Dr. Stuart Hameroff, anesthesiologist and Director of the Center for Consciousness Studies at the University of Arizona, spoke about consciousness and the brain. Hameroff said he became fascinated with the study of consciousness during his anesthesiology internship, when he began to wonder how anesthetic gases were able to stop consciousness while leaving virtually all other brain functions alone.
According to Hameroff, consciousness is produced by quantum processes. Anesthesia interrupts these quantum processes, he explained, effectively turning off consciousness. Hameroff admitted that anesthesiologists still do not fully understand how this works. He also shared a brief history of anesthesiology, as well as discussed Princeton's Global Consciousness Project, the nature of time, and freewill.