The Quantum Social Brain

A Model for Growing Consciousness

Quantum entanglement through time of three Wills

Just as quantum mechanics challenges classical assumptions about how particles behave, commitment pooling challenges classical economic assumptions about how resources and value flow. The human brain—and by extension, human social consciousness—may function more like a quantum system than a linear computational model. This opens up the possibility that commitment pooling is not just an economic practice but a fundamental feature of how intelligence, cooperation, and creativity emerge in both neural and social networks.

The speculative exploration of quantum cognition is a really fun lens through which I like to understand human social consciousness as a network of interwoven intentions—a vast ecosystem of overlapping pools. These pools, much like neural synapses or quantum entanglements, operate beyond classical computational models, offering a framework for collective intelligence and resource coordination.

I’ve been studying Commitment Pooling through my time here at Grassroots Economics Foundation, — economic protocol derived from natural and ancestral systems of reciprocity. Just as quantum effects like entanglement, coherence, and superposition may underpin human thought, commitment pools allow communities to coordinate resources non-linearly, unlocking deep cooperation, coordination and shared abundance.

The Quantum Brain as a Network of Overlapping Commitment Pools

There is a lot of speculation that our human cognition might not be a linear sequence of stored memories and logical operations. Instead, it could be a living system of relational commitments—an entangled web of perceptions, predictions, and stored knowledge, dynamically updated in real time. In this sense, the quantum brain mirrors the very structures of community-based economies where individuals are not just autonomous agents but part of a network that functions through shared commitments.

1. Microtubules as Quantum Pools: Biological Commitment Networks

The Orch-OR (Orchestrated Objective Reduction) theory proposes that microtubules in neurons might function as quantum computing structures. If true, this means that the human brain is not just a biochemical machine but a network of entangled, dynamic commitments between past and future states—much like commitment pooling in community economies.

Three key parallels between microtubules and commitment pooling:

1. Quantum Superposition → Potential Resources in a Commitment Pool

   • A quantum state exists in multiple possibilities until observed.

   • Likewise, a commitment pool holds resources in a latent state until activated by community needs. (this is VERY important to understand)

2. Objective Reduction (OR) → A Promise Becoming Action

   • The collapse of a quantum wavefunction determines a particle’s reality.

   • In a commitment pool, a stored promise “collapses” into an actual exchange at the right moment.

3. Memory Storage → Reputation & Reciprocity

   • Microtubules may store and retrieve quantum-level information in the brain.

   • Similarly, commitment pools encode memory through trust and reciprocity, ensuring long-term stability.

2. Quantum Entanglement: Non-Local Connections in Brain & Economy

Quantum entanglement means that two particles remain linked no matter how far apart they are (Albert Einstein called this Spooky Action At a Distance). If human cognition works similarly, then our thoughts, emotions, and even decisions may not be isolated events but part of an interconnected web of influence.

Commitment pooling mirrors this:

• In a Mweria (rotating labor system), someone’s help today is returned unpredictably in the future, just as entangled quantum systems interact non-locally.

• Reputation functions like an entangled memory system—when one person’s action shifts the balance, the effects ripple through the network (Think of mutual credit as a lens into this ripple).

• Unlike market-based transactions, which require immediate exchange, commitment pooling thrives on trust-based entanglement, where giving and receiving can be temporally and spatially separated.

Could human cognition itself be an entangled network of commitments and intentions? If so, AI (which may currently lacks such entanglement) may struggle to replicate human intuition, interconnected insights, and the ability to foresee unseen opportunities. N.B. We are starting to see GROUPS of AI cooperating using Commitment Pooling and in some ways acting as entangled neural connections themselves.

3. Quantum Coherence & Decision-Making: Superposition in Human Choice

Quantum coherence allows particles to exist in multiple states simultaneously. In the human brain, decision-making might involve exploring multiple potential realities before collapsing into a single choice. This is not unlike the exchange function in commitment pools, where multiple outcomes remain available until the right moment.

In capitalist economies, transactions are rigid in silos: one must choose A or B or actually just USD (haha not funny). But in commitment pooling, resources flow based on a superposition of needs and contributions, unlocking dynamic reciprocity.

• Traditional economy → You either have money or you don’t.

• Commitment pool → You contribute when able, receive when needed, and steward balance and trust over time.

Like the brain exploring possible choices before settling on one, a commitment pool allows communities to keep multiple options open, ensuring adaptability and resilience. This allows communities to respond flexibly to real-time needs instead of being constrained by monetary scarcity.

Just as a quantum system maximizes informational efficiency, commitment pooling maximizes social efficiency by allowing diverse forms of value to circulate dynamically.

4. Warm Quantum Biology: Biological Adaptation & Commitment Pool Networks

Quantum effects typically require cold temperatures to prevent decoherence. Yet in biological systems (e.g., photosynthesis, bird navigation, enzymatic reactions), quantum processes thrive at body temperature.

This suggests that human cognition is deeply adapted to coherence in warm, noisy environments, just as traditional resource-sharing economies are adapted to uncertainty. Commitment pooling operates not on strict, cold logic but on dynamic, living trust—adapting to changing conditions just like the quantum effects in life itself.

Commitment Pooling as a Model for Growing Social Consciousness

As societies become increasingly transactional and digital, we risk losing the richness of interwoven human commitments—the very structure that underpins both our cognitive coherence and economic well-being.

By learning from both quantum cognition and ancestral resource-coordiantinon:

• We recognize that consciousness is not just an isolated brain function but a collective network of entangled heart and minds.

• Human economies function best when they mirror the adaptability of natural and quantum systems.

• The future of AI and technology must incorporate quantum mixing principles—not just in computing but in social systems that foster resilience, reciprocity, and deep cooperation.

Final Thoughts: What This Means for AI & Society

1. AI will struggle to fully replicate human cognition if quantum effects (mixing between states) drive intuition, interconnectedness, and deep wisdom.

2. Quantum-inspired AI—leveraging entanglement, coherence, and commitment-based learning—may be necessary for a more human-like intelligence.

3. Commitment pooling offers an economic model based on the same principles that govern quantum cognition, allowing humans to coordinate resources in a way that AI cannot yet replicate but perhaps networks of cooperating AI will.

(Re)Building a Conscious Society

A core challenge of the 21st century is not technological but philosophical. Are we building a world based on rigid transactions and power silos, or one rooted in fluid, trust-based reciprocity?

Just as quantum effects create coherence in the brain, commitment pooling creates coherence in society. By embracing the wisdom of ancestral pooling, quantum cognition, and living systems, we can design economies that function not as zero-sum markets but as entangled, self-sustaining networks.

The future of intelligence—both human and artificial—will depend on how well we embrace the power of shared commitments to create a world that is as adaptive, resilient, and as interconnected as we are ourselves.

(For further reading I suggest the chapter on Overlapping Pools - for free - in the pdf version of the book Grassroots Economics)