Stoyan Kurtev

A Bulgarian scientist and philosopher developing a novel approach to understanding consciousness and reality as a whole based on the concept of representation.

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

My first paper on the topic of the quantum nature of consciousness, suggesting the existence of "Wave-like patterns in parameter space interpreted as evidence for macroscopic effects resulting from quantum or quantum-like processes in the brain", is out in Scientific Reports. 1/6

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@newscientist In that case, space should emerge from quantum interactions too. Neat experimental result.

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@FQXi @QuantumBioDAO Great idea! How long will it take until the majority of the physicists are persuaded? I hope it will happen in our lifetimes.

[Ruben Laukkonen @RubenLaukkonen]

You can better model brain data if you assume quantum-like entanglement.

New work from our centre indicates that the brain expresses the efficiency of quantum computation through classical mechanisms. The brain is a magnificent specimen because it operates on 20w—or a banana and some water—and yet generates a coherent, stable, adaptive, and conscious inner universe that can build rockets, computers, fall in love, and construct empires and religions.

And it does so against the backdrop of slow, wet, porous, and inexpensive bioelectric activity. Compare this to contemporary AIs, which are energy guzzlers and require massive data centres. The difference is likely 10,000x or more. Instead of looking interstellar for data centres, we should really be looking to the brain.

First, you model the brain as a network of coupled oscillators (commonly used for whole-brain models). If you wire these coupled oscillators up like the brain’s connectome you get very interesting, very surprising, brain-like dynamics; such as criticality, metastability (via turbulence), etc. These stochastic dynamics are crucial for rapid information sharing and maintaining local and global integration. And when these dynamics are included in the model, it fits the brain like a glove.

Interestingly, when you then include long-range exceptions to the exponential distance rule (common in mammalian brains), you get a spectral gap that separates the dominant modes from the noisy bulk. These dominant modes behave like coherent state-vectors and their interactions produce interference effects, i.e., quantum-like entanglement.

These interference effects may be one of the secrets to how the brain rapidly binds distributed information into unified, context-sensitive states. The paper also demonstrates that QL entanglement provides the brain a richer dynamical repertoire at lower energetic cost. Keep in mind that this “quantum-like” entanglement arises from the interference of coupled oscillators, but the functional end state is analogous in that you get the same mathematical advantages.

It’s super exciting and we have a lot more to share in coming months.

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@Philip_Goff Is it possible that reality is deterministic and there is free will at the same time? I believe yes. To understand how, we need to think in terms of representation. The short answer is that there is matter that represents, but is not represented, and that constitutes free will.

[Philip Goff @Philip_Goff]

"Could AI Be Conscious?"

Join me, @keithfrankish, & @TomMcClelland1 for live streamed cutting-edge thought on consciousness 2:30 UK time Thursday. Link below & in Bio. There will be audience Q&A!

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@Philip_Goff @keithfrankish @TomMcClelland1 It could, but only after AI algorithms get implemented on more advanced quantum computers than those in existence today. I doubt that this will happen in our lifetimes.

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@IAI_TV "Nothing" is indeed an impossibility, a made up concept. There is no such thing in nature, just like "infinity." But it is a useful conceptual tool while we are in the process of discovering the true nature of reality. When this is achieved, then we can ditch "nothing."

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@Philip_Goff @durham_uni Hopefully quantum fields, not classical. But field is not the best concept on which to build a theory of reality because it presupposes space. If you start with relation (or representation), you can derive space and field from it as all possible acts/events that can happen.

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@EssentiaFounda1 "Representation" is a slightly better term than "association".

[Consciousness - tlab @conscious_tlab]

https://t.co/z9PsZA7Xzk Quantum Cognition course taught by @EmmanuelPothos this week!

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@IAI_TV Is consciousness a quantum wave too?

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@harvardphysics So, we should expect the "new physics" around 2040 at the latest.

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@IAI_TV Memory is the partial reinstantiation of an earlier mental state. It is, of course, stored in physical space, but the organization of the memories is indeed different from what we call "computer memory." It is more like a hologram, but a dynamic one, which evolves in time.

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@newscientist Physicists finally need to get around to including consciousness in their fundamental understanding of the universe, and by that I mean a true fundamental theory, not odd ideas like consciousness collapsing the wavefunction.

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@newscientist Very useful fossils for the scientists of the future!

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@QuantaMagazine I can't think of randomness as fundamental, for me that's a logical impossibility. I prefer to think of all those factors as pseudorandom. That makes a lot more sense. A small detail, but it changes fundamentally the big picture.

[Models of Consciousness @moc7conference]

The next Models of Consciousness Conference will take place in Copenhagen! 



We are excited to bring #MoC7 to @uni_copenhagen on October 12–16, 2026.

Call for Abstracts is now open on our website (link below!)

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@MillerLabMIT Although the speed of light is very fast, it's still finite. Which means there is a binding problem, unless the representations are physically realized on the subatomic scale. In physics, the "solution" is entanglement. Maybe the same applies to consciousness in the brain?

[Earl K. Miller @MillerLabMIT]

Work by Ghose and @dimitrispp on quantum effects in the brain is of the most-read physics stories of 2025!
https://t.co/2auYg3SzRy
#neuroscience

[Stoyan Kurtev @SKurtev]

@MillerLabMIT @dimitrispp The brain is very quantum, indeed!