Joscha Bach - Consciousness as a coherence-inducing operator

A theory of consciousness should capture its phenomenology, characterize its ontological status and extent, explain its causal structure and genesis, and describe its function. Here, I advance the notion that consciousness is best understood as an operator, in the sense of a physically implemented transition function that is acting on a representational substrate and controls its temporal evolution, and as such has no identity as an object or thing, but (like software running on a digital computer) it can be characterized as a law. Starting from the observation that biological information processing in multicellular substrates is based on self organization, I explore the conjecture that the functionality of consciousness represents the simplest algorithm that is discoverable by such substrates, and can impose function approximation via increasing representational coherence. I describe some properties of this operator, both with the goal of recovering the phenomenology of consciousness, and to get closer to a specification that would allow recreating it in computational simulations.

[@michaelwalsh9920]

If you look at humans as a collective being, JB would be the consciousness looking back unto itself. Thank you and thx for sharing!

[@ginogarcia8730]

12:40 makes me wanna tear up - I just love how Joscha eloquently blends technology and philosophy so easily and makes it easy to understand

[@flflflflflfl]

Joscha is truly one of a kind. I could listen to him all day every day.

[@andAgainFPV]

What a great talk, a very succinct and concrete definition of building consciousness.

[@lilfr4nkie]

One of the greatest minds of the century

[@nolanhansen2228]

Amazing! I am so thankful to be alive during this time.

[@guusvandermeulen7210]

The progress of the models how the brain works JB is producing over the years is astonishing. I'm glad JB has excellent communication skills.

[@DWinegarden2]

The most basic consciousness is emergent from the collective of the individual organisms that a conscious being is comprised of. The “higher” thoughts we create are simply the organisms occupying their time while our bodies have satisfied their collective existence requirements.

[@TechyBen]

As a note, it's not as simple as saying "our minds don't sample the quantum world, but the quantum world is actually there" because our *atoms* can't sample those quantum worlds entirely either. So it's less "my perception is like a computer game" and more "My perception is like through a mobile phone screen/camera". There are physical interactions we observe, but we might not sample extremely high number, but also the sampling device is physical, though managed via "software".

[@DisperseControl]

Compelling, clear and articulate. Thank you!

[@cyberbiosecurity]

i like this definition

[@jazearbrooks7424]

Why, no arrow from attention agent to motivation agent? Surely what you pay attention to can in fact change your motivation in a way not directly influenced by your environment.

[@starblue324]

Yes, can we get AI to vibe with us?

[@str-2711]

thank you

[@ginogarcia8730]

i dunno what the title means but its got joscha so i'm in

[@margrietoregan828]

Copy of transcript for my own notes in our brain this is 11:43 very different because our brain is not 11:44 made out of uh aimless transistors it is 11:47 made out of single- cell animals that 11:50 have shared Destiny and need to survive 11:52 and they can only survive if they find 11:54 some kind of arrangement between each 11:55 other that allows the organism to find 11:58 food for the neurons 11:59 so this is the situation that they're in 12:01 and as a result they get some emerging 12:02 organization a self organization from 12:04 inside out and there's no point and no 12:07 point a global structure that is not the 12:08 result of some inside out growing self 12:11 organization right and so if you build 12:13 an information processing system like a 12:15 machine Learning System out of 12:17 completely self-organizing elements what 12:18 does this look like and I think what it 12:20 looks like is not anything like the 12:22 current machine learning algorithms it's 12:24 something where you need to create 12:26 increasing coherence so it's you get 12:28 create an island of coherence at first 12:29 something that has a coherent reward 12:31 language and semantic language of 12:32 thought so to speak and that is then 12:34 growing and is colonizing the cortex 12:37 into a coherent pattern that allows you 12:39 to explain reality and at the core of 12:41 this to make this happen this coherence 12:43 happen is the self-observing Observer 12:46 it's the minimal coherent pattern right 12:47 it's something that notices I'm here I'm 12:50 observing and so I'm growing out it's 12:53 quite beautiful because it's basically 12:54 the core of the card's meditation K agum 12:57 I think is not some philosophical 12:59 statement about ontology that allows you 13:01 to make a derivation it's the strategy 13:03 that you can introspectively observe

[@petermartin5030]

Wow, we are listening to genius here.

[@Vishal-ih3tc]

10:00, 11:44

[@loopuleasa]

based

[@atrocitasinterfector]

Joscha needs to be in charge of OpenAI

[@michelles9897]

🤍

[@phillipneal8194]

So where is the code ?

[@flflflflflfl]

godhub

[@agt5jx87]

I think the purpose of the talk is to get people interested in the idea.

[@teemukupiainen3684]

that's it😂😂😂

[@wp9860]

No. Consciousness is not software. It is not virtual. It is not computational. It is not a simulacrum. It is real. It is verb, not noun. It is energy, not mass. it subsists on life. In came into being by evolution that created the magic where bioelectric discharge is the substance of consciousness, life as we experience it, and all our phenomenal impressions.