Mallatt Jon
The University of Washington WWAMI Medical Education Program at The University of Idaho, Moscow, ID 83844, USA.
Entropy (Basel). 2021 May 22;23(6):650. doi: 10.3390/e23060650.
This paper assesses two different theories for explaining consciousness, a phenomenon that is widely considered amenable to scientific investigation despite its puzzling subjective aspects. I focus on Integrated Information Theory (IIT), which says that consciousness is integrated information (as ) and says even simple systems with interacting parts possess some consciousness. First, I evaluate IIT on its own merits. Second, I compare it to a more traditionally derived theory called Neurobiological Naturalism (NN), which says consciousness is an evolved, emergent feature of complex brains. Comparing these theories is informative because it reveals strengths and weaknesses of each, thereby suggesting better ways to study consciousness in the future. IIT's strengths are the reasonable axioms at its core; its strong logic and mathematical formalism; its creative "experience-first" approach to studying consciousness; the way it avoids the mind-body ("hard") problem; its consistency with evolutionary theory; and its many scientifically testable predictions. The potential weakness of IIT is that it contains stretches of logic-based reasoning that were not checked against hard evidence when the theory was being constructed, whereas scientific arguments require such supporting evidence to keep the reasoning on course. This is less of a concern for the other theory, NN, because it incorporated evidence much earlier in its construction process. NN is a less mature theory than IIT, less formalized and quantitative, and less well tested. However, it has identified its own neural correlates of consciousness (NCC) and offers a roadmap through which these NNCs may answer the questions of consciousness using the hypothesize-test-hypothesize-test steps of the scientific method.
本文评估了两种用于解释意识的不同理论。意识这一现象尽管存在令人困惑的主观方面，但仍被广泛认为适合进行科学研究。我重点关注整合信息理论（IIT），该理论认为意识就是整合信息（如），甚至认为具有相互作用部分的简单系统也拥有某种意识。首先，我依据其自身优点对IIT进行评估。其次，我将它与一种更为传统的理论——神经生物学自然主义（NN）进行比较，该理论认为意识是复杂大脑进化而来的涌现特征。比较这些理论很有意义，因为它揭示了每种理论的优缺点，从而为未来研究意识指明更好的方向。IIT的优点在于其核心有合理的公理；强大的逻辑和数学形式体系；研究意识的创新“体验优先”方法；避免身心（“难”）问题的方式；与进化论的一致性；以及众多可通过科学检验的预测。IIT的潜在弱点在于，它包含一些基于逻辑的推理，在构建该理论时未对照确凿证据进行检验，而科学论证需要此类支持性证据来确保推理的正确性。对于另一种理论NN而言，这方面的问题较小，因为它在构建过程中更早地纳入了证据。NN是一个不如IIT成熟的理论，形式化和量化程度较低，且检验较少。然而，它已经确定了自己的意识神经关联物（NCC），并提供了一个路线图，通过该路线图，这些NCC可以利用科学方法的假设 - 检验 - 假设 - 检验步骤来回答意识问题。
