Human Consciousness: Simply a state of information? (Humans)

by David Turell , Wednesday, December 02, 2015, 22:03 (3277 days ago) @ David Turell

A very confusing approach to consciousness by appealing to information to help explain it:-http://blogs.scientificamerican.com/cross-check/can-integrated-information-theory-explain-consciousness/?WT.mc_id=SA_MB_20151202-"Panpsychism strikes me as self-evidently foolish, but non-foolish people—notably Chalmers and neuroscientist Christof Koch—are taking it seriously. How can that be? What's compelling their interest? Have I dismissed panpsychism too hastily?-"These questions lured me to a two-day workshop on integrated information theory at New York University last month. Conceived by neuroscientist Guilio Tononi (who trained under the late, great Gerald Edelman), IIT is an extremely ambitious theory of consciousness. It applies to all forms of matter, not just brains, and it implies that panpsychism might be true. Koch and others are taking panpsychism seriously because they take IIT seriously.-***-"[Koch] is not saying that information causes consciousness; he is saying that certain information just is consciousness, and because information is everywhere, consciousness is everywhere. I think that if you analyze this carefully, you will see that the view is incoherent. Consciousness is independent of an observer. I am conscious no matter what anybody thinks. But information is typically relative to observers. These sentences, for example, make sense only relative to our capacity to interpret them. So you can't explain consciousness by saying it consists of information, because information exists only relative to consciousness.
 (my bold)-***-
"In fact, Searle's point applies to other information-centric theories of consciousness, including one sketched out by Chalmers more than 20 years ago (which helps explain his affinity for IIT). Information-based theories of consciousness are circular; that is, they seek to explain consciousness with a concept—information—that presupposes consciousness." (my bold)-Comment: I view Horgan as a clear-thinking guy. The first bold above is the point I've tried to make all along. 'Information does not exist except as relative to consciousness'.