TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

A place for discussion of ideas presented in the BothAndBlog, or relevant to the Enformationism thesis.
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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Wed Jan 27, 2021 6:01 pm

but something critical to consciousness is awareness of time (past, present, future). — Outlander

Yes. Human consciousness has always been assumed to be awareness of the immediate present. But recent studies have shown that our awareness is always a beat behind the actual event. Part of that delay is the split-second it takes for processing of incoming information. But another part seems to be due to the necessity to compare the new information with memory, in order to assign it to a meaningful category of our worldview -- to make sense of it. So, our Present is always in the recent Past, and our projections into the future are mostly extrapolations from memory.

What is human consciousness, as in consciousness that is allocated/available solely to humans? A mere advanced form of this or something much greater we've yet to understand? — Outlander

I'm not aware of any evidence to indicate that human consciousness is significantly different from animal consciousness, or even from that of single-cell organisms. So it seems to be just a higher degree of general awareness (integrated information) of the internal milieu & external environment. Some have proposed that a moral conscience is added to animal consciousness along with the human soul. But almost all animated creatures appear to have some degree of social awareness & altruism. Yet, only humans seem to generalize that Me & You concept into abstract symbols & shareable words & viral memes.

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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Wed Jan 27, 2021 6:06 pm

You're almost there but I think Damasio is more successful describing emotions and feelings (they re not the same thing). — Raul

Yes. I was not trying to provide a complete analysis of the difference between visceral Emotions and mental Feelings.

Feeling our Emotions : For centuries, the fleeting and highly subjective world of feelings was the purview of philosophers. But during the past 30 years, Antonio R. Damasio has strived to show that feelings are what arise as the brain interprets emotions, which are themselves purely physical signals of the body reacting to external stimuli.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... -emotions/

motivating forms of physical Energy — Gnomon
Ufff... here you lost me. — Raul

I was making an obscure reference to Damasio's distinction between physical Emotions and metaphysical Feelings, as abbreviated in the previous post.

Generic Information or EnFormAction — Gnomon
Lost again, your theory of consciousness is too long to digest but I'm curious on what you think about the Phi of Tononi and his IIT. Thanks. — Raul

Sorry. My Enformationism Thesis proposes a new paradigm of empirical physical Science & theoretical metaphysical Philosophy. So, it uses a lot of neologisms that combine some modern reductive materialistic concepts with ancient holistic incorporeal notions. You'd have to be really motivated to expend the mental energy to completely comprehend that novel worldview. In this forum, I'm only giving glimpses of that strange new world. The concept of Integrated Information is a highly technical version of the old idea of Holism : that a whole integrated system (such as a human brain) has new properties/qualities (self-consciousness) that are not evident in its component parts (neurons).

Universal Consciousness :
* Because the problem of consciousness is a problem of definitions, some neuroscientists have decided to stick their necks out and define it. A popular recent definition is contained in integrated information theory, proposed by Guilio Tononi and Cristoph Koch. An apparent consequence of their definition is that pretty much anything can be conscious if it has the right sort of "information integratedness". A philosopher named Eric Schwitzgebel ran with this line of thinking, and attempted to show that If Materialism Is True, the United States Is Probably Conscious.
* To their credit, Tononi and Koch seem to have bitten the bullet and accepted a form of panpsychism — the idea that everything is conscious. Some philosophers dislike it when definitions are too broad : they call the process "bloating". But, it's a useful concept in my opinion. If everything from electrons to galaxies is somewhat conscious (by virtue of being somewhere on the "information integratedness" scale) then the concept of Consciousness becomes less useful as a descriptor of observable phenomena. (But then again, perhaps we never actually observe consciousness anyway. We observe with consciousness. Consciousness itself seems to have no material attributes: it is only the objects or targets of consciousness that have attributes. )

http://www.bothandblog.enformationism.info/page26.html

Generic Information :
Information is Generic in the sense of generating all forms from a formless pool of possibility -- the Platonic Forms.
http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page29.html
Note -- this use of "Generic" is not based on the common dictionary definition, but on the root meaning : "to generate novelty" or "to produce offspring".

The EnFormAction Hypothesis : http://bothandblog3.enformationism.info/page23.html

Post Note : Enformationism is New Ageism without the magic, and Scientism without the materialistic dogma.

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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:30 pm

You're almost there but I think Damasio is more successful describing emotions and feelings (they re not the same thing). — Raul

Yes. I was not trying to provide a complete analysis of the difference between visceral Emotions and mental Feelings. :smile:

Feeling our Emotions
: For centuries, the fleeting and highly subjective world of feelings was the purview of philosophers. But during the past 30 years, Antonio R. Damasio has strived to show that feelings are what arise as the brain interprets emotions, which are themselves purely physical signals of the body reacting to external stimuli.
https://www.scientificamerican.com/arti ... -emotions/

motivating forms of physical Energy — Gnomon
Ufff... here you lost me. — Raul

I was making an obscure reference to Damasio's distinction between physical Emotions and metaphysical Feelings, as abbreviated in the previous post. :nerd:

Generic Information or EnFormAction — Gnomon
Lost again, your theory of consciousness is too long to digest but I'm curious on what you think about the Phi of Tononi and his IIT. Thanks. — Raul

Sorry. My Enformationism Thesis proposes a new paradigm of empirical physical Science & theoretical metaphysical Philosophy. So, it uses a lot of neologisms that combine some modern reductive materialistic concepts with ancient holistic incorporeal notions. You'd have to be really motivated to expend the mental energy to completely comprehend that novel worldview. In this forum, I'm only giving glimpses of that strange new world. The concept of Integrated Information is a highly technical version of the old idea of Holism : that a whole integrated system (such as a human brain) has new properties/qualities (self-consciousness) that are not evident in its component parts (neurons). :cool:

Universal Consciousness :
* Because the problem of consciousness is a problem of definitions, some neuroscientists have decided to stick their necks out and define it. A popular recent definition is contained in integrated information theory, proposed by Guilio Tononi and Cristoph Koch. An apparent consequence of their definition is that pretty much anything can be conscious if it has the right sort of "information integratedness". A philosopher named Eric Schwitzgebel ran with this line of thinking, and attempted to show that If Materialism Is True, the United States Is Probably Conscious.
* To their credit, Tononi and Koch seem to have bitten the bullet and accepted a form of panpsychism — the idea that everything is conscious. Some philosophers dislike it when definitions are too broad : they call the process "bloating". But, it's a useful concept in my opinion. If everything from electrons to galaxies is somewhat conscious (by virtue of being somewhere on the "information integratedness" scale) then the concept of Consciousness becomes less useful as a descriptor of observable phenomena. (But then again, perhaps we never actually observe consciousness anyway. We observe with consciousness. Consciousness itself seems to have no material attributes: it is only the objects or targets of consciousness that have attributes. )

http://www.bothandblog.enformationism.info/page26.html

Generic Information :
Information is Generic in the sense of generating all forms from a formless pool of possibility -- the Platonic Forms.
http://bothandblog2.enformationism.info/page29.html
Note -- this use of "Generic" is not based on the common dictionary definition, but on the root meaning : "to generate novelty" or "to produce offspring".

The EnFormAction Hypothesis
: http://bothandblog3.enformationism.info/page23.html

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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:32 pm

Why metaphysical feelings? What does a feeling be metaphysical? — Raul

Perhaps you interpret "metaphysics" as the study of unreality, or of the supernatural. But that's not what I'm saying.

I have a unique definition of Meta-Physics that was derived from Aristotle's second volume of his Physics, and is tailored to fit my personal worldview of Enformationism. Basically, the natural, but immaterial, phenomenon that we call "Mind" or "Consciousness", is what I call Meta-Physics : the non-physical aspect of our world. Another term for this category is "Subjective Reality" Since we can't study the Mind empirically, we must investigate it philosophically. :smile:

Meta-physics :
The branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality, including the relationship between mind and matter, substance and attribute, fact and value.
1. Often dismissed by materialists as idle speculation on topics not amenable to empirical proof.
2. Aristotle divided his treatise on science into two parts. The world as-known-via-the-senses was labeled “physics” - what we call "Science" today. And the world as-known-by-the-mind, by reason, was labeled “metaphysics” - what we now call "Philosophy" .
3. Plato called the unseen world that hides behind the physical façade: “Ideal” as opposed to Real. For him, Ideal “forms” (concepts) were prior-to the Real “substance” (matter).
4. Physics refers to the things we perceive with the eye of the body. Meta-physics refers to the things we conceive with the eye of the mind. Meta-physics includes the properties, and qualities, and functions that make a thing what it is. Matter is just the clay from which a thing is made. Meta-physics is the design (form, purpose); physics is the product (shape, action). The act of creation brings an ideal design into actual existence. The design concept is the “formal” cause of the thing designed.
5. I use a hyphen in the spelling to indicate that I am not talking about Ghosts and Magic, but about Ontology (science of being).

http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page14.html

Physics & Metaphysics
:
Two sides of the same coin we call Reality. When we look for matters of fact, we see physics. But when we search for meaning, we find meta-physics. A mental flip is required to view the other side. And imagination is necessary to see both at the same time.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page14.html

Physics and metaphysics
:
Aristotle divided the theoretical sciences into three groups: physics, mathematics, and theology. Physics as he understood it was equivalent to what would now be called “natural philosophy,” or the study of nature (physis); in this sense it encompasses not only the modern field of physics but also biology, chemistry, geology, psychology, and even meteorology. Metaphysics, however, is notably absent from Aristotle’s classification; indeed, he never uses the word, which first appears in the posthumous catalog of his writings as a name for the works listed after the Physics. He does, however, recognize the branch of philosophy now called metaphysics: he calls it “first philosophy” and defines it as the discipline that studies “being as being.”
https://www.britannica.com/biography/Ar ... etaphysics

Science and metaphysics must work together
:
https://aeon.co/essays/science-and-meta ... -questions

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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:34 pm

Searle says that as well. I disagree, I do not understand IIT as a form of panpsychism but I understand why many people think this way. — Raul

Even Christof Koch, a major proponent of IIT, refers to it as a modern form of Panpsychism. I understand why they use that common-but-outdated term. Yet, I think it has been misused by New Agers to imply all sorts of spooky notions. So, my own version of an all-mind world would be "PanEnformationism". Information is universal, but Consciousness & Subjectivity are limited to a few brainy animals at the top of the food chain.

Unlike PP, PE doesn't imply that everything in the world has a spiritual or mental or magical aspect. Instead, Enformationism is all natural, no magical. It explains how subjective Minds, and other Meta-Physical aspects of the world could arise from a kernel of EnFormAction (creative energy) in the Big Bang, by means of Darwinian evolution, and with no supernatural intervention beyond that initial setup. :cool:

Panspiritualism : Enformationism vs Panpsychism
http://bothandblog5.enformationism.info/page32.html

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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:36 pm

What is the novelty and the implications of your Enformation? — Raul

Enformationism
is merely my coinage for the cutting-edge concept in Physics & Cosmology, that everything in the world is a form of Information : Energy, Matter & Mind. The novelty that I have added is to make it a topic for study in Philosophy, specifically in Metaphysics : the branch of philosophy that deals with the first principles of things, including abstract concepts such as being, knowing, substance, cause, identity, time, and space.

The Cosmic implications of Enformationism are what I am exploring in my blog and in these Forum posts. Perhaps the primary significance of that novel worldview is as a replacement for the ancient outdated paradigms of Materialism and Spiritualism. Modern Science has weakened the hold of Spiritualism on the mind of the masses. And Quantum Theory has undermined the once-solid foundation of Materialism, with amorphous Fields and Virtual particles. But Enformationism is a way to put the Meta-Physical puzzle back together again.

Hey, it works for me. But, I'm not holding my breath, waiting for the next momentous Paradigm Shift, that was prophesied by New Age heralds, and fringey physicists steeped in Eastern philosophy. For me, it's just a personal worldview. :yum:

Everything is Information : Physicist John Wheeler coined the term black hole. ... Wheeler said the universe had three parts: First, “Everything is Particles,” second, “Everything is Fields,” and third, “Everything is information"
https://bigthink.com/philip-perry/the-b ... nformation

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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:39 pm

By the way, in your Enformation concept I think you're missing implications of quantistic theories to our naif-intuitions on time and space, cause-effect,... once you understand some of quantum theories you start grasping that God, the initial cause, is maybe not needed if time is relative to the properties of our universe based on a mix of astronomic constants or maybe it was God to set them up? — Raul

What "missing implications" are you referring to? What do those cosmic constants have to do with the First Cause inference? In my thesis, I merely assume that all constants were established in the Initial Conditions encoded in the Big Bang Singularity. They may seem arbitrary to physicists, but as Einstein discovered in his "biggest blunder", those seemingly random numbers do play a significant role in defining the particular path that evolution takes. Just as the random numbers of PI are essential to the creation of perfect circles, random constants my be essential to the creation of a "perfect" world --- from the Programmer's perspective, not necessarily from yours or mine.

Are you implying that Einstein's Theory of Relativity implies that our Earth-time perspective is not absolute, because the constants are calculated based on Earth's frame of reference? Actually, most of the 26 constants were intentionally adjusted to be local-time independent, by using the absolute speed limit of light as the common denominator. So, either those constants were arbitrary & accidental, in which case the precise organization of nature is an astronomical coincidence, or they were "set up" by G*D, because they were necessary to guide the computation of evolution in the intended direction. The latter makes more sense to me. :nerd:

Einstein's 'Biggest Blunder' : https://www.space.com/9593-einstein-big ... turns.html

Time-variation of fundamental constants : The term physical constant expresses the notion of a physical quantity subject to experimental measurement which is independent of the time or location of the experiment. . . . The immutability of these fundamental constants is an important cornerstone of the laws of physics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time-vari ... _constants

Synchronicity : astronomical coincidence?

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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:41 pm

it is not that I think it studies unreality, it is just that it is counter productive to use the term metaphysics as it implies a reality beyond physics, it connotates a dualism view of the world. — Raul

Actually, the notion of "Meta-Physics" in the Enformationism thesis was specifically intended to fit into a monistic view of the world. Notice all the "&" conjunctions in the definition below. The ultimate unity of all dualisms is what I call The BothAnd Principle. It connotes a Holistic view of the world, as symbolized in the Yin/Yang concept. Personally, I think that my definition of Meta-Physics should be productive for reconciling the dueling dualities (metaphysical memes) that are dividing our polarized world. :cool:

Monism : a theory or doctrine that denies the existence of a distinction or duality in some sphere, such as that between matter and mind, or God and the world. . . . the doctrine that only one supreme being exists.
NOTE : The worldview of PanEnDeism says that G*D is immanent in the world, but not limited to this physical sphere of space-time. Hence, G*D is BothAnd.

Meta-physics
:
The branch of philosophy that examines the nature of reality, including the relationship between mind & matter, substance & attribute, fact & value.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page14.html

The BothAnd Principle
:
My coinage for the holistic principle of Complementarity, as illustrated in the Yin/Yang symbol. Opposing or contrasting concepts are always part of a greater whole. Conflicts between parts can be reconciled or harmonized by putting them into the context of a whole system.
http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page10.html

PS___The "unreality" I referred to was the view from the standpoint of Materialism. But what I call "Ideality" is merely the viewpoint of a world with immaterial conscious Minds.

Ideality
: http://blog-glossary.enformationism.info/page11.html

https://www.logodesignlove.com/wp-conte ... 00x720.jpg

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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:44 pm

Let me put it differently, is your Enformation or your theory of consciousness able to do any kind of prediction? Like general relativity does or like quantum mechanics does? I mean a kind of "test" to proof your theory is adding epistemic value. I think the answer is not, this is why I say it is just descrptive. — Raul

No. The Enformationism thesis is not a Scientific Theory; it's a Philosophical Thesis. On the other hand, it is a sort of Theory of Everything, which retro-dicts that, given an intentional First Cause, the evolution of the world would be essentially just as scientists have found it to be, via their empirical investigations.

However, it also implies that if the "tape" of evolution was rewound and run again, the current state of the world would be somewhat different. That's because the linear Determinism of the evolutionary program is scrambled by the element of Randomness. That's why I don't attempt to make long-term predictions about the future of our incredibly complex world, driven by the heuristic method of Evolution.

My thesis is not intended to provide empirical value to scientific knowledge of the material world. Yet, it is intended to add some "epistemic" value to the philosophical understanding of immaterial Mind. The "proof" of that added value may not be known, until a new generation of philosophers grows-up without the weight of ancient materialistic or spiritualistic dogma. :joke:

Retro-dict : to state a fact about the past based on inference or deduction, rather than evidence.

Replay the Tape
: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_life_theory

Heuristic
:
1. any approach to problem solving or self-discovery that employs a practical method that is not guaranteed to be optimal, perfect, or rational.
2. In mathematical optimization and computer science, heuristic is a trial & error technique designed for solving a problem more quickly when classic methods are too slow.

Epistemic
: cognitive, conscious, knowing, cerebral, inner, intellectual, interior, internal, mental, psychological, noetic

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Re: TPF : Short Theory of Consciousness

Post by Gnomon » Fri Jan 29, 2021 9:45 pm

I see, you work on your intuitions that tell you that a G*D is needed and I understand you're not a scientist, right? basically you have put together a good movie. — Raul

Many years ago, I lost faith in the Bible. But I still couldn't dispense with the logical necessity for what I later learned was the philosophical First Cause. Since then, all I've learned about Science and Philosophy has confirmed that early intuition.

I am not a scientist, and don't pretend to be. And the Enformationism thesis is not a fictional movie, it's my personal factual worldview. If you don't like it, you are welcome to create one of your own. :cool:

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