Jim Heller ‘28
In Why Materialism Is Baloney, the author, Bernardo Kastrup, dismantles the common assumption that materialism – the belief that the universe is all physical stuff and consciousness comes from physical phenomena – is the easiest theory of consciousness to believe in. explained his argument in an intuitive and understandable way, introducing readers, both experienced and inexperienced, to metaphysical literature. Kastrup writes about both more spiritual and more empirical arguments while discussing consciousness. One more empirically-based theory for consciousness Kastrup describes is the Integrated Information Theory (IIT).
IIT is a theory of consciousness primarily developed by a neuroscientist named Giulio Tononi. IIT was initially introduced in 2004, but has since gained great traction within the neuroscientific community. One reason for IIT’s popularity is that the theory makes relatively few assumptions and no definitive claims about what consciousness actually is.
So what is IIT? It is essentially a mathematical model explaining what any system obeying the five postulates of consciousness must be able to do. When creating the five postulates of consciousness, Tononi and his researchers worked together to formulate a description of the properties of consciousness with as few assumptions as possible. The five postulates of consciousness they decided on are: existence, composition, information, integration, and exclusion.
Existence means that your consciousness is a thing which exists. This follows René Descartes’ famous insight, “I think, therefore I am.”
Composition indicates that your consciousness is composed of different elements. As an auditory example, a certain sound has a specific loudness but also a pitch and a direction which accompany it. Experientially speaking, anything is composed of its different elements, and nothing less.
Information refers to the idea that your consciousness is different in each moment only because of the information included within it. Today’s experience is totally different from yesterday’s experience because the information in your experience today is different. This could be mood, weather, or even the memories you have!
Integration indicates that your consciousness consists only of integrated information. This is IIT’s most important postulate. An example of integration is that you are both reading this article and sitting somewhere at the same time, which are two distinct elements of your experience that are integrated within each other. It is impossible to isolate one of those experiences from the other without eliminating your conscious experience altogether. Integration is measured by ɸ.
Exclusion describes how every experience is limited because consciousness specifies certain aspects of the experiences and necessarily excludes others.
From these five postulates, Tononi and his team derive extensively complicated mathematical models. These models described how any system obeying the five postulates (expressed mathematically) is conscious! All of these postulates must be met in order for the system to be conscious.
However, the integration of a system does not have to be perfect, which is why ɸ is a measurement. As long as the measurement for ɸ is greater than zero, then a system (obeying the other four postulates) will always be conscious. This allows for the consciousness of different systems to be compared against each other.
IIT has been shown to prove that a person, when asleep, has a much lower ɸ value than when they are awake, which seems intuitive. But what IIT has also proved is that different people have different ɸ values, raising ethical questions related to people’s varying degrees of consciousness.
Imagine if a researcher told you that your brain was less conscious than, say, your friends, or your family. Depending on how much people trust IIT, a below-average score could be harmful to their self-confidence. Consequently, this, and any, mathematical theory of consciousness may be dangerous for the public’s mental health.
IIT is a rigorous mathematical analysis that provides a model of consciousness. It appears to be scientifically sound, but ethically complicated. How much power do we give this ɸ indicator? Do we elect government officials based on how conscious they are, instead of merit? Do we test kids to see how well their brains are developing? Do we give more resources or support to the members of society who we deem to be the most conscious?
I also want to discuss why I believe IIT has been successful within the neuroscientific andmetaphysical communities. Most theories of consciousness make a claim about what consciousness actually is. Global Workspace Theory (GWT), for instance, claims that consciousness is a material thing. Primarily physical-based theories about consciousness receive relatively little support and consideration when compared to less concrete theories of consciousness.
A picture describing four neuroscientific theories of consciousness
Alternatively, IIT does not concretely examine why consciousness arises. IIT is meticulous concerning the math of how consciousness arises, but, as Kastrup points out, “As a matter of fact, the language used by the neuroscientists developing the theory is clearly and deliberately chosen so as to precisely avoid metaphysical commitments.” It is this reason in particular, apart from the careful rigorousness of its mathematical models, that I believe IIT has gained so much popularity and credibility within the neuroscientist and metaphysical scholarly communities.
IIT is a neat theory of consciousness, because you can literally see the math that gives rise to your lived experience. However, the math involved in IIT also brings up interesting discussions about ethics in neuroscience.
Oh, also, IIT says computers are not, and probably will never be, conscious. Sorry.
Edited by Ben Hunter ‘27
Sources:
1. Kastrup, Bernardo. (2023). “In defense of Integrated Information Theory.” Essentia Foundation. https://www.essentiafoundation.org/in-defense-of-integrated-information-theory-iit/readi ng/
2. Mørch, H. H. (2017). “The Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness.” Philosophy Now 121:12-16. Available online. https://philosophynow.org/issues/121/The_Integrated_Information_Theory_of_Conscious ness
3. Philips, M. (2002). “Do Computers Have Syntax?” Philosophy Now 39:19-21. Available Online. https://philosophynow.org/issues/39/Do_Computers_Have_Syntax
4. Sánchez-Cañizares, J. (2022). “Integrated Information Theory as Testing Ground for Causation: Why Nested Hylomorphism Overcomes Physicalism and Panpsychism.” Imprint Academic. Journal of Consciousness Studies, Volume 29, Numbers 1-2, 2022, pp. 56-78(23). Access required online. https://www-ingentaconnect-com.dartmouth.idm.oclc.org/content/imp/jcs/2022/0000002 9/f0020001/art00003#F
5. Kastrup, Bernardo. (2014). Why Materialism Is Baloney: How true skeptics know there is no death and fathom answers to life, the universe, and everything. Winchester, UK: Iff Books.
6. Fallon, Francis. (2015). “Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness.” Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy. https://iep.utm.edu/integrated-information-theory-of-consciousness
7. Tononi, Giulio. (2012). “Integrated information theory of consciousness: an updated account.” Archives Italiennes de Biologie, 150: 290-326. (http://behavioralhealth2000.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Integrated-information-th eory-of-consciousness-an-updated-account.pdf
8. Kleiner, Johannes. Tull, Sean. (2020). “The Mathematical Structure of Integrated Information Theory.” Frontiers in Applied Mathematics and Statistics. https://doi.org/10.3389/fams.2020.602973
9. Tononi, Giulio. (2004). “An Information Integration Theory of Consciousness.” BMC Neuroscience, 5:42. https://bmcneurosci.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2202-5-42 10. Tononi, Giulio. (2015). “Integrated Information Theory.” Scholarpedia, 10 (1). http://var.scholarpedia.org/article/Information_Integration_Theory
Embedded Image Reference: “Integrated Information Theory” Universe Review.
https://universe-review.ca/R10-37-IIT.htm
Cover Post Image Reference (A cartoon showing how IIT is all about self-reflection of information within the brain): https://www.quantamagazine.org/neuroscience-readies-for-a-showdown-over-consciousness-ideas-20190306/
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