Amplifying Phenomenal Information: Toward a Fundamental Theory of Consciousness

TL;DR

This paper proposes a fundamental theory of consciousness where amplification of information through closure and dynamic processes at the edge of chaos explains the emergence of conscious experience, linking it to information flow and phase transitions.

Contribution

It introduces a novel framework connecting information amplification, closure, and dynamical states to the emergence of consciousness, bridging fundamental information theory and cognitive phenomena.

Findings

Information amplification via closure correlates with consciousness levels.

Phase transitions in information dynamics relate to the origin of life and worldview.

Inward-biased information flow may explain the illusion of limited consciousness.

Abstract

Fundamental approaches bypass the problem of getting consciousness from non-conscious components by positing that consciousness is a universal primitive. For example, the double aspect theory of information holds that information has a phenomenal aspect. How then do you get from phenomenal information to human consciousness? This paper proposes that an entity is conscious to the extent it amplifies information, first by trapping and integrating it through closure, and second by maintaining dynamics at the edge of chaos through simultaneous processes of divergence and convergence. The origin of life through autocatalytic closure, and the origin of an interconnected worldview through conceptual closure, induced phase transitions in the degree to which information, and thus consciousness, is locally amplified. Divergence and convergence of cognitive information may involve phenomena observed in light e.g. focusing, interference, and resonance. By making information flow inward-biased, closure shields us from external consciousness; thus the paucity of consciousness may be an illusion.