Furthermore, researchers report evidence that quantum effects help the process of biological photosynthesis to find near-optimal paths for conversion of photon energy into chemical energy.
I have a blog post about the limits of quantum computation in solving chess. After writing the post came to my attention some new results of quantum effects in microtubules that can be found in the brain.
I added this update to my post:
" Since I have written this post some dramatic new results of large scale quantum coherence exhibited by living organisms came to my attention. It has been demonstrated that microtubules in the brain when excited at certain frequencies show signs of superconductivity ( which is large scale quantum behaviour ). This discovery may turn our knowledge about quantum computing upside down. It seems that what scientists are trying to do at near zero kelvin temperatures with a few quantum bits nature has long since managed to do with billions of bits at room temperature. This is not an isolated case of the brain: it turns out that also in photosynthesis quantum behaviour plays a part. It has been long known that organisms having only one cell and no neurons or nerves can behave very intelligently ( can swin, can find food, avoid obstacles, even have short term memory ). The new discoveries on microtubules can now explain this kind of intelligent information processing as well. If the brain is more than just a network of neurons and can process infromation at quantum level then the number of elementary operations it can perform can be much more than previously expected, on the order of 10^27 operations per second. This means that 1 million human brains in 1 year are capable of performing operations on the order of the number of legal chess positions.
These new discoveries open the way for a new approach toward understanding consciousness as well. They lend experimental credibility to a theory of consciousness that has been around for 20 years now: the Orch-OR ( orchestrated objective reduction ) hypothesis of anaesthesiologist Stuart Hameroff and emeritus professor of mathematics Roger Penrose. It is important to note that Penrose goes further than orthodox quantum mechanics would allow: he assumes that the underlying physics is uncomputable therefore the brain can have qualia ( conscious experience ) and access truths that are not available to the conventional ( Turing ) method of computation ( all classical computers we have today are Turing machines ). However whether Penrose is right or not on this issue does not make any difference for the practical speed of computation: even if the orthodox view that quantum computers in principle can't do anything more than a Turing machine with at most exponential slowdown could do, the sheer speedup offered by room temperature large scale quantum behaviour can be a game changer in computing."
Kasparov is correct that the game of chess will never be "solved". But he and almost all GMs and Super GMs are also correct that the game of chess is a draw when both sides make no errors.
I will also add that many such games have already been played.
If only the hoi polloi would listen. But they're too busy having fun in this thread.
Thanks again, in any case.