UH Biocomputation Group - Computer architecturehttp://biocomputation.herts.ac.uk/2023-02-15T16:34:20+00:00Consciousness and Information Theory2023-02-15T16:34:20+00:002023-02-15T16:34:20+00:00Shabnam Kadirtag:biocomputation.herts.ac.uk,2023-02-15:/2023/02/15/from-the-phenomenology-to-the-mechanisms-of-consciousness-integrated-information-theory-3-0.html<p class="first last">Shabnam Kadir's Journal Club session where he will talk about a paper "From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0"</p>
<p>This week on Journal Club session Shabnam Kadir will talk about Consciousness and Information Theory based on selection of 3 papers. For more information, please see the list of papers and an abstract below.</p>
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<p>This paper presents Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of consciousness 3.0, which
incorporates several advances over previous formulations. IIT starts from phenomenological
axioms: information says that each experience is specific - it is what it is by how it
differs from alternative experiences; integration says that it is unified - irreducible to
non-interdependent components; exclusion says that it has unique borders and a particular
spatio-temporal grain. These axioms are formalized into postulates that prescribe how
physical mechanisms, such as neurons or logic gates, must be configured to generate
experience (phenomenology). The postulates are used to define intrinsic information as
"differences that make a difference" within a system, and integrated information as
information specified by a whole that cannot be reduced to that specified by its parts. By
applying the postulates both at the level of individual mechanisms and at the level of
systems of mechanisms, IIT arrives at an identity: an experience is a maximally
irreducible conceptual structure (MICS, a constellation of concepts in qualia space), and
the set of elements that generates it constitutes a complex. According to IIT, a MICS
specifies the quality of an experience and integrated information Φ_Max its quantity.
From the theory follow several results, including: a system of mechanisms may condense
into a major complex and non-overlapping minor complexes; the concepts that specify the
quality of an experience are always about the complex itself and relate only indirectly to
the external environment; anatomical connectivity influences complexes and associated
MICS; a complex can generate a MICS even if its elements are inactive; simple systems can
be minimally conscious; complicated systems can be unconscious; there can be true
"zombies" - unconscious feed-forward systems that are functionally equivalent to conscious
complexes.</p>
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<p>Papers:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>L. Albantakis, L. Barbosa, G. Findlay, M. Grasso, A. Haun, W. Marshall, W. Mayner, A. Zaeemzadeh, M. Boly, B. Juel, S. Sasai, K. Fujii, I. David, J. Hendren, J. Lang, G. Tononi, <a class="reference external" href="https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2212.14787">"Integrated Information Theory (IIT) 4.0: Formulating the Properties of Phenomenal Existence in Physical Terms"</a>, 2022, arXiv,</li>
<li>J. Jost, <a class="reference external" href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fams.2021.641239">"Information Theory and Consciousness"</a>, 2021, Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics, 7,</li>
<li>M. Oizumi, L. Albantakis, G. Tononi, <a class="reference external" href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003588">"From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0"</a>, 2014, PLOS Computational Biology, 10, e1003588</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Date:</strong> 2023/02/17 <br />
<strong>Time:</strong> 14:00 <br />
<strong>Location</strong>: online</p>