{
  "id": "oai:papers.qnfo.org:thoughts-as-quantum-informational-hamiltonians-coherence-and-capacity-constraint",
  "slug": "thoughts-as-quantum-informational-hamiltonians-coherence-and-capacity-constraint",
  "title": "Thoughts as Quantum-Informational Hamiltonians: Coherence and Capacity Constraints on a Two-Phase Pre-Geometric Model of Cognition",
  "authors": [
    "Rowan Brad Quni-Gudzinas"
  ],
  "abstract": "A standing puzzle in neuroscience and quantum biology is whether any quantum degree of freedom in a warm, wet brain can remain coherent long enough to play a computational role, and no existing framework connects such receptor-scale coherence to any proposal about how spacetime itself emerges. We formalize the conjecture that cognition is a quantum-informational Hamiltonian state coupling a physical universe to a pre-geometric phase, with the Big Bang modeled as a pre-geometric-to-geometric phase transition that selects a Hamiltonian subspace. We build a two-phase model in which pre-geometric degrees of freedom are informational, the phase transition fixes which \"thought\" states can manifest, and biological receptors (microtubule-like, Posner-like, magnetoreception-like structures) are treated as candidate channels to the selected subspace. Using a thermal decoherence criterion, we derive that at an assumed physiological temperature of $T = 310$ K the bare thermal decoherence rate is Γ_th = 4.06 × 10¹3 s^-1 (τ_th = 2.46 × 10^-14 s), that a receptor transition of $0.2$ eV supports only $1.19$ coherent cycles, that even a $10$ eV transition supports at most $59.6$ cycles, that a $0.2$ eV receptor carries at most $3.09$ bits per mode under a Shannon-type thermal-noise assumption (cross-checked against a dimension bound of log₂ d = 1 bit for $d = 2$), and that any conjectured coupling to the pre-geometric subspace must carry an energy scale above k_B T = 26.7 meV to avoid being driven classical. The framework yields falsifiable coherence-time and channel-capacity targets that distinguish it from standard neuroscience.",
  "abstract_markdown": "A standing puzzle in neuroscience and quantum biology is whether any quantum degree of freedom in a warm, wet brain can remain coherent long enough to play a computational role, and no existing framework connects such receptor-scale coherence to any proposal about how spacetime itself emerges. We formalize the conjecture that cognition is a quantum-informational Hamiltonian state coupling a physical universe to a pre-geometric phase, with the Big Bang modeled as a pre-geometric-to-geometric phase transition that selects a Hamiltonian subspace. We build a two-phase model in which pre-geometric degrees of freedom are informational, the phase transition fixes which \"thought\" states can manifest, and biological receptors (microtubule-like, Posner-like, magnetoreception-like structures) are treated as candidate channels to the selected subspace. Using a thermal decoherence criterion, we derive that at an assumed physiological temperature of $T = 310$ K the bare thermal decoherence rate is $\\Gamma_{\\mathrm{th}} = 4.06 \\times 10^{13}\\ \\mathrm{s}^{-1}$ ($\\tau_{\\mathrm{th}} = 2.46 \\times 10^{-14}$ s), that a receptor transition of $0.2$ eV supports only $1.19$ coherent cycles, that even a $10$ eV transition supports at most $59.6$ cycles, that a $0.2$ eV receptor carries at most $3.09$ bits per mode under a Shannon-type thermal-noise assumption (cross-checked against a dimension bound of $\\log_2 d = 1$ bit for $d = 2$), and that any conjectured coupling to the pre-geometric subspace must carry an energy scale above $k_B T = 26.7$ meV to avoid being driven classical. The framework yields falsifiable coherence-time and channel-capacity targets that distinguish it from standard neuroscience.",
  "date": "2026-10-15",
  "first_published": "2026-10-15",
  "last_revised": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
  "modified": "2026-10-15T00:00:00Z",
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  "url": "https://papers.qnfo.org/papers/thoughts-as-quantum-informational-hamiltonians-coherence-and-capacity-constraint",
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    "creators": [
      {
        "name": "Rowan Brad Quni-Gudzinas",
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    "titles": [
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        "title": "Thoughts as Quantum-Informational Hamiltonians: Coherence and Capacity Constraints on a Two-Phase Pre-Geometric Model of Cognition"
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        "description": "A standing puzzle in neuroscience and quantum biology is whether any quantum degree of freedom in a warm, wet brain can remain coherent long enough to play a computational role, and no existing framework connects such receptor-scale coherence to any proposal about how spacetime itself emerges. We formalize the conjecture that cognition is a quantum-informational Hamiltonian state coupling a physical universe to a pre-geometric phase, with the Big Bang modeled as a pre-geometric-to-geometric phase transition that selects a Hamiltonian subspace. We build a two-phase model in which pre-geometric degrees of freedom are informational, the phase transition fixes which \"thought\" states can manifest, and biological receptors (microtubule-like, Posner-like, magnetoreception-like structures) are treated as candidate channels to the selected subspace. Using a thermal decoherence criterion, we derive that at an assumed physiological temperature of $T = 310$ K the bare thermal decoherence rate is Γ_th = 4.06 × 10¹3 s^-1 (τ_th = 2.46 × 10^-14 s), that a receptor transition of $0.2$ eV supports only $1.19$ coherent cycles, that even a $10$ eV transition supports at most $59.6$ cycles, that a $0.2$ eV receptor carries at most $3.09$ bits per mode under a Shannon-type thermal-noise assumption (cross-checked against a dimension bound of log₂ d = 1 bit for $d = 2$), and that any conjectured coupling to the pre-geometric subspace must carry an energy scale above k_B T = 26.7 meV to avoid being driven classical. The framework yields falsifiable coherence-time and channel-capacity targets that distinguish it from standard neuroscience.",
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