QUANTUM METAPHYSICS - E-thesis

specific program, but the human mind is able, when necessary, to move outside all closed
algorithms and invent new creative solutions to problems. These non-mechanistic operations are
simply not describable within a closed mathematical form. 850
Even though physical description has managed until now by employing algorithmic and
computational models, this does not of itself prove that non-computational description could also
be required. Penrose has presented plenty of examples of non-computable physical processes and
also commented on the non-algorithmic nature of mathematical insight. 851 It is not necessarily so
that understanding can be reduced to computational rules, and thus counter to the ideas of
Reductionist materialism, the workings of the human mind or the operation of consciousness
cannot be considered as being analogous to the operation of a computer. They cannot be
comprehensively understood within a mechanistic-deterministic frame of reference, since the
modelling of which they are capable can actually demand the existence of properties that today’s
computers do not in fact possess. In particular, simulations of conscious thinking that employ
nothing but computation have not succeeded in any believable manner. 852
Hodgson highlighted the reaching of conclusions based on probabilities, informal plausible
reasoning, such as those based on induction or the use of analogy. Such rational thinking which
is dependent on consciousness cannot be completely reduced to mechanistic steps, it must be a
flexible process able to draw on innumerable sources. For example, the shaping of scientific
theories, philosophy, and legal processes all require this type of structured and rational thinking,
of which logical conclusions represent only a small part. Rather than the reaching of formal
conclusions which can only produce mechanical explanations based on and contained within the
initial conditions, this shaping is a flexible process of arriving at conclusions which produces
new knowledge. Reaching conclusions on the basis of probabilities is a process which is
difficult, if not impossible, to formalise. Attempts have been made to formalise the process of
induction, but both Putnam and Newton-Smith, for example, take the view that this basic
850 All computers function in a computational manner according to certain algorithms. In some easily-definable topdown
functions such as numeric calculation, the machine exceeds the abilities of an average human but in ”learning”
bottom-up processes such as articifial neural nets, computers are only able to reach the levels achieved by humans in
some restricted problems, and have difficulty in doing so. Penrose 1994, 19.
851 Penrose 1990, 538-541. Penrose 1994. The views of Roger Penrose have aroused great interest but have also
been criticised. When interviewed by Horgan, David Bohm also expressed the hope that future scientists would be
less dependent on mathematics for the modelling of reality and would draw on new sources of metaphor and
analogy."We have a strong assumption that mathematics is the only way to deal with reality. Because it worked so
well for a while, we have assumed that it has to be that way.” Horgan 1998, 88.
333