Reply to seven commentaries on “Consciousness in the universe: Review of the ‘Orch OR’ theory”

Stuart Hameroff and Roger Penrose (‘H&P’) Orch OR doesn’t divorce life from consciousness, but marries them within non-polar ‘quantum channels’ inside microtubule cylindrical walls. Although life is commonly equated with some of its properties, e.g. metabolism, reproduction, adaptation and evolution, these phenomena also occur in inanimate complex systems. They do not define life. In living cells, metabolism occurs in polar, aqueous environments from which non-polar, water-excluding ‘quantum channels’ are isolated [8]. Biological metabolism is no different than inanimate chemical activity ubiquitous in nature. While metabolism, reproduction, adaptation and evolution may be necessary for life and consciousness, they are not sufficient. As suggested by Schrodinger [11], life, as we know it, depends essentially on quantum processes, e.g. originating in non-polar quantum channels. In Orch OR, consciousness is a particular manifestation of life’s quantum activity in these channels, involving ‘orchestrated’ quantum coherent superpositions that persist sufficiently to reach the physical threshold for ‘objective reduction’.