> But nothing of what you quoted of the article has anything to do with qubits, let alone entangled ones? Again, even if it's accurate and useful, it would be a way to provide space (and maybe energy?) efficient storage, not quantum computation. This is not surprising, because living cells have very different requirements from synthetic computers!

The structure of a microtubule is a fibonnaci geometry, and the theory is that different pathways along the structure provide superposition using a chain of hydrophobically isolated pockets of benzene molecules within the tubulin protein walls. This provides error correction for part of the state of the quantum system, somewhat misleadingly called a qubit, as well as protection against decoherence. I think consciousness depends on these structures and states because it explains why anesthesia, which bind to aromatics, stop consciousness without killing the brain. That doesn't mean all of Orch-OR is correct, but it is an extremely important piece of evidence, and the only testable hypothesis that I know of for why anesthesia works.

And I agree, living cells have very different requirements. They need to draw as little power as possible, rewire themselves as the environment/computational needs change, and be capable of repairing themselves.

> And taking an "outside" view, it's certainly not the case that humans are particularly good at solving problems where the only efficient algorithm we know of runs on a quantum computer... so even if there were any interesting quantum computation going on, it's not clear why that would be needed for AGI.

There's no evolutionary advantage to solving complex math, but people with different neurology are able to perform incredible calculations. The entire principle behind AGI is that if you can model the network effect of the brain, you get AGI. If that model is completely wrong, the theory behind AGI isn't going to work.

> Going back to "cells are not computers"

Correct, cells cannot be classical computers. They would require too much power for too little benefit. That's why paramecium have microtubules instead of processors, and rely on fundamental aspects of quantum physics instead of comparably primitive turing machines. And to borrow a phrase from Hameroff, proponents of AGI should try modeling the behavior of single celled organisms before they try the brain.

> there are some (apparently good) arguments that plant photosynthesis relies in some essential way on nonclassical electron behavior to achieve its high efficiency for the purposes for which plants use it (biomass production), but that doesn't mean we can't achieve higher performance for the purposes of energy production with solar panels using a much simpler process. Even if you believe that the complexity in living organisms is mostly essential (which I do!) it doesn't mean much for the design of machines for humans to use.

The latest breakthroughs in solar efficiency are literally based on inspiration from biology:[1] "Although we can’t replicate the complexity of the protein scaffolds found in photosynthetic organisms, we were able to adapt the basic concept of a protective scaffold to stabilize our artificial light-harvesting antenna.”

The newest research of building quantum computing devices is moving away from trying to wrangle individual atoms and instead moving to storing and manipulating molecules.[2] So, for the next generation of computing, the complexity of living organisms might be absolutely essential for designing machines. As quantum computers grow in capability, we will be able to model more of the quantum world, because "predicting the behavior of even simple molecules with total accuracy is beyond the capabilities of the most powerful computers."[3] Each generation of quantum computers will bootstrap the next.

Once the hubris and arrogance of people who think nature couldn't have possibly evolved to take advantage of quantum properties is finally over, I think there will be a revolution in every field as it gets cheaper and cheaper to model the planck scale world. The first victim will be AGI, and there is a lot of money and ego desperate to keep that marketing scheme viable.

[1] https://scitechdaily.com/breakthrough-in-stabilization-of-bi...

[2] https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/09/200902095130.h...

[3] https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-quantum-compu...