Bertie,
It should be no surprise when I say that, IMHO, consciousness is fundamentally information processing. I have an argument that is based on a measurement perspective. It is an off-hand comment by John Von Neumann that is my primary citation that underlies this argument. Physical reality is measured in units specific to singular outcomes of the wave function and always in a "here and now" circumstance. The organization of forces and particles are seen as structural organization.
Von Neumann suggested that communication theory, thermodynamics and logic form a "triple identity". To me, this means that they are unified in how they model reality, and specifically, how they model informational reality. Measurements of structured information are not restricted to the 'hear and now" and use a separate set of units of measure. For me ,what presents are two (at least) measured domains of reality and both have structured objects, on which we can focus. Information objects being new to consider in general conceptions of consciousness.
I have no idea as to the real thoughts of JVM, but it seems he saw logic as a natural part of realty, instead of something made-up and in the universe only inside of brains. Informational space (infospace) and physical space (the environment) are multiple generative levels, with separate successful methodologies for measuring them.
Yes. John Von Neumann concluded the measuring device could not be any different than the atoms that make it up, and therefore would be subject to the same quantum effects. Although Bohr and other physicists subsequently and conveniently (for all practical purpses) ignored the demarcation line, quantum physics has worked just fine in applied sciences, and the underlying question was more-or-less swept under the carpet. I think there has been this underlying assumption for some time, that quantum effects only occurred on the micro-level of reality. But more and more recent experiments are showing larger and larger "objects" subject to quantum effects too. This of course is logical, as there is no distinct separation from smaller and larger objects in physical reality. That is, you can't build a house with bricks, and then declare the house a wooden house once it's built. It's still a brick house.
JVM then sought out what could possibly lie outside the causal chain of Schrodinger's universal wave function. It could not be the physical devices making the quantum measurements. It couldn't be the human brain, since it too would fall under the causal chain - being made up of atoms and sub-atomic particles. So what could possibly be the catalyst for the wave function collapse?
It was clearly established no interference whatsoever was taking place with the measuring devices used, measuring for example, photons in the double slit experiment. So something had to exist outside the one system we know as the material world.
JVM's reluctant conclusion was it had to be consciousness. Many of the other quantum physicists at the time came to the same conclusion. Some kicking and screaming to the table.
Outside of
"Super-Determinism" or
"Super-Correlation" theories, which are seriously more unbelievable than the consciousness theory, and would fly in the face of all known collected knowledge and reason in science, there has not been much else one can reasonably take seriously. And John Bell's theorem did eventually prove Einstein's Hidden Variables incorrect. Although yes, there are some realists still struggling with Bell's theorem using hokem so-called loopholes that are deeply suspect IMO, and of which are being disproven one by one as scientific technology improves and experiments are being conducted to eliminate these concocted arguments which had very little basis of credibility in the first place.
While a realist interpretation is growing less and less reasonable and so far has proven incorrect on many counts. The consciousness hypothesis I think over the last several decades has grown, and of course, there is large amount of psychological work, including parapsychology, NDE research, even the work in analytical depth psychology, that has confirmed traits in consciousness which IMO supports the demarcation John Von Neumann spoke of - along with the majority of his colleagues. That is - nonlocal attributes are observed in consciousness that are unmediated, unmitigated and immediate. In addition, spontaneous NEW INFORMATION can and does arise from consciousness, as Carl Jung and many other analytical psychologists have empirically observed and recorded in their psychological studies, such as the well-known transcendent function in the unconscious psyche.
I find your efforts Stephen attempting to map out consciousness as a kind of informational structure fascinating, and it does remind me a good deal of Carl Jung's own empirical work with the psyche. He too identified structures and layers to the psyche, as did his precursor Frederic WH Myers in his scholarly many years long study published in "Human Personality" (I use the title he would have given his book, not the one given by his subsequent publishers posthumously). In a number of meetings Carl Jung had with Albert Einstein, in which they shared ideas and current discoveries of their different spheres of empirical research - Carl Jung did come away suspecting underlying both matter and the psyche was the same fundamental "thing" which was consciousness.
It is of course just a word we use to describe something far more profound, and varied. With many information structures and activities. However, attempting to understand this single underlying entity via the strict materialistic paradigm of local realism and causality is proving to be a very insufficient model. The scientific data being observed and recorded simply cannot be explained under the umbrella of traditional materialism or physicalism. That boat left the shore quite a long time ago IMO. And it isn't coming back.
My Best,
Bertha
