers, they would share the conventional wisdom that the brain is a computer of a hundred billion neurons acting like switches or bits in a silicon computer—without much significant difference—and that because of the setup, when it reaches a critical level of computation or complexity or some kind of magic threshold, consciousness emerges.
I don’t think that is the case at all. I think consciousness is actually fundamental and intrinsic to the universe, that it’s built into the universe. We need our brain to build this complex picture of consciousness—conscious images, conscious thought, and so forth—but the raw precursors of consciousness, the components of consciousness, are what philosophers call qualia. I think they are inherent in the universe, much like mass, spin, and charge are fundamental, irreducible components. Quantum processes in the brain connect our brain to these fundamental processes intrinsic to the universe."
Clicker here http://www.noetic.org/noetic/issue-thirteen-august/what-is-consciousness-hameroff/ to read the full article.
Hameroff is a (if not THE) foremost leader in the study of consiousness. A wonderful opportunity to hear one of his lectures will be presenting itself in April of 2012 at the "Toward a Science of Consciousness" conference which is being held STATESIDE this year.
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