Hameroff and people like him think they have found a way through this thicket. Consciousness, they say, arises when an organism "changes things" by chosing which way its internal, isolated quantum states collapse into measured states.

Too deep for me. I don't know much about quantum theories of conciousness, but it strikes me as being somewhat new age. I know the guys who are into it are smart guys, but I can't help but wonder if they're seeing something that's not really there. They're really just quantum materialists, aren't they? In essense, they're no different than materialists who seek to explain consciousness on a macro level. These quantum chaps just have a greater mystique because they're mostly Buddhists in labcoats. In any event, they lose me after about the 2nd or 3rd paragraph, which is about when my bullsh*t alarm starts going off.