Shadows of the Mind
Shadows of the mind: Towards a New Science of Consciousness (OT: Shadows of the Mind: A Search for the Missing Science of Consciousness ) is a 1994 book published in the mathematical physicist Roger Penrose and serves as the successor to his published 1989 book The Emperor's New Mind: Concerning Computers, Minds and The Laws of Physics. The German translation of Anita Ehlers appeared in 1995.
Penrose asserted therein:
- The human consciousness is not algorithmically representable, and therefore not by a Turing machine, let alone by a real digital computer.
- Quantum mechanics would play an important role in human consciousness. Specifically, he assumes microtubules within neurons could play a superposition.
The Gödel incompleteness theorem would argue that there are certain statements in formal systems whose consistency can recognize mathematician unzweifelbar correct, but which can not be formally proved to be consistent. As the author of the book holds that sentence to be true, he concludes that people - as well as mathematicians are what - a consciousness would have, which can not be simulated by machines.