Transparallel mind: Classical computing with quantum power
This work addresses the challenge of understanding neuronal synchronization and consciousness in cognitive science, offering an alternative to quantum-based hypotheses, though it is incremental in building on existing neural models.
The paper tackles the problem of explaining the high combinatorial capacity and speed of human visual perceptual organization by proposing a classical computing method using hyperstrings, which allows a single-processor computer to evaluate exponential numbers of strings simultaneously, as if only one string were involved.
Inspired by the extraordinary computing power promised by quantum computers, the quantum mind hypothesis postulated that quantum mechanical phenomena are the source of neuronal synchronization, which, in turn, might underlie consciousness. Here, I present an alternative inspired by a classical computing method with quantum power. This method relies on special distributed representations called hyperstrings. Hyperstrings are superpositions of up to an exponential number of strings, which -- by a single-processor classical computer -- can be evaluated in a transparallel fashion, that is, simultaneously as if only one string were concerned. Building on a neurally plausible model of human visual perceptual organization, in which hyperstrings are formal counterparts of transient neural assemblies, I postulate that synchronization in such assemblies is a manifestation of transparallel information processing. This accounts for the high combinatorial capacity and speed of human visual perceptual organization and strengthens ideas that self-organizing cognitive architecture bridges the gap between neurons and consciousness.