Consciousness science has many competing theories that often conflict, making progress toward a mature theory difficult. A building-block approach offers a way forward by focusing on simpler elements that make up theories, such as key notions or assumptions, rather than committing to entire theoretical proposals. This approach can help assess, integrate, and unify diverse theories. Two potential building blocks discussed are attention and information generation, given their roles in leading theories. The paper argues that shifting focus to these foundational constructs facilitates addressing urgent questions about consciousness in both natural and artificial systems.
The Integrated Information Theory (IIT) is a leading scientific proposal for explaining phenomenal consciousness, but it overlooks the essential role of attention in generating and shaping conscious experience. Without an account of attention, IIT cannot explain informational differences between types of experiences. Although some IIT proponents claim a double dissociation between consciousness and attention, close analysis shows this dissociation is incompatible with IIT. These issues likely extend to other internalist and primitivist theories of conscious contents in philosophy, as well as to structuralist approaches. The discussion highlights that attention is indispensable for both scientific and philosophical theorizing about conscious experience.