FAQs

IIT Method

What do you mean by consciousness?

Why not build a theory of consciousness starting from empirical neuroscientific research?

If IIT starts from experience, isn't this method "subjective" and thus unscientific?

What constitutes a “good explanation” of consciousness, according to IIT?

If introspection requires reflection, how can we be sure that non-reflective experiences exist at all?

Why is the perturbational approach so important in IIT?

IIT's Axioms

What is meant by the term axiom in IIT?

If the axioms are “immediate” and “irrefutably true,” shouldn’t they also be self-evident?

Why aren’t the experiences of space and time considered axioms in IIT?

Does intrinsicality imply an ego, self, self-awareness or self-report?

Can't I have a vague or generic experience, which isn't "specific"?

Is my experience "specific" owing to the potential experiences I could be having?

If I have two unrelated contents of experience, doesn't this mean my experience is not "unitary"?

Isn't "definiteness" in the exclusion axiom the same thing as "specificity" in the information axiom?

Aren’t there some experiences that have no structure?

What counts as a "component" of experience?

IIT's Postulates

Why are the postulates so important in IIT?

What is the meaning of cause–effect power in light of other notions of “causal power”?

Does the intrinsicality postulate mean that the substrate of consciousness is not influenced by its environment?

How is information in IIT different from "Shannon information"?

There have been many proposals for calculating Φ. Why should we consider one to be the “right” measure?

Why do we assess the causal power of all orders of mechanisms? Why not simply assess the causal power of the individual units alone?

Unfolding (technical)

How do we get a TPM?

How do we obtain the “backward” probabilities needed for cause selectivity?

What is a valid (or "legal") partition?

Why is Φ impossible to calculate for systems larger than a few units?

How do we determine the causal grain at which integrated information (φs) is maximal?

Why do we normalize φs when searching for the minimum partition?

IIT & Philosophy

If IIT assumes "realism," does this make it a realist theory of consciousness?

If IIT assumes "physicalism," does this make it a materialist theory of consciousness?

If IIT assumes "atomism," does this make it a reductionist theory of consciousness?

Is IIT an emergentist theory of consciousness?

How does intrinsic in IIT relate to the notion as used in philosophy (e.g. Lewis)?

Do we have free will according to IIT?

Are computers conscious according to IIT?

Additional resources

Also see the Consciousness Realist blog for additional FAQs and discussion about critiques of IIT.

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