Consciousness as a state of matter
We examine the hypothesis that consciousness can be understood as a state of matter, “perceptronium”, with distinctive information processing abilities. We explore four basic principles that may distinguish conscious matter from other physical systems such as solids, liquids and gases: the informati...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | en_US |
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Elsevier
2017
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111183 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7670-7190 |
| _version_ | 1811088666805665792 |
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| author | Tegmark, Max Erik |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics Tegmark, Max Erik |
| author_sort | Tegmark, Max Erik |
| collection | MIT |
| description | We examine the hypothesis that consciousness can be understood as a state of matter, “perceptronium”, with distinctive information processing abilities. We explore four basic principles that may distinguish conscious matter from other physical systems such as solids, liquids and gases: the information, integration, independence and dynamics principles. If such principles can identify conscious entities, then they can help solve the quantum factorization problem: why do conscious observers like us perceive the particular Hilbert space factorization corresponding to classical space (rather than Fourier space, say), and more generally, why do we perceive the world around us as a dynamic hierarchy of objects that are strongly integrated and relatively independent? Tensor factorization of matrices is found to play a central role, and our technical results include a theorem about Hamiltonian separability (defined using Hilbert–Schmidt superoperators) being maximized in the energy eigenbasis. Our approach generalizes Giulio Tononi’s integrated information framework for neural-network-based consciousness to arbitrary quantum systems, and we find interesting links to error-correcting codes, condensed matter criticality, and the Quantum Darwinism program, as well as an interesting connection between the emergence of consciousness and the emergence of time. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:05:37Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/111183 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | en_US |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T14:05:37Z |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1111832022-09-28T18:23:34Z Consciousness as a state of matter Tegmark, Max Erik Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Physics MIT Kavli Institute for Astrophysics and Space Research Tegmark, Max Erik We examine the hypothesis that consciousness can be understood as a state of matter, “perceptronium”, with distinctive information processing abilities. We explore four basic principles that may distinguish conscious matter from other physical systems such as solids, liquids and gases: the information, integration, independence and dynamics principles. If such principles can identify conscious entities, then they can help solve the quantum factorization problem: why do conscious observers like us perceive the particular Hilbert space factorization corresponding to classical space (rather than Fourier space, say), and more generally, why do we perceive the world around us as a dynamic hierarchy of objects that are strongly integrated and relatively independent? Tensor factorization of matrices is found to play a central role, and our technical results include a theorem about Hamiltonian separability (defined using Hilbert–Schmidt superoperators) being maximized in the energy eigenbasis. Our approach generalizes Giulio Tononi’s integrated information framework for neural-network-based consciousness to arbitrary quantum systems, and we find interesting links to error-correcting codes, condensed matter criticality, and the Quantum Darwinism program, as well as an interesting connection between the emergence of consciousness and the emergence of time. National Science Foundation (U.S.) (AST-090884) National Science Foundation (U.S.) (AST-1105835) 2017-09-13T14:51:23Z 2017-09-13T14:51:23Z 2015-05 2014-07 Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 0960-0779 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111183 Tegmark, Max. “Consciousness as a State of Matter.” Chaos, Solitons & Fractals 76 (July 2015): 238–270 © 2015 Elsevier Ltd https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7670-7190 en_US http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.chaos.2015.03.014 Chaos, Solitons & Fractals Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ application/pdf Elsevier arXiv |
| spellingShingle | Tegmark, Max Erik Consciousness as a state of matter |
| title | Consciousness as a state of matter |
| title_full | Consciousness as a state of matter |
| title_fullStr | Consciousness as a state of matter |
| title_full_unstemmed | Consciousness as a state of matter |
| title_short | Consciousness as a state of matter |
| title_sort | consciousness as a state of matter |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/111183 https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7670-7190 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT tegmarkmaxerik consciousnessasastateofmatter |