Anil Seth and his view of consciousness as controlled hallucinations

The neuroscientist and consciousness theoretician Anil Seth will speak in Helsinki University at Friday. The relevant data are here: 26 April at 16.00–18.00 EEST Place: University of Helsinki, Main building (Fabianinkatu 33, 2nd floor), Auditorium (F2044). Live stream can be found here.

I looked at the summary of AS:s book “Being You: A New Science of Consciousness” (see this).

1. Anil Seth (AS) is a materialist and therefore believes that the neurophysiological state of the brain completely determines the contents of consciousness. AS tries to answer the “real problem” that is why a particular sensory input gives rise to a particular conscious experience. AS admits however that the hard problem, that is why there is any experience associated with the perceptions, is real.
2. The usual view in which sensory input arrives the brain and is processed to produce sensory representations and then follows motor action as a reaction. The view of AS is in some sense opposite. Brain is continually making predictions for the future and they are realized as experiences, which can be sensory experiences and also emotions which relate to the state of the body. Sensory experience is not a summary of what was but a prediction of what it will be! We live in a continual hallucination which does its best to predict the future reliably. When it fails, we speak of hallucination instead of a real sensory experience.

From this brief description motor action is missing. What could it mean in this framework? I do not know what Seth’s answer is. How does the view of AS relate to the TGD based view of consciousness? TGD view involves the following new elements.

1. Zero energy ontology (ZEO) replaces the standard ontology of quantum theory and solves the basic paradox of quantum measurement theory. The key point is that quantum state is replaced with a superposition of classical deterministic time evolutions of 3-surface, that is 4-surfaces of H=M⁴×CP₂, obeying holography meaning that 3-D initial data dictate the time evolution almost uniquely. The space-time surface is an analog of Bohr orbit for a particle represented by a 3-surface.

These Bohr orbits reside inside a causal diamond CD, which has the intersection of future and past directed light-cones as its M⁴ projection. CDs form a scale hierarchy and CD defines the 4-D perceptive field of a conscious entity. The 4-dimensionality of the perceptive field conforms with the idea of AS that conscious experience is a prediction rather than a mere representation of what the world is in 3-D sense.

The 4-surfaces as analogs of Bohr orbits and as classical time evolution correspond to the predictions of AS. Quantum prediction of the future is quantum state, that is a wave function in the set of Bohr orbits.

Ordinary SFRs become “big” SFRs (BSFRs) in the TGD framework and in these the arrow of geometric time changes. From the point of view of outsider the system loses consciousness/falls asleep/dies but actually in reincarnates and lives with opposite arrow of time so that signals sent by it go to geometric past and are not received by the system as it has reincarnated by making a second BSFR and therefore has the original arrow of time.

The sequences of repeated measurements of the same observables correspond to sequences of SSFRs and give rise to a continuous flow of consciousness. They would relate to sensory perceptions. BSFR would correspond to motor actions changing the arrow of time and the second BSFR would bring back the original arrow of time and correspond to wake-up and motor action.

When the sensory input changes the set of commuting observables measured in SSFR, it becomes impossible to continue the peaceful life and BSFR must take place: self loses consciousness temporarily (dies) for a moment. This corresponds to motor action, which is missing from the view of AS as represented above.

In the TGD framework sensory perception as a sequence of SSFRs yields continually updated quantum predictions and BSFR forced by the change of the measured observables so that it does not anymore commute with the earlier observables, gives rise to motor action as a reaction. For a summary of earlier postings see Latest progress in TGD.

For the lists of articles (most of them published in journals founded by Huping Hu) and books about TGD see this.