Am I Self-Conscious? (Or Does Self-Organization Entail Self-Consciousness?)

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Cognitive Science
• Information Theory

Background:

• Consciousness is often debated, with questions arising about the necessity of self-consciousness.
• Living systems exhibit characteristic behaviors, such as returning to stable states, which can be mathematically modeled.

Purpose of the Study:

• To argue that self-consciousness is necessary for consciousness from a physicist's perspective.
• To explore the roles of self-organization, self-evidencing, and self-modeling in consciousness.

Main Methods:

• Mathematical modeling of biological systems using Lyapunov functions.
• Interpreting biological processes as forms of inference, drawing parallels with Bayesian statistics and information theory.

Main Results:

• Biological processes, from evolution to conscious processing, can be understood as performing inference.
• Self-evidencing, when possessing temporal or counterfactual depth, is proposed as the point at which consciousness arises.

Conclusions:

• Consciousness is fundamentally inference about one's future actions and their self-evidencing consequences.
• Self-consciousness is a necessary component for the emergence of consciousness in biological systems.