Biophysics and Consciousness: Between Determinism, Probability, and Understanding Unconscious Brain Activity

Abstract

This paper explores the complex relationship between physical laws and biological phenomena, integrating the understanding of unconscious brain activity within a probabilistic framework using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (FMRI) and Artificial Intelligence (AI). The central question is whether living processes and mental activities are governed by the same precise hypotheses as inanimate matter, or if there exist qualitative discontinuities and probabilistic events that define life and consciousness. The discussion begins with precise physical examples, including charge dissipation, the photoelectric effect, and Xray generation, highlighting that rare microscopic events can constitute major physical foundations. The paper then extends to biological processes, such as protoplasmic activity, cellular division, and inheritance, emphasizing that the critical difference between living and non-living systems lies in discontinuities and probabilities that allow the emergence of new behaviors not reducible to continuous laws alone. Furthermore, unconscious brain activity exhibits similar probabilistic characteristics, which can be analyzed and predicted using fMRI and AI models (Demertzi et al., 2011; Laureys et al., 2004).