Non-separability of Physical Systems as a Foundation of Consciousness

TL;DR

This paper proposes that the degree of non-separability in a physical system's degrees of freedom underpins consciousness, linking classical and quantum frameworks and aligning with existing theories like IIT and OIST.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hypothesis connecting non-separability with consciousness and suggests a formalism using the Wigner function to quantify this relationship.

Findings

High non-separability correlates with high consciousness in brain circuits.

Classical and quantum systems can be characterized by non-separability to estimate consciousness.

The framework aligns with and potentially unifies IIT and OIST theories.

Abstract

A hypothesis is presented that non-separability of degrees of freedom is the fundamental property underlying consciousness in physical systems. The amount of consciousness in a system is determined by the extent of non-separability and the number of degrees of freedom involved. Non-interacting and feedforward systems have zero consciousness, whereas most systems of interacting particles appear to have low non-separability and consciousness. By contrast, brain circuits exhibit high complexity and weak but tightly coordinated interactions, which appear to support high non-separability and therefore high amount of consciousness. The hypothesis applies to both classical and quantum cases, and we highlight the formalism employing the Wigner function (which in the classical limit becomes the Liouville density function) as a potentially fruitful framework for characterizing non-separability and, thus, the amount of consciousness in a system. The hypothesis appears to be consistent with both the Integrated Information Theory and the Orchestrated Objective Reduction Theory and may help reconcile the two. It offers a natural explanation for the physical properties underlying the amount of consciousness and points to methods of estimating the amount of non-separability as promising ways of characterizing the amount of consciousness.