What Is It like to Be a Brain Organoid? Phenomenal Consciousness in a Biological Neural Network.
Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) September 13, 2023 Ivanna Montoya, Daniel Montoya 7 citations
A biologically inspired neural network (BNN) made from human cortical cells learned to predict a digital ball's trajectory and move a paddle, with performance improving as sensory information increased. Among theories of neural correlates of consciousness, only Information Integration Theory (IIT) allows for the possibility that such a BNN could be conscious, because its Φ value is greater than zero. IIT holds that any system capable of integrating information has some degree of phenomenal consciousness. The real-time neural activity responding to environmental stimuli, together with the pattern of increased information density leading to better performance, suggests the BNN could be conscious, raising psychological, philosophical, and ethical questions.