Thanks for this, Alexander.
Tononi’s IIT theory, along with Baars and Dahaene’s Global Neuronal Workspace Theory are the two “big dogs” in consciousness studies, although there are six or so other ones that are kicking around (see https://www.scientificamerican.com/index.cfm/_api/render/file/?method=inline&fileID=55975857-5619-4655-A43E710EDCD3741B…if you want the full article, I have a pdf I can mail individually). They both make headway on important issues, although both of them come at it from different angles.
I actually think of IIT as being very similar to what many of the complexity folks are after, although I don’t think Tononi is connected to the complexity group. That is, it overlaps to what Gell Mann calls Algorithmic Information Content<https://www.amazon.com/Quark-Jaguar-Adventures-Simple-Complex/dp/0805072535>, although unlike Gell Mann, IIT is explicitly framed in a conceptual way to understand consciousness—it starts with the basic structure of experience from a first person perspective. Phi, which is the way information integration is measured, is an interesting and helpful construct. However, I don’t see it being revolutionary as some folks do. Think about the way the article ends…we are not much closer to knowing whether a lobster is conscious in the way the question was originally asked, which pertains to the subjective experience of being.
My recommendation for any discussion of consciousness is for one to deal first and foremost with the “language system problem”. Or, more directly, groups who are trying to arrive at a conception of consciousness need to be very aware of the terms many meanings, and perhaps not a bad place to start is with this blog on the 10 Problems of Consciousness that I did a while back: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/theory-knowledge/201812/10-problems-consciousness. One of the things to keep in mind in all of this is that the problem of subjectivity and scientific knowledge of it is an epistemological problem, meaning there is no general 3rd person perspective on 1st person experiential beingness.
However, as far as human consciousness goes, we can achieve direct knowledge about linguistic self-consciousness…after all, here I am sharing my self-conscious thoughts with you directly. This is the shared intersubjective field. And some of us are working on what might be called a shared “second person view”. That is, if we create a platform for understanding each other, we can created a shared “Inter-Subjective Field” that can do much to “box in” human subjectivity.
Best,
Gregg
From: [log in to unmask] <[log in to unmask]> On Behalf Of Alexander Bard
Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2019 5:13 AM
To: Intellectual Deep Web <[log in to unmask]>; Tree of Knowledge Society <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Integrated information theory
Dear Friends
Giulio Tononi's integrated information theory for consciousness seems about to hit mainstream academia. I found this article on BBC News this morning and believes the topic merits a crossposting to both the Intellectual Deep Web and the Tree of Knowledge considering recent discussions. Feel free to discuss Tononi's theory further if you like. Neuroscientists are certainly on fire.
http://www.bbc.com/future/story/20190326-are-we-close-to-solving-the-puzzle-of-consciousness<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__www.bbc.com_future_story_20190326-2Dare-2Dwe-2Dclose-2Dto-2Dsolving-2Dthe-2Dpuzzle-2Dof-2Dconsciousness&d=DwMFaQ&c=eLbWYnpnzycBCgmb7vCI4uqNEB9RSjOdn_5nBEmmeq0&r=wjF8cZoiFchamTuxBdDEmw&m=XfCuQABmPqlguw8iC3xLa6uQiUUOP0QMNa-rtedh5tg&s=LE1XkC86n2VsavdFU1WfsVF1sJn_v7K_Gjg_CvOArpQ&e=>
Best intentions
Alexander
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