Models of Consciousness

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Paul Baird

Université de Bretagne Atlantique

I will present a mathematical model which encapsulates 3D perception from planar 2D data: to a combinatorial graph, we associate its "geometric spectrum"; eigenstates then correspond to local realizations of the graph in Euclidean 3-space as "invariant" frameworks. In this way geometry emerges from the structure, rather than being imposed upon it.

One may attempt to construct a model universe based on such structures, in which state realization enacts change; change being synonymous with time, which at an elementary level, we hypothesize, is the realization of temporal states. A coherent time should then emerge from a "survival of the fittest" principle. Conscious entities might then be considered as systems which possess "higher order universality", that is, which process potential information (rather than hard information) such as a "potential" 3D cube, to enact their own change.

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Mauro D’Ariano

Dipartimento di Fisica, Università degli Studi di Pavia

I will explore the possibility of drawing definite theoretical assertions about “awareness”, including possible experimental falsification. Awareness will be regarded as a manifestation of a special kind of “information”, and, as such, formalised as an operational probabilistic theory (OPT) [1]. Awareness would correspond to “the feeling of the process” experienced by the OPT-systems involved in the process.

As a kind of information “awareness” is special in being “private”. Assuming

that such privacy is an in-principle one implies a number of interesting consequences. For example, according to a theorem about information privacy in OPTs [2], investigation will be restricted to OPTs that are essentially non classical, among which the most relevant instance is the quantum theory.

After presenting the OPT framework, assessing its methodological robustness in separating objective from theoretical elements, and examining postulates guaranteeing experimental control and falsifiability, I will compare postulates of relevant OPTs, and provide mathematical definitions of notions as holism, causality, complementarity, purification, and information privacy.

Finally, I will explore the hypothesis of “awareness as quantum coherence”, providing a list of motivations and consequences, and discussing the possibility of experimental tests in cognitive sciences, including the evaluation of the number of qubits involved in the awareness, the existence of complementary observables, and violations of local-realism bounds.

[1] G. M. D’Ariano, G. Chiribella, and P. Perinotti, “Quantum Theory from First Principles: An Informational Approach” (Cambridge University Press 2017)

[2] G. M. D’Ariano, P. Perinotti, A. Tosini, “Information and disturbance in operational probabilistic theories”, unpublished

Filmed at the Models of Consciousness conference, University of Oxford, September 2019.

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Anita Mehta

Leverhulme Visiting Professor, University of Oxford

Short- and long-term memories are distinguished by their forgettability. Most of what we perceive and store is lost rather quickly to noise, as new sensations replace older ones, while some memories last for as long as we live. Synaptic dynamics is key to the process of memory storage; in this talk I will discuss a few approaches we have taken to this problem, culminating in a model of synaptic networks containing both cooperative and competitive dynamics. It turns out that the competition between synapses is key to the natural emergence of long-term memory in this model, as in reality.

Filmed at the Models of Consciousness conference, University of Oxford, September 2019.

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Ramón Guevara Erra

Integrative Neuroscience and Cognition Center (UMR 8002), CNRS and

Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France

It has been argued that consciousness could be an emergent property of large neuronal networks, associated to the integration of information in the brain. However, it is not yet clear how is consciousness related to the complexity of functional brain networks. Based on a statistical mechanics approach, we sought to identify features of brain organization that are optimal for sensory processing, and that may guide the emergence of consciousness, by analyzing neurophysiological recordings in conscious and unconscious states. We find a surprisingly simple result: Normal wakeful states are characterized by the greatest number of possible configurations of interactions between brain networks, representing highest entropy values. Therefore, the information content is larger in the network associated to conscious states, suggesting that consciousness could be the result of an optimization of information processing. These findings help to guide in a more formal sense inquiry into how consciousness arises from the organization of matter.

Filmed at the Models of Consciousness conference, University of Oxford, September 2019.

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Michael Silberstein

Department of Philosophy, Elizabethtown College;

Department of Philosophy, University of Maryland

We discuss the implications for the determinateness and intersubjective consistency of conscious experience in two gedanken experiments from quantum mechanics (QM). In particular, we discuss Wigner's friend and the delayed choice quantum eraser experiment with a twist. These are both cases (experiments) where quantum phenomena, or at least allegedly possible quantum phenomena/experiments, and the content/ecacy of conscious experience seem to bear on one another. We discuss why these two cases raise concerns for the determinateness and intersubjective consistency of conscious experience. We outline a 4D-global constraint-based approach to explanation in general and for QM in particular that resolves any such concerns without having to invoke metaphysical quietism (as with pragmatic accounts of QM), objective collapse mechanisms or subjective collapse. In short, we provide an account of QM free from any concerns associated with either the standard formalism or relative-state formalism, an account that yields a single 4D block universe with determinate and intersubjectively consistent conscious experience for all conscious agents.

Essentially the mystery in both experiments is caused by a dynamical/causal view of QM, e.g., time-evolved states in Hilbert space, and as we show this mystery can be avoided by a spatiotemporal, constraint-based view of QM, e.g., path integral calculation of probability amplitudes using future boundary conditions. What will become clear is that rather than furiously seeking some way to make dubious deep connections between quantum physics and conscious experience, the kinds of 4D adynamical global constraints that are fundamental to both classical and quantum physics and the relationship between them, also constrain conscious experience. That is, physics properly understood, already is psychology.

Filmed at the Models of Consciousness conference, University of Oxford, September 2019.

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Yakov Kremnitzer

Mathematical Institute, University of Oxford

In this talk I will explore how quantum collapse models can be a key to understanding awareness. I will explain the mathematical structure of quantum collapse models and give an example where collapse is caused by a quantum version of integrated information (this is joint with Andre Ranchin).

I will then look at the possibility of understanding awareness from collapse models and how this could be used to model consciousness as an emergent phenomenon (joint work in progress with Johannes Kleiner).

Filmed at the Models of Consciousness conference, University of Oxford, September 2019.

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Adrian Kent

Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge

The scientific consensus is that, although many important details remain to be elaborated, Darwinian evolution can be understood in principle as a consequence of known physical laws. As William James first pointed out, the development of human consciousness, and in particular the fact that it appears to have evolutionarily advantageous features, are hard to explain within a purely materialist Darwinian theory, according to which we would function equally well in the world if we were unconscious zombies or if pleasure and pain qualia were inverted. However, it is difficult to find attractive alternatives that have any more explanatory power. In this talk I describe toy models that are intended to illuminate the space of possibilities and the difficulties.

Filmed at the Models of Consciousness conference, University of Oxford, September 2019.

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Ian Durham

Saint Anselm College

Most discussions around the nature of free will center on whether or not it exists or can exist. Lost in this argument is the fact that we at least perceive that free will exists, whether or not it actually does. This is an important distinction. If we take an operational view of perceived free will, we can construct meaningful measures for analyzing ensembles of possible choices. I present such a formal model here that is based on statistical emergence and that gives concrete, formal measures of free choices and free will.

Filmed at the Models of Consciousness conference, University of Oxford, September 2019.

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Peter Lloyd

School of Computing, University of Kent

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in mental monism as a theory of consciousness (Goldschmidt & Pearce 2017, Chalmers 2017, 2018), and Lloyd (2006, 2019) has defended a form of Berkeleyanism that aligns with Pearce (2014) and Schrödinger’s (1958) “physical construct”.

Unlike theories that take the conscious mind to supervene on the brain, mental monism faces the burden of constructing ab initio the structure and dynamics of the conscious mind without any physical substrate to fall back on. Little work has been done on modelling the constituents of the mind at this fundamental level, under the tenets of mental monism. Energy, which is the driver of the physical world, has no counterpart in the mental world, which operates informatically instead. An automata-theoretic approach to modelling the conscious mind within mental monism is therefore a natural choice to explore. The model is constrained by (a) the mind’s interaction with other minds including the background consciousness, an interaction that must be mapped onto quantum mechanical measurement in the physical construct; and (b) the basic features of a mind such as individuation, privacy, mental space, psychological embodiment, attention, memory. What do these constraints imply for any substrate-free automata-theoretic model of consciousness?

Filmed at the Models of Consciousness conference, University of Oxford, September 2019.

One in a series of talks from the 2019 Models of Consciousness conference. Tim Palmer

Department of Physics, University of Oxford

This talk is in two parts. In the first part, I suggest that creativity arises from a close synergy between two modes of neuronal operation (corresponding to Kahnemann’s Systems 1 and 2) where in the first, the limited amount of available energy to the brain is spread across large numbers of active neuronal networks, making them susceptible to noise; and in the second, available energy is focussed on smaller subset of active networks, making them operate more deterministically. In the second part, I define consciousness in terms of an ability to perceive an object as independent of its surroundings.

This implies an ability to perceive counterfactual worlds where objects are perturbed relative to their surroundings. I argue that such perception may require quantum theoretic processes to be operating in the brain, since the very formulation of quantum theory (whether in convention or unconventional interpretations) involves the primacy of states of alternate worlds - alive and dead cats and so on. I argue that the brain’s reliance on such quantum processes may have arisen because they are more energy efficient than corresponding classical processes, and give some examples to justify this. Overall, I argue that human creativity and consciousness may have arisen from the brain’s evolution to become an organ of exceptional energy efficiency.

Filmed at the Models of Consciousness conference, University of Oxford, September 2019.