Roger Penrose
Mathematician and physicist: in his view, understanding mathematics is not a computation, and current physics does not explain it.
Life
British mathematician and physicist born in 1931, professor at Oxford, Nobel Prize in Physics 2020 for his work on black holes. In his popular books he argues that understanding mathematics is not a computation and that current physics does not explain consciousness.
Main works
Human thought is not an algorithm: an argument against strong artificial intelligence.
Gödel's theorem and consciousness, with the hypothesis of quantum effects in the brain.
A vast guide to the mathematics of physics.
In his own words
« The Mandelbrot set is not an invention of the human mind: it was a discovery. »
Positions
click a row to see the evidenceHe holds that mathematical truths exist independently and are grasped by understanding, not by calculation.
Penrose, The Road to Reality (2004)
He rejects the idea that the mind is a computer, but looks for consciousness in a physical, non-computable process in the brain.
Penrose, The Emperor's New Mind (1989); Shadows of the Mind (1994)