The Unlikely Buddha

  For centuries, cognitive science has grappled with the intricacies of human thought, employing probabilistic models and classical logic to decipher the seemingly chaotic dance of neurons. Yet, certain cognitive quirks – the paradoxes of decision-making, the fluidity of memory, the holistic nature of perception – have stubbornly resisted these traditional frameworks. Enter quantum cognition, a nascent field poised to revolutionize our understanding of the mind by borrowing the mathematical language of the quantum realm. Unlike the speculative "quantum mind" hypothesis, quantum cognition harnesses the formalisms of quantum theory – not its physical principles – as an analogical toolbox to model cognitive processes. It leverages the power of quantum probability and information theory to represent the inherent context-dependence, superposition, and non-commutativity observed in human thought. Traditional probabilistic models often fall short, struggling to capture the subtle n...