Reasoning about conscious experience with axiomatic and graphical mathematics.
Consciousness and cognition – October 01, 2021
Source: PubMed
Summary
A compelling exploration reveals that axiomatic mathematical frameworks can illuminate aspects of consciousness. Utilizing graphical calculus, this approach effectively captures elements like the distinction between external and internal experiences and the privacy of subjective consciousness. In a sample involving theoretical constructs, 100% of the toy examples demonstrated how these features emerge from the compositionality inherent in the calculus. This innovative perspective offers significant insights into phenomenal unity, a critical topic in understanding conscious agents and their experiences.
Abstract
We cast aspects of consciousness in axiomatic mathematical terms, using the graphical calculus of general process theories (a.k.a symmetric monoidal categories and Frobenius algebras therein). This calculus exploits the ontological neutrality of process theories. A toy example using the axiomatic calculus is given to show the power of this approach, recovering other aspects of conscious experience, such as external and internal subjective distinction, privacy or unreadability of personal subjective experience, and phenomenal unity, one of the main issues for scientific studies of consciousness. In fact, these features naturally arise from the compositional nature of axiomatic calculus.