Calculating spatial boundaries and phenomenal capacity of conscious resonating structures in General Resonance Theory

Abstract

I suggest a heuristic for calculating the spatial boundaries and phenomenal capacity of conscious resonating structures in General Resonance Theory (GRT), a theory developed by Hunt and Schooler over the last decade. GRT suggests that consciousness is a product of various resonating frequencies at different physical scales. All physical structures vibrate and should be considered processes rather than static things. Resonance assists in achieving phase transitions to higher levels of complex consciousness. When vibrating structures resonate in proximity to each other they will under certain circumstances “sync up” in a shared resonance frequency. GRT suggests that a shared resonance is the key requirement for the combination of micro-conscious entities into a larger-scale macro-consciousness. This approach is, thus, a solution to the “combination problem” of consciousness. The proposed mathematical heuristic allows for a practical approach for identifying potential conscious structures and the spatial boundaries of such structures as they change over time, and for calculating the capacity for phenomenal consciousness present within the putative conscious resonating structure. The slowest-frequency shared resonance is the limiting factor for the size of any macro-consciousness. I describe some limitations of the proposed framework, and how it compares to Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory. IIT’s constellation-qualia characterization framework may be compatible with GRT and may be a useful tool to use in conjunction with GRT’s quantification framework.1. IntroductionThis paper builds upon the mathematical framework described in Hunt 2011, which suggested a method for calculating the phenomenal capacity of any conscious entity, by providing a new method for calculating the spatial boundaries of any conscious entity in each moment. This methodology is grounded in a panpsychist framework (Hunt 2011, Schooler, Hunt, and Schooler 2011, Hunt and Schooler 2019; Goff 2017) that assumes that all matter is associated with at least some capacity for phenomenal consciousness, albeit extremely rudimentary in the vast majority of matter. Accordingly, the General Resonance Theory (GRT) developed further in the present paper is applicable to all physical systems, rather than being limited to neurobiological or biological systems.The notion of resonance (synchrony, coherence, shared vibrations) has a long history in neuroscience. Crick and Koch featured this concept in their neurobiological theory of consciousness (Crick and Koch 1990, Koch 2004). Fries has made the concept of “communication through coherence” (neuronal synchrony/resonance) even more widely known (Fries 2005, 2015). Dehaene 2014 highlights the role of long-range synchrony between cortical areas a key “signature of consciousness,” (as does Koch 2004). Bandyopadhyay has made the concept central to his Fractal Information Theory of consciousness (Bandyopadhyay 2019).The resonance theory of consciousness developed in Hunt and Schooler 2019, Hunt 2011, and the present paper, also makes resonance the key mechanism by which rudimentary consciousness combines – through shared resonance in proximity – into more complex consciousness. This is the case because resonance allows for phase transitions in information flows to occur at various organizational levels, allowing previously chaotic systems to self-organize and thus become coherent.The primary insight offered in the present paper is that consciousness is a product of resonance chains (Fn 1) of various information/energy (Fn 2) pathways, and that the spatial and temporal boundaries of any particular conscious entity is established by the slowest frequency shared resonance within that conscious entity, for each particular information/energy pathway. Resonance frequencies and resonance chains are constantly changing in most entities; thus, the spatial boundaries of conscious entities will be constantly changing at least a little. Most combinations of consciousness, in which less complex entities combine into more complex entities, will be comprised of a nested hierarchy of conscious entities, with one dominant conscious entity in each moment, without extinction of the nested entities’ consciousness, distinguishing this approach from Integrated Information Theory and other theories that assume the extinction of nested conscious entities, leaving only one macro-conscious entity left (this is IIT’s “exclusion principle”).