Building the Blocks of Being: The Attributes and Qualities Required for Consciousness

Tait, Izak; Bensemann, Joshua; Nguyen, Trung Van

doi:10.3390/philosophies8040052

Cited by 5 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 93 publications

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“…For example, the building blocks idea of consciousness proposes that consciousness arises when a set of key functions are instantiated in a system (Tait et al, 2023). This is a generalizable theory in the sense that any entity that satisfies those conditions are considered conscious.…”

Section: Functionalist Theories Can Be Made Universalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Universal Theory of Consciousness

Kanai,

Fujisawa

2023

Preprint

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While falsifiability has been broadly discussed as a desirable property of a theory of consciousness, in this paper, we introduce the meta-theoretic concept of "Universality" as an additional desirable property for a theory of consciousness. The concept of universality, often assumed in physics, posits that the fundamental laws of nature are consistent and apply equally everywhere in the universe, and remain constant over time. This assumption is crucial in science, acting as a guiding principle for developing and testing theories. When applied to theories of consciousness, universality can be defined as the ability of a theory to determine whether any fully described dynamical system is conscious or non-conscious. Importantly, for a theory to be universal, the determinant of consciousness needs to be defined as an intrinsic property of a system as opposed replying on the interpretation of the external observer. The importance of universality originates from the consideration that given that consciousness is a natural phenomenon, it could in principle manifest in any physical system that satisfies certain set of condition whether it is biological or non-biological. To date, apart from a few exceptions, most existing theories do not possess this property. Instead, they tend to make predictions as to the neural correlates of consciousness based on the interpretations of brain functions, which makes those theories only applicable to brain-centric systems. While current functionalist theories of consciousness tend to be heavily reliant on our interpretations of brain functions, we argue that functionalist theories could be converted to a universal theory by specifying mathematical formulations of the constituent concepts. While neurobiological and functionalist theories retain their utility in practice, we will eventually need a universal theory to fully explain why certain types of systems possess consciousness.

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Section: Functionalist Theories Can Be Made Universalmentioning

confidence: 99%

Towards a Universal Theory of Consciousness

Kanai,

Fujisawa

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

Clipping the Risks: Integrating Consciousness in AGI to Avoid Existential Crises

Tait,

Bensemann

2024

Lecture Notes in Computer Science

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Toward a universal theory of consciousness

Kanai,

Fujisawa

2024

Neuroscience of Consciousness

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While falsifiability has been broadly discussed as a desirable property of a theory of consciousness, in this paper, we introduce the meta-theoretic concept of “Universality” as an additional desirable property for a theory of consciousness. The concept of universality, often assumed in physics, posits that the fundamental laws of nature are consistent and apply equally everywhere in the universe and remain constant over time. This assumption is crucial in science, acting as a guiding principle for developing and testing theories. When applied to theories of consciousness, universality can be defined as the ability of a theory to determine whether any fully described dynamical system is conscious or non-conscious. Importantly, for a theory to be universal, the determinant of consciousness needs to be defined as an intrinsic property of a system as opposed to replying on the interpretation of the external observer. The importance of universality originates from the consideration that given that consciousness is a natural phenomenon, it could in principle manifest in any physical system that satisfies a certain set of conditions whether it is biological or non-biological. To date, apart from a few exceptions, most existing theories do not possess this property. Instead, they tend to make predictions as to the neural correlates of consciousness based on the interpretations of brain functions, which makes those theories only applicable to brain-centric systems. While current functionalist theories of consciousness tend to be heavily reliant on our interpretations of brain functions, we argue that functionalist theories could be converted to a universal theory by specifying mathematical formulations of the constituent concepts. While neurobiological and functionalist theories retain their utility in practice, we will eventually need a universal theory to fully explain why certain types of systems possess consciousness.

show abstract

Building the Blocks of Being: The Attributes and Qualities Required for Consciousness

Cited by 5 publications

References 93 publications

Towards a Universal Theory of Consciousness

Towards a Universal Theory of Consciousness

Clipping the Risks: Integrating Consciousness in AGI to Avoid Existential Crises

Toward a universal theory of consciousness

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