Penrose doubles down: Is consciousness a signal we tune into, not make?

[noel_k_2507]

So I was doom-scrolling through some physics threads on Zhihu last night (yeah, even when I should be debugging code), and I stumbled on this update about Roger Penrose. The man is just not letting go of his transmission theory of consciousness.

He's basically saying the brain doesn't produce consciousness; it receives it. Like a radio. And apparently, more physicists are nodding along instead of rolling their eyes. As a dev, this hits different. We're used to "garbage in, garbage out" — the machine makes the output. But what if the code is just the antenna?

Honestly, I've been meditating every morning for 15 minutes since last year. It's messy, I skip days, my anxiety spikes during stand-ups, but sometimes... sometimes the "signal" feels weirdly clear. Not mystical woo-woo, just this sense that the "me" doing the work is separate from the noise in my head. It reminds me of Jung's idea of the collective unconscious. Like we're tapping into a shared bandwidth.

I look at the Tarot card The High Priestess sometimes. She's sitting there between the pillars, holding that scroll, not speaking. She represents the veil between the conscious and unconscious. She's the receiver. If Penrose is right, maybe that's what we're actually doing when we quiet the mind down — tuning the dial, reducing the static from the daily grind.

I do yoga 2-3 times a week. It helps cut through the noise. If he's right, maybe all that quiet time isn't just stress relief. It's just us finally hearing what's already broadcasting. Anyway, just my two cents. Back to the terminal.