Copyright © 2012 by Giulio Tononi
From the forthcoming book PHI: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul, by Giulio Tononi
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This chapter from PHI: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul, by Giulio Tononi (Pantheon, 2012) describes Tononi’s theory of consciousness as a measure of information. The brain, Tononi postulates, consists of billions of neurons: think of them as if they were transistorlike bits that, when tallied, sum to equal more than their parts. That increment above and beyond—Tononi calls it phi—represents the degree to which any being, whether human or mule, remains conscious.
From the forthcoming book PHI: A Voyage from the Brain to the Soul, by Giulio Tononi
Copyright © 2012 by Giulio Tononi
Published by arrangement with Pantheon Books, an imprint of The Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
Integrated Information: The Many and the One
In which is shown that consciousness lives where information is integrated by a single entity above and beyond its parts
When is an entity one entity? How can multiple elements be a single thing? A question simple enough— but one, thought Galileo, that had not yet been answered. Or perhaps, it had not been asked.
The sensor of the digital camera certainly had a large repertoire of states— it could take any possible picture. But was it a single entity? You use the camera as a single entity, you grasp it with your hands as one. You watch the photograph as a single entity. But that is within your own consciousness. If it were not for you, the observer, would it still be a single entity? And what exactly would that mean?
While musing such matters, Galileo was startled by a voice. J., a man with the forehead of an ancient god, addressed him in a polished tone: “Take a sentence of a dozen words, and take twelve men, and tell to each one word. Then stand the men in a row or jam them in a bunch, and let each think of his word as intently as he will; nowhere will there be a consciousness of the whole sentence. Or take a word of a dozen letters, and let each man think of his letter as intently as he will; nowhere will there be a consciousness of the whole word,” J. said.
Or take a picture of one million dots, and take one million photodiodes, and show each photodiode its own dot. Then stand the photodiodes well ordered on a square array, and let each tell light from dark for its own dot, as precisely as it will; nowhere will there be a consciousness of the whole picture, said Galileo. “So you see that, Galileo,” J. continued. “There is no such thing as the spirit of the age, the sentiment of the people, or public opinion. The private minds do not agglomerate into a higher compound mind. They say the whole is more than the sum of its parts; they say, but how can it be so?”
An image came to Galileo. An astronomer was watching the sky in Padua, during an eclipse, and precisely at the same moment, another astronomer was watching the night sky at the antipodes. Would there be a single consciousness contemplating, in one great image, the entire dome of the sky, the austral and boreal skies joined seamlessly at the horizon? A single image of the entire sky, experienced within one consciousness? That was absurd, thought Galileo, and its absurdity had nothing to do with the distance between the scientists. Whether the two were separated by the diameter of the earth, or by a fraction of an inch, like two photodiodes on the camera sensor, made no difference. Because in both cases, the two parties could not interact. And if they could not interact, they could not form a single entity, and they could not have a single, unified conscious experience.
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26 Comments
Add CommentI really wanted to like it, but I think I'll stick with d'Amasio, Llinas and Edelman
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPhi is going to be the science book of the year if not the decade. I suspect a faction of hard-nosed science readers will find Tononi's literary tone somewhat torpid and imprecise but, any interested reader can sample more straightforward scientific analysis in his many papers available online, for free no less. Tononi is a renaissance man with an enlightenment mind and European aesthetic. This book seems like a example of this trifecta par excellence. I can't wait to read the whole thing.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAt the end of the article are "Notes":
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"... If integrated information, measured by Φ (the Greek letter phi), is indeed the weighty concept at the heart of consciousness that it is claimed to be, this chapter introduces it in a rather light- weighted manner. Perhaps the author was trying to avoid equations at all costs, but the result is far from satisfactory. Versions of Φ dressed in equations, but in the end just as unsatisfactory, are found in Tononi and Sporns, BMC Neuroscience (2003); Tononi, BMC Neuroscience (2004); Biological Bulletin (2008); Balduzzi and Tononi, PLoS Computational Biology (2008); Tononi, Archives italiennes de biologie (2010, 2011)..."
I'm confused; who wrote them ? Tononi ?
Yes. It's another literary device he's employing. (Very-meta.)
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThough I have not read the entire book, but excerpts from the book indicates that entire book might have been written in a literary story telling tone. Serious concepts like consciousness, when appearing in Scientific magazine like SA, should appear in language having some semblance of scientific language, tone and tenor.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNevertheless the above, article has not succeeded to put forth some universally recognized definition of consciousness. It states consciousness lies where integrated information Phi, over and above the sum of parts, converges. If integrated information, phi, is consciousness then is Phi a priori for the existence of consciousness. A little pondering will lead to the revelation that consciousness shall exist even without any Phi. This Phi may be generated from external stimulation Or from internally generated signals from memory and imagination.
Integrated information Phi projects a coherent image of the stimulus before the consciousness but per se it is quite different that consciousness.
Eastern mystical thought of Hindus as enshrined in Upnishadas dwell upon the consciousness to be most fundamental in universe.
One of the most fundamental and essential attribute of consciousness is "isness". When coupled with an element "Ahnkar" in causal body, :"isness" transforms to "amness" i.e. "I am". This feeling of "I am" is common in all human individuals. This essential attribute of "amness" is limited up to "I am" only and does not extends to "I am this" or " I am that" unless acted upon by some integrated information
Brain lying in physical body and mind lying in astral body collectively process the stimulus from external or internal environment, finalizes an integrated information Phi and projects a single and coherent whole image before consciousness -- "I am". It is on the projection that consciousness, which hitherto was in the stage of " amness", extends to the stage of " I see that" or " I here this" or " this is this" or "This is that"
The words my consciousness or his consciousness are misnomers. The feeling of "I-ness" or "myness" is so deeply ingrained in consciousness that both can be treated as synonymous. But both are different than information - integrated or non-integrated
Brain lies in the physical body because brain is physical. Mind is not physical, hence, it does not lie in the physical body. Mind is everywhere. If body is a particle, then mind is a wave. It is based on particle- wave duality principle which is the most powerful principle of quantum physics.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisS. N. Tiwary
Director
Utter metaphysical nonsense!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisArguments such as this can be mounted for, say, the liver, or a Boeing 747. Both of which incorporate significant amounts of information.
Consciousness,self-awareness, call it what you will, is a function of the machine (organism), not the components which give rise to that function.
It is necessary for most creatures to be aware of their external environment for navigation to such things as food, shelter, and reproduction.
Sensory awareness of the environment, particularly in higher vertebrates, necessarily involves an awareness of self as part of that environment.
The extraordinarily high capability for imagination (the ability to form and morph neural models of the environment) that is characteristic of our species even allows introspection - consideration of some of our own thought processes.
The trap which leads to metaphysical interpretations such as that advanced by Tononi .
It really is as simple as that.
But no doubt many will still prefer to go chasing moonbeams rather than facing up to prosaic reality and will be seduced by the comfortable wooliness of his pronouncements
Considerations such as these are expanded upon in "The Goldilocks Effect: What Has Serendipity Ever Done For Us?", a free download in e-book formats from my "Unusual Perspectives" website
Imagine that making a web was a higher order thing than consciousness. How would a spider feel about its web? Would it not feel that it was part of itself? A tool appears that aids survival. The more it works the bigger becomes the part of its host dedicated to it. But this tool allows evolution to happen without dying. Ideas can be tested in life. Then the jackpot arrives, using the tool to look at how you use the tool, and reflective thinking is born.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThanks for the reply. It makes me happy to hear he is aware the things he mentions.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this‘ Anthropic Paradox’: By Robert Castleton Wormus
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMan’s probabilistic ‘Evolutionary Process’ has evolved an aggressive, highly intelligent, humanoid animal, capable of fabricating its own, experienced-based, intuitively synthesized ‘virtual’ Reality; and incapable of accepting ‘external’ counter-intuitive Realities.
This synthesized illusion of reality (a hologram in effect) has been well documented in the scientific community.
Recent research in neuroscience has irrefutably proven that the mind actually augments crude two-dimensional, blurred afferent images, sounds, smells, and context clues, like an artist, cleverly using form, dimensionality, animation, colorization, and shadowing; virtually constructing a sharp, clear, crisp ‘illusion’ of the intuitive external
Analogous to the maternal instinct, the human mind protects it’s ‘illusion’ of reality by deploying an armory, the Human Psyche's insurmountably powerful defense mechanisms; first, and most formidable, denial and then, as necessary, rationalization, repression, regression, and dissociation, affectively closing off Man’s mind to the external input of alternate counter-intuitive realities, concepts, or change.
The implications of this are staggeringly immense; although cognizant of this bias early on,, the scientific community was, non-the less blindsided by the shear tenacity of the human psyche;
The ‘conserved parity’ of these perceptions between humans of like universalities corroborates the most astounding concept in modern physics, quantum coherence.
The human incapacity to accept the counter intuitive explains why most of last centuries great scientific discoveries,, namely, the counter intuitive quantum mechanics, special relativity, and general relativity, with their immense prognostic implications, took over twenty years to be taken seriously,, were still minimally applauded, insufficiently funded, and then, delegated to the obscure realm of 'Modern Theoretical Physics'; the equivalence of ‘It's only a Theory’ apathy.
It further explains the inexplicable, mankind’s blatant disregard for his environment, his gluttonous misuse of natural resources, his failure to properly identify universal survival threats, and his apparent apathy towards the future.
Taking this apathy for a ride; the budget cuts affecting our nation’s science programs, the alarming decline in math and science scores, our exit from the active space program, the transplant of Fermi lab, the cancelation of the Web telescope and fusion research.
Mankind’s fate, in light of our Central Nervous System’s ruse, barring intervention from the scientific community, may be the eminent and unelectable human ‘Extinction Event’.
Robert Castleton Wormus, audiologist, physicist, neuroscientist
(310) 953 5939 CA. lic. #s:203 Au.D, 1688 Sp. Path.
‘ Anthropic Paradox’: By Robert Castleton Wormus
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMan’s probabilistic ‘Evolutionary Process’ has evolved an aggressive, highly intelligent, humanoid animal, capable of fabricating its own, experienced-based, intuitively synthesized ‘virtual’ Reality; and incapable of accepting ‘external’ counter-intuitive Realities.
This synthesized illusion of reality (a hologram in effect) has been well documented in the scientific community.
Recent research in neuroscience has irrefutably proven that the mind actually augments crude two-dimensional, blurred afferent images, sounds, smells, and context clues, like an artist, cleverly using form, dimensionality, animation, colorization, and shadowing; virtually constructing a sharp, clear, crisp ‘illusion’ of the intuitive external
Analogous to the maternal instinct, the human mind protects it’s ‘illusion’ of reality by deploying an armory, the Human Psyche's insurmountably powerful defense mechanisms; first, and most formidable, denial and then, as necessary, rationalization, repression, regression, and dissociation, affectively closing off Man’s mind to the external input of alternate counter-intuitive realities, concepts, or change.
The implications of this are staggeringly immense; although cognizant of this bias early on,, the scientific community was, non-the less blindsided by the shear tenacity of the human psyche;
The ‘conserved parity’ of these perceptions between humans of like universalities corroborates the most astounding concept in modern physics, quantum coherence.
The human incapacity to accept the counter intuitive explains why most of last centuries great scientific discoveries,, namely, the counter intuitive quantum mechanics, special relativity, and general relativity, with their immense prognostic implications, took over twenty years to be taken seriously,, were still minimally applauded, insufficiently funded, and then, delegated to the obscure realm of 'Modern Theoretical Physics'; the equivalence of ‘It's only a Theory’ apathy.
It further explains the inexplicable, mankind’s blatant disregard for his environment, his gluttonous misuse of natural resources, his failure to properly identify universal survival threats, and his apparent apathy towards the future.
Taking this apathy for a ride; the budget cuts affecting our nation’s science programs, the alarming decline in math and science scores, our exit from the active space program, the transplant of Fermi lab, the cancelation of the Web telescope and fusion research.
Mankind’s fate, in light of our Central Nervous System’s ruse, barring intervention from the scientific community, may be the eminent and unelectable human ‘Extinction Event’.
Robert Castleton Wormus, audiologist, physicist, neuroscientist
(310) 953 5939 CA. lic. #s:203 Au.D, 1688 Sp. Path.
‘ Anthropic Paradox’: By Robert Castleton Wormus
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMan’s probabilistic ‘Evolutionary Process’ has evolved an aggressive, highly intelligent, humanoid animal, capable of fabricating its own, experienced-based, intuitively synthesized ‘virtual’ Reality; and incapable of accepting ‘external’ counter-intuitive Realities.
This synthesized illusion of reality (a hologram in effect) has been well documented in the scientific community.
Recent research in neuroscience has irrefutably proven that the mind actually augments crude two-dimensional, blurred afferent images, sounds, smells, and context clues, like an artist, cleverly using form, dimensionality, animation, colorization, and shadowing; virtually constructing a sharp, clear, crisp ‘illusion’ of the intuitive external
Analogous to the maternal instinct, the human mind protects it’s ‘illusion’ of reality by deploying an armory, the Human Psyche's insurmountably powerful defense mechanisms; first, and most formidable, denial and then, as necessary, rationalization, repression, regression, and dissociation, affectively closing off Man’s mind to the external input of alternate counter-intuitive realities, concepts, or change.
The implications of this are staggeringly immense; although cognizant of this bias early on,, the scientific community was, non-the less blindsided by the shear tenacity of the human psyche;
The ‘conserved parity’ of these perceptions between humans of like universalities corroborates the most astounding concept in modern physics, quantum coherence.
The human incapacity to accept the counter intuitive explains why most of last centuries great scientific discoveries,, namely, the counter intuitive quantum mechanics, special relativity, and general relativity, with their immense prognostic implications, took over twenty years to be taken seriously,, were still minimally applauded, insufficiently funded, and then, delegated to the obscure realm of 'Modern Theoretical Physics'; the equivalence of ‘It's only a Theory’ apathy.
It further explains the inexplicable, mankind’s blatant disregard for his environment, his gluttonous misuse of natural resources, his failure to properly identify universal survival threats, and his apparent apathy towards the future.
Taking this apathy for a ride; the budget cuts affecting our nation’s science programs, the alarming decline in math and science scores, our exit from the active space program, the transplant of Fermi lab, the cancelation of the Web telescope and fusion research.
Mankind’s fate, in light of our Central Nervous System’s ruse, barring intervention from the scientific community, may be the eminent and unelectable human ‘Extinction Event’.
Robert Castleton Wormus, audiologist, physicist, neuroscientist
(310) 953 5939 CA. lic. #s:203 Au.D, 1688 Sp. Path.
‘ Anthropic Paradox’: By Robert Castleton Wormus
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisMan’s probabilistic ‘Evolutionary Process’ has evolved an aggressive, highly intelligent, humanoid animal, capable of fabricating its own, experienced-based, intuitively synthesized ‘virtual’ Reality; and incapable of accepting ‘external’ counter-intuitive Realities.
This synthesized illusion of reality (a hologram in effect) has been well documented in the scientific community.
Recent research in neuroscience has irrefutably proven that the mind actually augments crude two-dimensional, blurred afferent images, sounds, smells, and context clues, like an artist, cleverly using form, dimensionality, animation, colorization, and shadowing; virtually constructing a sharp, clear, crisp ‘illusion’ of the intuitive external
Analogous to the maternal instinct, the human mind protects it’s ‘illusion’ of reality by deploying an armory, the Human Psyche's insurmountably powerful defense mechanisms; first, and most formidable, denial and then, as necessary, rationalization, repression, regression, and dissociation, affectively closing off Man’s mind to the external input of alternate counter-intuitive realities, concepts, or change.
The implications of this are staggeringly immense; although cognizant of this bias early on,, the scientific community was, non-the less blindsided by the shear tenacity of the human psyche;
The ‘conserved parity’ of these perceptions between humans of like universalities corroborates the most astounding concept in modern physics, quantum coherence.
The human incapacity to accept the counter intuitive explains why most of last centuries great scientific discoveries,, namely, the counter intuitive quantum mechanics, special relativity, and general relativity, with their immense prognostic implications, took over twenty years to be taken seriously,, were still minimally applauded, insufficiently funded, and then, delegated to the obscure realm of 'Modern Theoretical Physics'; the equivalence of ‘It's only a Theory’ apathy.
It further explains the inexplicable, mankind’s blatant disregard for his environment, his gluttonous misuse of natural resources, his failure to properly identify universal survival threats, and his apparent apathy towards the future.
Taking this apathy for a ride; the budget cuts affecting our nation’s science programs, the alarming decline in math and science scores, our exit from the active space program, the transplant of Fermi lab, the cancelation of the Web telescope and fusion research.
Mankind’s fate, in light of our Central Nervous System’s ruse, barring intervention from the scientific community, may be the eminent and unelectable human ‘Extinction Event’.
Robert Castleton Wormus, audiologist, physicist, neuroscientist
(310) 953 5939 CA. lic. #s:203 Au.D, 1688 Sp. Path.
In short...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"There is insufficient data for a meaningful answer."
---Isaac Asimov
If consciousness is an illusion, then what, exactly, is being fooled?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm sure you're as simple as that.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThis idea is KEY to consciousness. There is a mind-blowing book by Steven E. Romer called "The Textbook of the Universe: The Genetic Ascent to God" which discusses these exact points, and gives a new experimental methodology to test them, with many strange but interesting examples, in his book. That book talks about this being a huge revolution in thought and I think it is. I have been waiting for the ideas to catch on. Romer ties this in to the whole trajectory of human thought and it just makes so much sense. For example, the litmus of success in evolution should not be "the fittest" but actually an information-base criteria for success. That's not always politicaly-correct though -- because it puts humans squarely at the pinnacle and especially Europeans (and Romer says so in the book, yeesh!). Even with that one drawback to the book I highly recommend it. I think you can find it free online now. It was originally published back in 2003 I found it on Amazon a few years ago.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOOPS, I left out of my comment that the main thing Romer (2003) talks about that is the most interesting is ths "oneness" Idea that Tonini also uses. He uses the words "fundamental unity" or "unity" more often I think, but That is the key. He relates it to the perception of meaning in linguistics like this author does too -- and also relates it to reflected or repeating themes in the structre of reality and to the ideas of symmetry and conservation in natural law.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisS so much nonsense....In summary Consciense is the synthesis of experience, data collected and use. all this is in a wet salty- electrified container that is shaken and stirred as our day progresses.....thus new ideas in different forms and designs. The question is When will a superior intelligence emerge- dry intelligence to handle our environment outside our wet world? The natural progression for our urge to survive by exploration of other environments. Wet or dry, electrical or dimensional life travels on. It is our nature to evolve as necessary. Ron Martino, thinker
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThank you for your excellent article. Let, me please, write something:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHussrel says: consciousness is the consciousness of something.
Sartre says: we can not oppose interior to exterior.the existence is a total series of appearances. These appearances are the condition of all understanding. A table, outside, exists as a center for the consciousness. We need an infinite( series?) process to understand an object. The infinite in a finite interval. Like infinite numbers between two numbers. If you face a lion, you become one with the lion and no exterior and interior!
Mind and intelligence are the emergent products of consciousness but not the vice versa. This is an erroneous interpretation of modern neuro science that consciousness emerges out from mental functions which in turn emanate from neuronal functions in brain. Core mystical discoveries of Eastern Religions especially Hinduism had declared millennia ago that consciousness is more fundamental than mind/intelligence and mind is more fundamental than brain (matter). They had asserted that consciousness is neither mind and intelligence nor body and brain BUT it is the Ultimate Perceiver of mind and body. In addition to being ultimate end point of the chain of perception, consciousness acts upon mind and body(brain) to create intelligence in human beings.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisWithout subscribing to above line of thinking, all endeavors to understand consciousness will lead to erroneous and even bizarre interpretation.
I feel like I'm reading a variation of Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach, an Eternal Golden Braid. And I come away with the same questions and the same answers. Another attempt at explaining consciousness without explaining experience, or what it feels like to be ....
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFun but ultimately unsatisfying.
Consciousness is like aware of existence of being existing , infinite loop, you cant crack infinite loop computationally , it can theorised but cannot be made into mathematics , thats where maths breaks down , in a burst of 1000000 of second , electron is at millions of place at the same time , in that way its not readily known that in what perspective we are calculating the conciousness , the value is too much bigger , its that particle which is constantly revolving in the universe , speeding and its has power which tells oh i m conscious of my self , then that myself is conscious is conscious of itself , so its like framing video camera back at television , which makes very difficult to find which was the first step for creating the loop , initialising of that event , same is for particles in the unvierse ,from which universe they got fired is really hard to predict ,its a feedback loop , you can know where it started , so difficult to break down existence .
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisRegards
Anshul Katta
The Google experiment in which an untrained neural network learned to discover groups of similar patterns by observing youtube video's showing these patterns. The largest group contained patterns resembling cats.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIf a neural network NN could observe itself in the same way, i.e. via real-time video images, it could also learn to discover a pattern NNp resembling it's physical appearance during observing the video's.
Although in this way NN is observing NNp, which is a representation of itself, if it cannot recognize that it is doing so, because otherwise a connection between between NN and NNp would be established.
I think the brain of e.g. a frog works in the same way. It believes anything it is able to perceive and it is not able to direct or correct its actions other than intuitively.
I use believing here as "not questioning perceptions" and perception as the inflow of information via its physical senses
Perceptions include information about its own physical and mental states. Our intuition works in the same way.
Brains learn by recognizing patterns. Two different senses which are receiving coherent information due to a specific physical phenomena, e.g. sitting under the sun, become connected, in this case the primitive sensations light and heat. In a more complex way a predator could connect higher level sensations in the brain of its prey, in this case hearing the predator and seeing it, which requires the ability to recognise the predator by seeing or hearing it. This ability requires more learning than connecting light and heat. This is possible, because in a way the stuff that is learned, is added to the stuff that is doing the learning. *)
Once the brain (NN) is able to distinguish information about its own physical and mental states (NNi pattern from introspection) and from information it receives about itself from the outside world (NNp pattern), it is able to recognize the coherence between the first (NNi) and what it perceives from itself from the second (NNp), so that a connection is made between NNi and NNp. This is where a tiny "i" is born. Because this "i" is confirmed again and again, it grows to the "I" we know.
Our "I" is normally take as granted, but it seems a mystery if we think about it. For me, it looks like any other problem that waits for a more detailed answer.
The peculiar thing is, that NN itself is not perceived as something that is taking part in this process.
My conclusion is, that you could consider "I" as an illusion; but for me it is the closest approximation of the real "I" we can achieve.
*) This is the ''strange loop'' of Douglas Hofstadter in action. It refers to the self-reference that takes place when the stuff the brain has learned becomes stuff of the brain itself. That is why Hofstadter talked about Goedel, Escher and Bach, because Goedel as a mathematician, Escher as an artist and Bach as a composer were contemplating self-reference in their work.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDue to truncation, some sentences in reaction 24 contain grammatical errors, please accept my apologies.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI want to add the following references.
- Building High-level Features Using Large Scale Unsupervised Learning - (the Google experiment, see http://arxiv.org/pdf/1112.6209v5.pdf)
- PARANORMALITY Why We See What Isn't There - Richard Wiseman
- The Most Human Human - Brian Christian
- Now You See It - Cathy Davidson
- I Am A Strange Loop - Douglas Hofstadter
- The Mind's I - Douglas Hofstadter & Daniel Dennett
- How We Decide - Jonah Lehrer
- Using modular neural networks to model self-consciousness and selfrepresentation for artificial entities (http://www.naun.org/multimedia/NAUN/mcs/mcs-88.pdf)