"The Conscious Mind: A Fundamental Theoretical Study"

[Australia]David J. Chalmers/Author Zhu Jianping/Translation

China Renmin University Press 2013

25 years ago in 1998，Neuroscientist Christof Koch made a bet with philosopher David Chalmers，The mechanism by which brain neurons generate bet365 voucher will be discovered in 2023，Chalmers said it was impossible，They bet a case of fine wine。June 23，Annual Meeting of the Association for the Study of bet365 voucher (ASSC) in New York，The result of the contest was announced for this bet: Chalmers won。His prediction is right，The mechanism by which brain neurons generate bet365 voucher has not been discovered in 2023，Philosophers defeated scientists。

Chalmers is a famous contemporary philosopher of mind，Since the publication of his book The Conscious Mind in 1996，Causing strong response in the international academic community，Known as “the best work on the philosophy of mind in many years”。This work systematically describes the complexity of the study of bet365 voucher，Critically examines various mainstream approaches to contemporary bet365 voucher research，Propose a naturalistic dualism。In writings，Chalmers proactively explored the connection between bet365 voucher and information，Proposed that information theory may be the "basic theory" of bet365 voucher research。Today，It has been more than 20 years since the publication of "The Conscious Mind"，The scientific and philosophical research on bet365 voucher is undergoing an information theory turn。Some top neuroscientists have anchored bet365 voucher in information from a metaphysical perspective，Giulio Tononi，Even Koch himself。Some prominent philosophers of mind have also abandoned physicalism、Functionalism and other views，Switch to panpsychism based on information theory、Positions such as neutral monism，Like Galen Strawson。Especially since last year, ChatGPT has taken the world by storm，People seem to think strong artificial intelligence is within reach。This article is based on this book by Chalmers，Some reflections on the information theoretic turn in bet365 voucher research。

　　Challenges of “hard” problems in bet365 voucher research

An important reason for this turn seems to be the belief that traditional scientific research methods cannot cope with the "hard" problems of bet365 voucher and the challenge of the explanatory gap。Koch explicitly admitted，He has switched from materialism to information theory，Because he cannot see how phenomenal bet365 voucher arises from neural processes。In other words，Neuroscientific methods cannot solve the “difficult” problem of bet365 voucher。Beyond neuroscience，Chalmers believes that cognitive science、Physics、Evolutionary theory and other methods can only deal with the "easy" problem of bet365 voucher，And cannot really answer the "hard" questions about conscious experience。Just like in 1952，Nobel Prize winner in Physiology or Medicine、The famous neuroscientist Roger Sperry wrote: "Although our understanding of the brain continues to advance，But the intrinsic nature of the mind and its relationship to brain excitations remain a mystery today，Just like a hundred years ago。”This sentence still holds true today，None of our scientific knowledge of the brain advances our understanding of phenomenal bet365 voucher。However，What the author wants to point out is，Information theory will also encounter the "difficult" problem of bet365 voucher，This is a common problem in bet365 voucher research，Rather than an anomaly that triggers a crisis in the biology of bet365 voucher or other sciences。

Based on Integrated Information Theory，IIT) as an example，It is currently the most influential information theory of bet365 voucher，First proposed by the famous Italian neuroscientist Tononi in 2001，After that, some collaborators were added and gradually improved，Currently upgraded to 2.Version 0 and 3.Version 0。The core idea of ​​IIT is to understand bet365 voucher as holistic information，Some information elements achieve a state by integrating other information elements in the system，More information can be expressed than these elements alone。They use Φ to quantify the amount of information that expresses the overall information beyond the expression of independent elements，As long as the Φ value of a system is greater than zero，Then this system has a certain degree of bet365 voucher。With previous computationalism、The difference between functionalism and other theories is，IIT regards the phenomenological nature of bet365 voucher as the most important characteristic of bet365 voucher and the starting point of research。They summarize the essential nature of conscious experience into five phenomenological axioms: intrinsic existence、Composition、Information、Integration and exclusion，Then derive the underlying physical system that can realize these axioms，Thus providing a mathematical characterization of bet365 voucher。According to IIT’s point of view，bet365 voucher does not have to be based on the brain，Human beings may construct a physically realized model of bet365 voucher。

IIT will inevitably lead to panpsychism，Koch clearly advocates panpsychism as the metaphysical basis of the science of bet365 voucher。Information is different from matter and energy，Matter and energy exist objectively even without observers，But information is an abstract entity used to identify the existence state of things and their attributes，It can neither exist independently of the observer nor the material carrier。Since almost anything can "carry" information，Or，Any system with causal correlation may realize that the overall information amount Φ value reaches above zero，Therefore，IIT will inevitably lead to panpsychism。However，Tononi and others do not advocate the generalization of bet365 voucher to all physical systems，Because if so，bet365 voucher is everywhere，The word "bet365 voucher" becomes meaningless。They limit bet365 voucher to those with maximally irreducible cause-effect structure，MICS) in the physical system，This view is closer to panprotopsychism in panpsychism。The difference from the general panpsychist view is，Panprotoplastists do not view bet365 voucher as a ubiquitous phenomenon，They believe that native bet365 voucher is the most basic，But native bet365 voucher does not have phenomenal properties，When they are combined in some way，In order to produce bet365 voucher with phenomenal properties。IIT supporters think，MICS is a combination method that can produce phenomenal bet365 voucher。But the question is whether MICS and conscious experience can be completely identical？

According to IIT，Conscious experience is composed of a highly organized collection of differential relationships。In the human brain，It is exemplified by the firing of groups of neurons at different spatiotemporal locations in the brain's nervous system。The information elements in these unique sets of spatiotemporal relationships have causal power，Interacts with other elements in the system，Thus leading to a series of possible states of the system。Therefore，This "information" is essentially a structural and dynamic concept。While Chalmers was criticizing physicalism，It has been clearly stated that structural and dynamical processes are not sufficient to produce bet365 voucher，He said: “…structure and dynamics of physical processes only generate more structure and dynamics，So structure and function are all we expect these processes to explain。Facts about experience cannot be necessary consequences of any physical description，Because conceptually，Any given process can exist without experience。Experience may come from physics，But it is not implied by physics。”Apply this idea to IIT，The same conclusion can be drawn: conscious experience may come from holistic information，But this does not mean that bet365 voucher is essentially holistic information。Supporters of IIT believe that conscious experience and MICS are identical，But MICS is a structural and dynamic unit，It is completely different from conscious experience，Although experience may be generated by MICS，But there is still an interpretive gap between them。Empirical research also proves this conclusion。In the experimental results announced by ASSC on June 23，IIT and global neuronal workspace theory are the two main hypotheses of bet365 voucher，Six independent laboratories conducted adversarial experiments，And use various methods to measure brain activity，The experimental result is that neither theory has passed peer review。Therefore，Information theory and neurobiology will also encounter the "difficult" problem of bet365 voucher，“Hard” problems are not anomalies triggering neurobiological crises of bet365 voucher，It is a common problem faced by all paths of bet365 voucher research。

　　Promotion of strong artificial intelligence research

In addition to the internal reasons of the theory, the transformation of scientific paradigm，It may also be affected by external factors such as social economy。The information theory turn in bet365 voucher research is largely triggered by the high development and rapid popularity of artificial intelligence (AI) technology。For a long time，bet365 voucher plays an important role in the debate about strong versus weak AI and in discussions about machine ethics。According to traditional understanding，bet365 voucher only exists in living organisms，This makes it difficult to defend strong AI。Chalmers proposed in the last part of "The Conscious Mind"，If bet365 voucher could be based on Combinatorial State Automata (CSA)，Then machine bet365 voucher can be easily explained，Strong AI is possible。But actually，Even if information theory can explain machine bet365 voucher，Machine bet365 voucher and human bet365 voucher are also two completely different categories，Information theory may not provide a strong defense for strong AI。

An important difference between strong AI and weak AI is whether the machine has bet365 voucher、Thinking and Perception Ability，Is artificial bet365 voucher possible？When thinking about artificial bet365 voucher，We are facing some unique problems。We understand human bet365 voucher from a first-person perspective，But artificial bet365 voucher can only be obtained from the third-person perspective，Therefore，Any definition of artificial bet365 voucher must be from a third-person perspective，And cannot rely on phenomenal bet365 voucher。Based on this，Researchers of artificial bet365 voucher will not be too obsessed with the phenomenological properties of bet365 voucher，But use some simple and feasible methods to define it。For example，About robot self-awareness，Raja Chatila and others believe，is "enabling robots to understand their environment、What they did、Take appropriate and timely actions、Learn from your own experience and show that you know the basic principles and methods of what you have learned and how you have learned it”。Yohsuke Kinouchi and others focus on system-level adaptation，“bet365 voucher is seen as a function of efficient adaptation at the system level，Based on matching and organization of individual results from underlying parallel processing units。This awareness is thought to correspond to the ‘awareness’ of our brains when we make moment-to-moment decisions in our daily lives”。Visible，Artificial bet365 voucher researchers are not trying to solve the "difficult" problems that Chalmers is concerned about，How to physically realize the phenomenal bet365 voucher of machines，They focus on what Ned Block calls “access bet365 voucher”，That is, a mental state that plays a role in reasoning and guiding behavior。

Another issue related to bet365 voucher is in the ethics of machines，Especially the ethical issues of social robots。Social robot is a robot that communicates and interacts with humans on a social level、Physically realized autonomous subject，Like Kismet from MIT、NAO from Aldebaran Robotics and Sophia, the humanoid social robot from Hansen Robotics。The question of the moral status of social robots is often considered to be related to bet365 voucher，Because of the attribution of human moral status and rights，Personality is the core，This involves people’s abilities in all aspects，Like rationality、Self-awareness、Perception, etc.。Does the same apply to machines?？In fact，Current research in this field does not assign status to robots based on their bet365 voucher capabilities。After all，Human bet365 voucher is still an unsolved mystery，We are not yet sure that carbon-based life with the same structure as us has a mind，It is even more difficult to confirm that silicon-based life with a different structure from ours has an internal state similar to ours。Therefore，Researchers on machine ethics are more concerned about the social role humans assign to robots、The relationship and emotional bond established between humans and robots，Or the social context of human-robot interaction。

In summary，Chalmers tried to use information theory as a basic theory for the study of bet365 voucher in "The Conscious Mind"。On the one hand，He believes that traditional scientific methods are difficult to solve the "difficult" problem of bet365 voucher，Information theory can make a breakthrough on this issue；On the other hand，He tried to use information theory to defend strong AI，Proof that machines can have bet365 voucher comparable to humans。But it seems so far，Both goals are difficult to achieve。Both information theory and neurobiology fail to win the “wine bet”，If you want to explain phenomenal bet365 voucher，Information theory also has difficulty bridging the explanatory gap between experience and information；Even if strong AI can be achieved，The bet365 voucher of machines will also be fundamentally different from human bet365 voucher，Just like the design of aircraft is easier to realize the human dream of flying than the research of birds，Maybe the same is true for bet365 voucher。

　　(The author is a professor at the School of Marxism, Sun Yat-sen University)