Roger Penrose Quotes

13 Sourced Quotes

It is hard to see how one could begin to develop a quantum-theoretical description of brain action when one might well have to regard the brain as "observing itself" all the time!

Roger Penrose
Understanding is, after all, what science is all about — and science is a great deal more than mindless computation.

Roger Penrose
What right do we have to claim, as some might, that human beings are the only inhabitants of our planet blessed with an actual ability to be "aware"? … The impression of a "conscious presence" is indeed very strong with me when I look at a dog or a cat or, especially, when an ape or monkey at the zoo looks at me. I do not ask that they are "self-aware" in any strong sense (though I would guess that an element of self-awareness can be present). All I ask is that they sometimes simply feel!

Roger Penrose
It seems to me that we must make a distinction between what is "objective" and what is "measurable" in discussing the question of physical reality, according to quantum mechanics. The state-vector of a system is, indeed, not measurable, in the sense that one cannot ascertain, by experiments performed on the system, precisely (up to proportionality) what the state is; but the state-vector does seem to be (again up to proportionality) a completely objective property of the system, being completely characterized by the results it must give to experiments that one might perform.

Roger Penrose
There are two other words I do not understand — awareness and intelligence. Well, why am I talking about things when I do not know what they really mean? It is probably because I am a mathematician and mathematicians do not mind so much about that sort of thing. They do not need precise definitions of the things they are talking about, provided they can say something about the connections between them.

Roger Penrose
Consciousness…is the phenomenon whereby the universe's very existence is made known.

Roger Penrose
I imagine that whenever the mind perceives a mathematical idea, it makes contact with Plato's world of mathematical concepts... When mathematicians communicate, this is made possible by each one having a direct route to truth, the consciousness of each being in a position to perceive mathematical truths directly, through the process of 'seeing'.

Roger Penrose
Yet nature does not always prefer conventional explanations, least of all in astronomy.

Roger Penrose
Our present picture of physical reality, particularly in relation to the nature of time, is due for a grand shake up

Roger Penrose
Once you have put more and more of your physical world into a mathematical structure, you realize how profound and mysterious this mathematical structure is. How you can get all these things out of it is very mysterious.

Roger Penrose
Scientists do not invent truth — they discover it.

Roger Penrose
Aesthetic qualities are important in science, and necessary, I think, for great science.

Roger Penrose
A beautiful idea has a much greater chance of being a correct idea than an ugly one.

Roger Penrose