РЕЦЕНЗИЯ НА КН. : КОХ К. ЧУВСТВО САМОЙ ЖИЗНИ: ПОЧЕМУ СОЗНАНИЕ ВСТРЕЧАЕТСЯ ПОВСЕМЕСТНО, НО НЕ СВОДИТСЯ К ВЫЧИСЛЕНИЮ

Abstract

In his new book «The Feeling of Life Itself: Why Consciousness Is Widespread, But Can’t Be Computed» C. Koch develops the account of the phenomenon of consciousness from the standpoint of the theory of integrated information proposed by the Italian neuroscientist G. Tononi. The starting point of this theory is the attempt to single out the most important properties of the consciousness itself and, on this basis, to determine what kind of physical systems are capable of having experience. According to the proponents of the theory of integrated information, the key properties of experience include its intrinsic existence, its composition, information, integration, and exclusion. From the statements describing the properties of consciousness, called axioms, the theory derives the statements about the properties of the physical substrate of experience, which are called postulates. The theory of integrated information claims to develop a conceptual apparatus for an exact quantitative assessment of the level of possible experience in any system. This theory formulates several interesting predictions, including the possibility of merging many individual experiences into a single experience, if with the help of some future technology an information bridge is established between the substrates that implement them, and also that consciousness cannot be obtained as a result of simulation on a digital computer.