This article about the science of the Matrix (from /.) is interesting enough from a fan-fiction ‘well, it could work!’ perspective, but it is way off on some of the hard issues, namely the whole ‘quantum mechanics microtubules’ nonsense. It might be convenient to explain away consciousness because of magical quantum ‘fairy dust’ interactions, but it’s just not good science. I remember an good quotation by someone describing Penrose’s quantum consciousness theory: ‘In order to make it work, Penrose would not only have to rewrite all of biology, but also all of physics.’
Adrian Hon
I can’t speak about biology, but don’t discount the idea of Penrose rewriting physics. He’s done lots of very significant work in general relativity, and his ideas on spinors are one of the key inspirations for the “spin foam” approach to quantum gravity. He’s definitely not a crank.