Popular Mechanics · সাধারণ

You Could Unlock Deeper Parts of Reality by Linking Your Mind With This Futuristic Device, Scientists Believe

২৪/১০/২০২৬

Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story:

Head of Google’s Quantum AI Lab, Hartmut Neven believes we could test quantum consciousness theories by entangling the brain with a quantum computer.
To both Neven and other researchers, the possibility also suggests that we could expand our consciousness, perhaps tapping into a richer version of reality.
Should these speculations come to fruition, it could finally illuminate the very thing that makes us human. Would you opt to expand your mind?

Some researchers believe consciousness is a byproduct of the constantly firing web of neurons hiding inside our craniums. However, others believe something more theoretical must be involved to explain our complex perception—quantum physics. Hartmut Neven, PhD, head of Google’s Quantum Artificial Intelligence Lab, is one of those quantum consciousness believers, and he says there’s a way we can test the theory: by entangling a brain with a quantum computer.

If scientists were able to achieve the feat, not only would they be able to prove where consciousness arises from, but also expand the mind to a whole different level. In a 2024 paper published in the peer-reviewed journal Entropy, Neven proposes his own experiment to test the idea of quantum consciousness.

Neven’s team assumes our brains are made of tiny pieces of information called quantum bits, or qubits, which are the basic units of quantum computing (think: qubits are to quantum computing what 0s and 1s are to binary code). Theoretically, there would be a certain number of qubits in a participant’s brain. If researchers managed to entangle—or intrinsically link—the brain with a quantum computer, they could create an “expanded quantum superposition” involving the total qubits in the brain plus the qubits in the computer, which should result in the participant reporting a richer experience, proving that consciousness is quantum.

Expanding your consciousness wouldn’t literally look like making your brain bigger; instead, you would gain a richer experience of the world around you, similarly to how perception is changed by psychedelics, Neven explained in an interview with New Scientist. If scientists managed to successfully entangle a brain with a quantum computer, it could lead to higher levels of thinking, creativity, and understanding.

Neven’s quantum theory of consciousness builds upon a framework first proposed by English mathematician Roger Penrose, PhD. In his 1989 book, The Emperor’s New Mind, Penrose introduced a controversial but highly impactful theory of consciousness called Orchestrated Objective Reduction, or Orch OR. In it, Penrose argued consciousness isn’t computational, that you can’t force a brain to perform consciousness in the same way you would make a machine complete a task. At the same time, he suggested that classical physics could not entirely explain consciousness.

Instead, Penrose turned to quantum physics for a plausible explanation. His Orch OR theory supposes that consciousness involves a principle called quantum superposition, in which an object momentarily exists in multiple states at once. The most famous example of this paradox is Schrödinger’s cat. In the thought experiment, there is a cat in an opaque box. As a viewer, you have no way of knowing the state of the cat inside, so it simultaneously exists as both dead and alive. In terms of binary code, a superposition suggests something could momentarily exist as both 0 and 1. Penrose argues that consciousness forms when a superposition collapses during measurement, or when you realize the state of an object. In the case of Schrödinger’s cat experiment, this would be when you open the box and observe the animal inside.

While Penrose’s theory is valuable, Neven argues that it’s more productive to flip the framework on its head. According to Neven, consciousness occurs when a superposition forms rather than when it collapses.

“When [Penrose] associated conscious moments with the collapse of superpositions, this opened the possibility of faster-than-light communication, which goes against fundamental rules of physics,” Neven tells New Scientist. “I don’t like this—I’m the more orthodox physicist on this point. But if, instead, we say that a conscious moment is experienced when a superposition forms, not when a superposition collapses, then this challenge with faster-than-light communication goes away.”

Vlatko Vedral, PhD—an Oxford quantum physicist and frequent Popular Mechanics contributor—suggests a similar idea. “What if our biological makeup limits how creative we can be?” he writes in an article. “I envision quantum chips designed to suppress the ‘noise’ that induces introspection, allowing a longer interference period for our intuitive thoughts to develop.”

Vedral goes on to explain that, once we learn how the brain stores and manipulates quantum effects, we could theoretically create a device that interferes with them. Much like Neven explained, Vedral hypothesizes that this could help enhance creative thinking. He wonders if humans could become more adept at problem-solving or even “see further domains of reality that would otherwise remain hidden.”

Brain-entanglement experiments seem like they could finally shed some light on the nature of consciousness—but, like most research pertaining to consciousness, it’s much easier said than done. Neven himself even says actually conducting his experiment “is technically still very challenging.” Vedral also concedes that, at least for now, his hypothesis might just be wishful thinking. Another sweeping critique of the idea that our brain hosts quantum processes is that it may be too warm and wet to do so.

Should scientists eventually figure out how to entangle a human brain with a quantum computer and prove consciousness occurs at the quantum level, the possibilities could be endless—your favorite ice cream flavor may end up tasting a whole lot sweeter or you might unlock a higher level of being.

Cover of Popular Mechanics featuring "America's Nuclear Graveyard" with storage containers on a barren landscape.

You Could Unlock Deeper Parts of Reality by Linking Your Mind With This Futuristic Device, Scientists Believe

October/November 2026

August/September 2026

June/July 2026

April/May 2026

February / March 2026

December 2025 / January 2026

October / November 2025

August / September 2025

June/July 2025

April/May 2025

February/March 2025

December/January 2025

October/November 2024

August/September 2024

June / July 2024

April May / 2024

February / March 2024

Special Issue: Nukes

December 2023 / January 2024

October / November 2023

August/September 2023

June/July 2023

April/May 2023

February/March 2023

December 2022/January 2023

October/November 2022

August/September 2022

June/July 2022