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How to prove controversial consciousness theory? Ask a physicist
问物理学家,怎样证明有争议的意识理论?
Anil Ananthaswamy
mints 译
一种整合的体验 Machine Headz/Getty
Take a theory of consciousness that calculates how aware any information-processing network is – be it a computer or a brain. Trouble is, it takes a supercomputer billions of years to verify its predictions. Add a maverick cosmologist, and what do you get? A way to make the theory useful within our lifetime.
采用一种意识理论,以此来计算人类是如何意识无所不在的信息处理网络的,这是一件非常麻烦的事情。不论是用一台计算机还是一个大脑来计算,这样的计算需要一台超级计算机用几十亿年来验证它的预言。还得要加上一位与众不同的宇宙学家,你能得到什么?解决的方式是找到一种我们在有生之年可以使用的理论。
Integrated information theory (IIT) is one of our best descriptions of consciousness. Developed by neuroscientist Giulio Tononi of the University of Wisconsin at Madison, it’s based on the observation that each moment of awareness is unified. When you contemplate a bunch of flowers, say, it’s impossible to be conscious of the flower’s colour independently of its fragrance because the brain has integrated the sensory data. Tononi argues that for a system to be conscious, it must integrate information in such a way that the whole contains more information than the sum of its parts.