Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness

Integrated information theory (IIT) begins with the essential properties of experience (axioms) and translates them into requirements that any physical system must satisfy to be conscious (postulates). The postulates can be seen as a list of requirements for something to exist 'for itself', as an intrinsic entity, and thus have relevance for ontology and metaphysics. Some implications of the theory include the divide between intrinsic and extrinsic entities, the incoherence of ontological reductionism, and the intrinsic nature of meaning.

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Abstract

Integrated information theory (IIT) starts from the essential properties of experience (axioms) and translates them into requirements that any physical system must satisfy to be conscious (postulates; see Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness: An Outline, this volume). The postulates of IIT can be seen as a list of requirements for something to exist ‘for itself’, as an intrinsic entity, and thus have relevance for ontology and metaphysics. Some implications of the theory include the divide between intrinsic and extrinsic entities, the incoherence of ontological reductionism, and the intrinsic nature of meaning.