An Integration of Integrated Information Theory with Fundamental Physics
arXiv Preprint Archive July 3, 2014
Summary
Consciousness may arise directly from fundamental electromagnetic fields, bridging physics and neuroscience in an elegant new framework. This theory suggests that our conscious experience emerges from information patterns within these basic physical fields, rather than from complex neural activity alone. The approach unifies biological systems (q-bio.OT) with physics, explaining consciousness without invoking quantum mechanics.
Abstract
To truly eliminate Cartesian ghosts from the science of consciousness, we must describe consciousness as an aspect of the physical. Integrated Information Theory states that consciousness arises from intrinsic information generated by dynamical systems; however existing formulations of this theory are not applicable to standard models of fundamental physical entities. Modern physics has shown that fields are fundamental entities, and in particular that the electromagnetic field is fundamental. Here I hypothesize that consciousness arises from information intrinsic to fundamental fields. This hypothesis unites fundamental physics with what we know empirically about the neuroscience underlying consciousness, and it bypasses the need to consider quantum effects.