Jan 13, 2021
Theories of Consciousness must Bend Light
A good theory of consciousness is one that predicts behavior that is unexplained by other current theories of consciousness. Einstein’s General Theory of Relativity was given credence because it predicted the bending of light near large massive objects like the sun. Einstein’s Theory was validated during a solar eclipse in 1919.
What do current theories of consciousness predict that is outside common intuition about the nature of consciousness? Many theories of consciousness are elegant, but do they predict anything out of the ordinary? Richard Feynman once said It doesn’t matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are. If it doesn’t agree with experiment, it’s wrong.”
A theory of consciousness must be expressed in a formulation, consists of interpretations that are valid and predict something unexpected.
A bad theory of consciousness has ambiguous interpretations and predicts nothing out of the ordinary.
What is missing in theories of consciousness, (see: global neural workspace and higher-order theory) is an explanation of the mechanism of inference. Missing is HOW a subconscious thought leads to conscious thought. Daniel Dennett, in his concept of inversion of reasoning, alludes to the idea that cognition itself is an emergent phenomenon analogous to evolution also being an emergent phenomenon. Of course, there are still a lot more details that need to be flushed out to explain emergent phenomena.
We do know from Deep Learning how to create intuition. Which is commonly thought of as a System 1 (hence unconscious) process. However, you still have to tie the reflective cognition (System 2) with System 1. A lot of this is glossed over in consciousness theories.
So, going with the same analogy of General Relativity of the bending of light due to gravity, a theory of consciousness must explain why these lines appear to bend when they do not:
Because a theory of consciousness must also be a theory of perception.
