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Roger Penrose Sir Roger Penrose, OM, FRS is an English mathematical physicist and Emeritus Rouse Ball Professor of Mathematics at the University of Oxford. He is highly regarded for his work in mathematical physics, in particular his contributions to general relativity and cosmology. He has written controversial books on the connection between fundamental physics and human consciousness. In The Emperor's New Mind (1989), he argued that known laws of physics do not constitute a complete system and that human consciousness cannot be explained until a new physical theory (what he terms correct quantum gravity, CQG) has been devised. He argued against the strong AI viewpoint that the rational processes of the human mind are completely algorithmic and can thus be duplicated by a sufficiently complex computer. In 1994, Penrose followed up The Emperor's New Mind with Shadows of the Mind and in 1997 with The Large, the Small and the Human Mind, further updating and explaining his controversial theories. His latest book, called The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe, may be the most complete mathematical explanation of the universe yet published.
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Roger Penrose Quotes Intelligence cannot be present without understanding. No computer has any awareness of what it does. I like science fiction movies; I think they are useful for giving us ideas. I'm pretty tenacious when it comes to problems. My own way of thinking is to ponder long and I hope deeply on problems...which I keep away for years...and I never really let them go. I think that the issue of how consciousness relates to the physical world is all tied up with morality, but we have a lot to learn on that one. The basic idea in [my] twistor theory is not to add extra dimensions. As for morality, well that's all tied up with the question of consciousness. Consciousness is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known. The universe is made of stories, not atoms. Consciousness is a phenomenon that is part of the physical world, although some people don't like to think of it as physical at all. I think it manifestly has something to do with brains, and brains are physical objects. So, it's a feature of the physical world, but it's hard to see how this phenomenon can have anything to do with the kind of physics we understand. That is a strong feeling for me, quite apart from the non-computability issue. The physics that we understand at the moment is simply not rich enough to incorporate the phenomenon of consciousness. I think one can make a comparative statement here: that classical physics seems to have no room for this kind of phenomenon, whereas quantum mechanics has enough mystery, if I can use that word, for this something-else. The word mystical would be wrong. I prefer to use mystery. You see mystery in mathematics, things which are perfectly clear and non-mystical, but there is a strong element of mystery about them. I must say I believe that we need something of that character in order to have any hope of coming to terms with the phenomenon of consciousness. And the only major place I can see for this interesting in is the borderline between classical and quantum physics.
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