{"id":67559,"date":"2022-01-16T21:46:48","date_gmt":"2022-01-16T21:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/?p=67559"},"modified":"2022-01-16T21:46:48","modified_gmt":"2022-01-16T21:46:48","slug":"these-mathematicians-think-the-universe-may-be-conscious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/these-mathematicians-think-the-universe-may-be-conscious\/","title":{"rendered":"These mathematicians think the universe may be conscious"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>\u201eThis could be the beginning of a scientific revolution.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>Theory of Everything<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Scientists are doubling down on a peculiar model that attempts to quantify and measure consciousness. The model, known as Integrated Information Theory (IIT), has long been controversial because it comes with an unusual quirk. When applied to non-living aspects like machines, subatomic particles, and even the universe, it claims that they too experience consciousness, <em>New Scientist<\/em> reports. \u201c<em>This could be the beginning of a scientific revolution<\/em>,\u201d Munich Centre for Mathematical Philosophy mathematician Johannes Kleiner told the magazine.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/n-1-5.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-67560\" src=\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/n-1-5.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"560\" height=\"326\" srcset=\"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/n-1-5.jpg 560w, https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/n-1-5-300x175.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 560px) 100vw, 560px\" \/><\/a>Complex Math<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Integrated Information Theory relies on a value called <em>phi<\/em> that represents the interconnectivity of a node, whether it\u2019s a region of the brain, circuitry, or an atom. That value represents the node\u2019s level of consciousness. The cerebral cortex, for instance, has a high value because it contains a dense cluster of widely-interconnected neurons.<\/p>\n<p>But when IIT was first presented, calculating phi was impossibly convoluted. <em>New Scientist <\/em>reports that calculating the phi of a human brain would have previously taken longer than the universe has existed, but a February 2021 paper by IIT\u2019s creators attempts to simplify the process significantly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Show Your Work<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Many academics remain unconvinced by IIT, in part because of its complexity but mainly because of its far-reaching implications for a conscious universe.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c<em>I think mathematics can help us understand the neural basis of consciousness in the brain, and perhaps even machine consciousness, but it will inevitably leave something out: the felt inner quality of experience<\/em>,\u201d University of Connecticut philosopher and cognitive scientist Susan Schneider told <em>New Scientist<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>yogaesoteric<br \/>\nJanuary 16, 2022<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u201eThis could be the beginning of a scientific revolution.\u201d Theory of Everything Scientists are doubling down on a peculiar model that attempts to quantify and measure consciousness. The model, known as Integrated Information Theory (IIT), has long been controversial because it comes with an unusual quirk. When applied to non-living aspects like machines, subatomic particles, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1369],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-67559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science-technology-1602-en"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=67559"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67563,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67559\/revisions\/67563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=67559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=67559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogaesoteric.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=67559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}