Comparison of TGD Inspired Theory of Consciousness with Some Other Theories of Consciousness

Reading of two highly inspiring books led to a new chapter summing up the vision behind TGD inspired theory of consciousness and also generating some new ideas. The first book "On intelligence" is by Jeff Hawkins. The second book "Consciousness: the science of subjectivity" is by Antti Revonsuo. Below is the abstract of the new chapter.

Jeff Hawkins has developed a highly interesting and inspiring vision about neo-cortex, one of the few serious attempts to build a unified view about what brain does and how it does it. Since key ideas of Hawkins have quantum analogs in TGD framework, there is high motivation for developing a quantum variant of this vision. The vision of Hawkins is very general in the sense that all parts of neo-cortex would run the same fundamental algorithm, which is essentially checking whether the sensory input can be interpreted in terms of standard mental images stored as memories. This process occurs at several abstraction levels and involve massive feedback. If it succeeds at all these levels the sensory input is fully understood.

TGD suggests a generalization of this process. Quantum jump defining moment of consciousness would be the fundamental algorithm realized in all scales defining an abstraction hierarchy. Negentropy Maximization Principle (NMP) would be the variational principle driving this process and in optimal case lead to an experience of understanding at all levels of the scale hierarchy realized in terms of generation of negentropic entanglement. The analogy of NMP with second law suggests strongly thermodynamical analogy and p-adic thermodynamics used in particle mass calculations might be also seen as effective thermodynamics assignable to NMP.

In the following I will first discuss the ideas of Hawkins and then summarize some relevant aspects of quantum TGD and TGD inspired theory of consciousness briefly in the hope that this could make representation comprehensible for the reader having no background in TGD (I hope I have achieved this). The representation involves some new elements: reduction of the old idea about motor action as time reversal of sensory perception to the anatomy of quantum jump in zero energy ontology (ZEO); interaction free measurement for photons and photons as a non-destructive reading mechanism of memories and future plans (time reversed memories) represented 4-dimensionally as negentropically entangled states approximately invariant under quantum jumps (this resolves a basic objection against identifying quantum jump as moment of consciousness) leading to the identification of analogs of imagination and internal speech as fundamental elements of cognition; and a more detailed quantum model for association and abstraction processes.

I will also compare various theories and philosophies of consciousness with TGD approach following the beautifully organized representation of Revonsuo. Also anomalies of consciousness are briefly discussed. My hope is that this comparison would make explicit that TGD based ontology of consciousness indeed circumvents the difficulties against monistic and dualistic approaches and also survives the basic objections that I have been able to invent hitherto.

For details see the new chapter Comparison of TGD Inspired Theory of Consciousness with Some Other Theories of Consciousness or the article with the same title.