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Related Experiment Videos

Consciousness as a self-organizing process: an ecological perspective

S Goerner1, A Combs

  • 1Triangle Center for the Study of Complex Systems, Chapel Hill, NC 27515, USA. goerner@email.unc.edu

Bio Systems
|July 2, 1998
PubMed
Summary

Consciousness evolves as an energy-driven process, integrating information like a living cell. This complex, self-generating system exhibits chaotic dynamics and distinct states, akin to chaotic attractors.

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Area of Science:

  • Cognitive Science
  • Theoretical Biology
  • Neuroscience

Background:

  • Consciousness is often studied in isolation, but this research frames it within broader energy-driven evolutionary principles.
  • Existing models may not fully capture the dynamic and self-organizing nature of conscious experience.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a novel framework for understanding the evolution of consciousness.
  • To conceptualize consciousness as an autopoietic, energy-information system.
  • To explore the chaotic dynamics underlying conscious states.

Main Methods:

  • Conceptual analysis integrating principles from thermodynamics, information theory, and systems biology.
  • Analogical reasoning comparing consciousness to cellular metabolism and ecological systems.

Related Experiment Videos

  • Theoretical modeling of information flow and system dynamics.

    • Main Results:

    • Consciousness is framed as an emergent property of energy-information interactions.
    • The conscious system is characterized as autopoietic, continuously self-creating.
    • Evidence suggests the system operates chaotically, with distinct states represented as chaotic attractors.

    Conclusions:

    • Viewing consciousness through an energy-information lens offers new insights into its evolution and nature.
    • The autopoietic and chaotic characteristics of consciousness are key to its dynamic self-organization.
    • This framework provides a basis for further theoretical and empirical investigation into the fundamental nature of consciousness.