Robert Warden, an American scientist, offers a unique perspective on the nature of consciousness, asserting that it is not a result of neural activity but rather a holographic field arising in the thalamus, located deep within the brain. This means that the mind can be represented as a structured wave resonance, rather than merely the activity of neurons.
One of the key issues in contemporary computational theories is the "decoding problem": if neural impulses represent a code, then where is the key to decipher it? Warden points out that other neurons cannot perform this function, as their activity is also a code. He refers to this as an "insurmountable barrier" for computational functionalism.
As an alternative explanation, Warden presents the "projective wave theory." It suggests that the brain creates an analog model of three-dimensional space, similar to how a camera lens forms an image that contains spatial information without the need for decoding. This model of the world exists as wave excitation in the thalamus and stores information in the form of a Fourier transform.
The thalamus, as a central hub for processing sensory and motor signals, has dense connections with all parts of the brain. Its anatomy, consisting of nuclei grouped into an almost spherical shape, has long remained a mystery for researchers. Warden argues that this shape is ideally suited for holding a wave: "The wave gives meaning to the anatomy of the thalamus."
According to the proposed theory, this wave is consciousness itself—the source of our perception of the spatial world. Neural activity, in Warden's view, is not a direct consequence of consciousness but merely supports this holographic field. This explains the accuracy of our spatial experience and the nature of thoughts as different patterns within a unified holographic space.
But if this wave truly exists, why has it not been detected yet? Warden suggests that it may be very weak and not related to electromagnetic phenomena, making it inaccessible to current brain scanning methods. He draws parallels with dark matter in cosmology, which is also invisible, yet its presence can be inferred from indirect evidence.
Warden's theory, as reported by Daily Neuron, contains testable predictions: scientists can design experiments to search for this wave in the thalamus. It also offers an evolutionary justification for consciousness, claiming that an accurate map of the world gives animals a survival advantage. The scientist even entertains the possibility that the wave could be an exotic state of matter, such as a Bose-Einstein condensate, capable of storing large volumes of information.
Another hypothesis about the nature of consciousness was presented by Akbota Tleuberdinova from the University of Toronto, who suggests that consciousness is not a result of evolutionary complexity but a fundamental property of life that has existed from the very beginning, starting with the first cell—the common ancestor of all living beings on Earth.
The record "According to the new theory, consciousness is a holographic wave" first appeared in K-News.
