Why Physicists Are Saying Consciousness Is a State of Matter

https://medium.com/the-physics-arxiv-blog/why-physicists-are-saying-consciousness-is-a-state-of-matter-like-a-solid-a-liquid-or-a-gas-5e7ed624986d#.b2kmxbgq6

by Cadsby • 10 years ago

4 1 10 years ago

medium.com

kbenson• 10 years ago

Is it me, or does all this follow from some unproven assumptions?

In 2008, Tononi proposed that a system demonstrating consciousness must have two specific traits. First, the system must be able to store and process large amounts of information. In other words consciousness is essentially a phenomenon of information.

And second, this information must be integrated in a unified whole so that it is impossible to divide into independent parts. That reflects the experience that each instance of consciousness is a unified whole that cannot be decomposed into separate components.

So, we've been given constraints, but where is it proven that those constraints match what we think of when we talk about consciousness? Or is all this predicated on "consciousness" being an overloaded term here, and it's not necessarily referring to what the layperson would think of as consciousness? Is this just a matter of overlapping terms and an article taking advantage of that misconception?

Why Physicists Are Saying Consciousness Is a State of Matter

Related Stories