KOCH C. THE FEELING OF LIFE ITSELF : WHY CONSCIOUSNESS IS WIDESPREAD, BUT CAN’T BE COMPUTED. - CAMBRIDGE, MASSACHUSETTS: L., ENGLAND : THE MIT PRESS, 2019. - 280 P

Naukovedenie ◽  
2021 ◽  
pp. 82-94
Author(s):  
Mikhail Sushchin ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Information Integration ◽  
Digital Computer ◽  
Quantitative Assessment ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
Future Technology ◽  
Conceptual Apparatus ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Life Itself ◽  
Integrated Information

In his new book «The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread, But Can’t Be Computed» C. Koch develops the account of the phenomenon of consciousness from the standpoint of the theory of integrated information proposed by the Italian neuroscientist G. Tononi. The starting point of this theory is the attempt to single out the most important properties of the consciousness itself and, on this basis, to determine what kind of physical systems are capable of having experience. According to the proponents of the theory of integrated information, the key properties of experience include its intrinsic existence, its composition, information, integration, and exclusion. From the statements describing the properties of consciousness, called axioms, the theory derives the statements about the properties of the physical substrate of experience, which are called postulates. The theory of integrated information claims to develop a conceptual apparatus for an exact quantitative assessment of the level of possible experience in any system. This theory formulates several interesting predictions, including the possibility of merging many individual experiences into a single experience, if with the help of some future technology an information bridge is established between the substrates that implement them, and also that consciousness cannot be obtained as a result of simulation on a digital computer.

scholarly journals From devotion to commitment: Towards a critical ontology of engagement

2021 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 261-281
Author(s):  
Andrea Perunovic
Keyword(s):  
History Of Philosophy ◽  
Semantic Field ◽  
Comparative Linguistics ◽  
Conceptual Apparatus ◽  
Critical Ontology ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Binary Oppositions ◽  
Light Darkness ◽  
History Of

This article approaches the notion of engagement from the perspective of critical ontology. With language as the starting point of its hermeneutic task, it commences with an etymological analyses of diverse Indo-European words gravitating around the semantic field of the notion of engagement. From these introductory insights obtained by an exercise in comparative linguistics, devotion and commitment are mapped as two opposite, yet inseparable, modes of being of engagement. Both of these modes seem to condition engagement in an ontologically disparate manner. While examining their fundamental structures, some of the canonical concepts of history of philosophy such as being, existence, subjectivity, or world - and also some of its constitutive binary oppositions such as body/mind, individual/collective, transcendence/immanence, light/darkness and sacred/secular - will be reconsidered through the prism of different ontological dispositions that devotion and commitment impose respectively on engagement. The overall aim of this investigation is to bring forth the main existential characteristics of being-engaged, by interpreting the roles of who, where, and what of engagement, and in order to provide a fundamental conceptual apparatus for a critical ontology of engagement.

scholarly journals Readiness assessment of information integration in a hospital using an analytic network process method for decision-making in a healthcare network

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 184797901989931 ◽  
Author(s):  
Soontorn Lancharoen ◽  
Poonpong Suksawang ◽  
Thanakorn Naenna
Keyword(s):  
Information Integration ◽  
Research Method ◽  
Analytic Network Process ◽  
Hospital Performance ◽  
Healthcare Industry ◽  
Readiness Assessment ◽  
Healthcare Network ◽  
Network Process ◽  
Process Method ◽  
Integrated Information

This study contributes to the promotion of healthcare information integration and readiness assessment of the factors impacted by quality improvement in hospital performance, which is beneficial for developing the healthcare industry because errors or integrated information can significantly affect the safety of patients and their confidence in the healthcare system. This research method is proposed to identify and confirm capability factors after readiness assessment with empirical testing, and the data were collected from hospitals in Thailand. An analytic network process was used as a tool for calculating and testing the readiness assessment of the integrated information results. The results show factor improvement of information integration and effects on the performance of hospitals in the healthcare industry. Three capability factors were found to have a significant impact on information integration and hospital performance. The model analysis suggests that the identified capability factors (organizational, group and individual) should be improved with regard to information integration, which is used to evaluate performance in the healthcare industry, and this risk assessment may be useful in other relevant industries.

scholarly journals Complexity as Causal Information Integration

Entropy ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (10) ◽  
pp. 1107
Author(s):  
Carlotta Langer ◽  
Nihat Ay
Keyword(s):  
Information Integration ◽  
Latent Variable ◽  
Graphical Representation ◽  
Complexity Measures ◽  
Causal Information ◽  
Information Measures ◽  
Causal Connections ◽  
Alternative Approach ◽  
The Em Algorithm ◽  
Integrated Information

Complexity measures in the context of the Integrated Information Theory of consciousness try to quantify the strength of the causal connections between different neurons. This is done by minimizing the KL-divergence between a full system and one without causal cross-connections. Various measures have been proposed and compared in this setting. We will discuss a class of information geometric measures that aim at assessing the intrinsic causal cross-influences in a system. One promising candidate of these measures, denoted by ΦCIS, is based on conditional independence statements and does satisfy all of the properties that have been postulated as desirable. Unfortunately it does not have a graphical representation, which makes it less intuitive and difficult to analyze. We propose an alternative approach using a latent variable, which models a common exterior influence. This leads to a measure ΦCII, Causal Information Integration, that satisfies all of the required conditions. Our measure can be calculated using an iterative information geometric algorithm, the em-algorithm. Therefore we are able to compare its behavior to existing integrated information measures.

The Integration of Sports Information in Personalized Network

2014 ◽  
Vol 644-650 ◽  
pp. 3124-3128
Author(s):  
Huan Zhao ◽  
Qiu Hong Wu ◽  
Jian Bo Zhao
Keyword(s):  
Information Integration ◽  
Information Service ◽  
Digital Information ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
Sports Information ◽  
The Individual

Digital information service is an important topic, which is based on the personalized information service, therefore, this paper takes individualized information service and information integration as the starting point to analyze and discuss the reason of information integration. Moreover, it takes the individual requirements of users as the basis according to the user-oriented principle, putting forward the concept of personalized information integration.

scholarly journals Consciousness: here, there and everywhere?

2015 ◽  
Vol 370 (1668) ◽  
pp. 20140167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giulio Tononi ◽  
Christof Koch
Keyword(s):  
Information Integration ◽  
Mammalian Species ◽  
Fundamental Property ◽  
Laboratory Findings ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
Physical Mechanisms ◽  
Basic Facts ◽  
Principled Account ◽  
Simple Systems

The science of consciousness has made great strides by focusing on the behavioural and neuronal correlates of experience. However, while such correlates are important for progress to occur, they are not enough if we are to understand even basic facts, for example, why the cerebral cortex gives rise to consciousness but the cerebellum does not, though it has even more neurons and appears to be just as complicated. Moreover, correlates are of little help in many instances where we would like to know if consciousness is present: patients with a few remaining islands of functioning cortex, preterm infants, non-mammalian species and machines that are rapidly outperforming people at driving, recognizing faces and objects, and answering difficult questions. To address these issues, we need not only more data but also a theory of consciousness—one that says what experience is and what type of physical systems can have it. Integrated information theory (IIT) does so by starting from experience itself via five phenomenological axioms: intrinsic existence, composition, information, integration and exclusion . From these it derives five postulates about the properties required of physical mechanisms to support consciousness. The theory provides a principled account of both the quantity and the quality of an individual experience (a quale), and a calculus to evaluate whether or not a particular physical system is conscious and of what. Moreover, IIT can explain a range of clinical and laboratory findings, makes a number of testable predictions and extrapolates to a number of problematic conditions. The theory holds that consciousness is a fundamental property possessed by physical systems having specific causal properties. It predicts that consciousness is graded, is common among biological organisms and can occur in some very simple systems. Conversely, it predicts that feed-forward networks, even complex ones, are not conscious, nor are aggregates such as groups of individuals or heaps of sand. Also, in sharp contrast to widespread functionalist beliefs, IIT implies that digital computers, even if their behaviour were to be functionally equivalent to ours, and even if they were to run faithful simulations of the human brain, would experience next to nothing.

scholarly journals A Synergistic Workspace for Human Consciousness Revealed by Integrated Information Decomposition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea I. Luppi ◽  
Pedro A.M. Mediano ◽  
Fernando E. Rosas ◽  
Judith Allanson ◽  
John D. Pickard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Information Processing ◽  
Human Brain ◽  
Information Integration ◽  
Conscious Experience ◽  
Human Information Processing ◽  
Loss Of Consciousness ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Human Consciousness ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Integrated Information

AbstractA central goal of neuroscience is to understand how the brain synthesises information from multiple inputs to give rise to a unified conscious experience. This process is widely believed to require integration of information. Here, we combine information theory and network science to address two fundamental questions: how is the human information-processing architecture functionally organised? And how does this organisation support human consciousness? To address these questions, we leverage the mathematical framework of Integrated Information Decomposition to delineate a cognitive architecture wherein specialised modules interact with a “synergistic global workspace,” comprising functionally distinct gateways and broadcasters. Gateway regions gather information from the specialised modules for processing in the synergistic workspace, whose contents are then further integrated to later be made widely available by broadcasters. Through data-driven analysis of resting-state functional MRI, we reveal that gateway regions correspond to the brain’s well-known default mode network, whereas broadcasters of information coincide with the executive control network. Demonstrating that this synergistic workspace supports human consciousness, we further apply Integrated Information Decomposition to BOLD signals to compute integrated information across the brain. By comparing changes due to propofol anaesthesia and severe brain injury, we demonstrate that most changes in integrated information happen within the synergistic workspace. Furthermore, it was found that loss of consciousness corresponds to reduced integrated information between gateway, but not broadcaster, regions of the synergistic workspace. Thus, loss of consciousness may coincide with breakdown of information integration by this synergistic workspace of the human brain. Together, these findings demonstrate that refining our understanding of information-processing in the human brain through Integrated Information Decomposition can provide powerful insights into the human neurocognitive architecture, and its role in supporting consciousness.

A Survey on Industrial Information Integration 2016–2019

2020 ◽  
Vol 05 (01) ◽  
pp. 33-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yong Chen
Keyword(s):  
Internet Of Things ◽  
Information Integration ◽  
Smart Grids ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Smart Manufacturing ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Industrial Internet Of Things ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
Industrial Internet ◽  
Industrial Information Integration

Industrial information integration engineering (IIIE) is a set of foundational concepts and techniques that facilitate the industrial information integration process. In recent years, many applications of the integration between Internet of Things (IoT) and IIIE have become available, including industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), cyber-physical systems, smart grids, and smart manufacturing. In order to investigate the latest achievements of studies on IIIE, this paper reviews literatures from 2016 to 2019 in IEEEXplore and Web of Science. Altogether, 970 papers related to IIIE are grouped into 27 research categories and reviewed. The results present up-to-date development of IIIE and provide directions for future research on IIIE.

scholarly journals Exclusion and Underdetermined Qualia

Entropy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kyumin Moon
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Theoretical Foundation ◽  
Practical Application ◽  
Scientific Content ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
Theoretical Structure ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Integrated Information Theory ◽  
Integrated Information

Integrated information theory (IIT) asserts that both the level and the quality of consciousness can be explained by the ability of physical systems to integrate information. Although the scientific content and empirical prospects of IIT have attracted interest, this paper focuses on another aspect of IIT, its unique theoretical structure, which relates the phenomenological axioms with the ontological postulates. In particular, the relationship between the exclusion axiom and the exclusion postulate is unclear. Moreover, the exclusion postulate leads to a serious problem in IIT: the quale underdetermination problem. Therefore, in this paper, I will explore answers to the following three questions: (1) how does the exclusion axiom lead to the exclusion postulate? (2) How does the exclusion postulate cause the qualia underdetermination problem? (3) Is there a solution to this problem? I will provide proposals and arguments for each question. If successful, IIT can be confirmed with respect to, not only its theoretical foundation, but also its practical application.

Integrated Information Theory, Intrinsicality, and Overlapping Conscious Systems

2021 ◽  
Vol 28 (11) ◽  
pp. 31-53
Author(s):  
James C. Blackmon
Keyword(s):  
Information Theory ◽  
Physical System ◽  
Maximum Amount ◽  
Physical Systems ◽  
Integrated Information Theory ◽  
Integrated Information

Integrated information theory (IIT) identifies consciousness with having a maximum amount of integrated information. But a thing's having the maximum amount of anything cannot be intrinsic to it, for that depends on how that thing compares to certain other things. IIT's consciousness, then, is not intrinsic. A mereological argument elaborates this consequence: IIT implies that one physical system can be conscious while a physical duplicate of it is not conscious. Thus, by a common and reasonable conception of intrinsicality, IIT's consciousness is not intrinsic. It is then argued that to avoid the implication that consciousness is not intrinsic, IIT must abandon its exclusion postulate, which prohibits overlapping conscious systems. Indeed, theories of consciousness that attribute consciousness to physical systems should embrace the view that some conscious systems overlap. A discussion of the admittedly counterintuitive nature of this solution, along with some medical and neuroscientific realities that would seem to support it, is included.

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