A Simple Model of Consciousness — ORIGINAL (OLD) Version

To start thinking about consciousness within this framework, again, let’s rid ourselves of our current thoughts and understandings about ourselves, our consciousness and our current universe. 

Let’s start back over.

Let’s consider that there is a vast and complex UIP/URE universe unfolding that seems foreign, complex and chaotic. It’s basically just noise as far as we can see. Think static on an old TV.

And then, let’s consider that there is an entity within this UIP/URE system.

This entity is some collection of features or properties within the UIP that can be considered as a collective. An entity, a self.

This self has no concepts or brain or consciousness, it simply and only exists and happens to persist from UIP to UIP purely in happenstance surviving via the rules of the URE.

Now, let’s imagine that we want to ensure that this entity persists, exists, survives and thrives in future UIPs.

How would we go about this? How can we do this?

The important thing to remember in this framework is that there is nothing outside of the UIP. So from that perspective, it may seem hopeless; our little creature is entirely at the mercy of the unfolding UIPs.

But how could we help it? Maybe if it had some sort of apparatus within itself that is itself a part of the UIP/URE, this apparatus, this “brain” could help it to survive and thrive. How could we build that? 

The first thing this apparatus needs is an observational ability. That is the ability to gain information about the current nature of the surrounding elements within the UIP. What does that mean? It means that as the UIPs unfold state by state, portions of the UIP arrive to the entity and become ingested into it in some way that provides clues or information about the prior UIPs. This is observation. In our world, this could be photons of light hitting our eyes or sound vibrations hitting our ears and the nerve signals coming into our brain. In this model, all of this information propagates UIP by UIP.

When we have observation, the second item our apparatus needs is memory. That is, the ability to store or encode certain salient features of these observations so that they persist into future UIPs. If the observations come in but do not cause changes that persist from UIP to UIP they are meaningless and instantly forgotten.

After observation and memory, the third needed item is prediction or modeling. That is, the ability to predict or model how future UIPs might appear. Based on the incoming observations and memory that has been stored, the entity could have some heuristics or models that provide some insight or probability or guidance on what future UIPs might look like. Essentially in this way it starts to contain its own mini UIP/URE system that models and predict, in a rudimentary way, what future UIPs will look like.

A follow-on component of prediction and modeling is learning. That is, as future UIPs appear, the entity can compare how its predictions compared to the actual experience and fine-tune its predictions and models.

The next needed item for our entity to survive and thrive is goals or preferences. That is, the ability to discern, model, decide or describe, which future UIP states might be more or less preferable or desirable or undesirable for the future entity. As the entity becomes able to observe, model and predict, it can choose which predicted outcomes it prefers.

And the fifth and final needed item is action potential. That is the ability to take these observations, memories, models and preferences and put them into action so that future UIP states are different than what they would have been had no action been taken. 

It seems to me that these five items; observation, memory, modeling, goals and action potential are necessary for an entity to have any sort of meaningful control of its emergence in future UIPs. With all of this in place, depending on their quality, our entity may now have a chance to exist, survive and even thrive in future UIPs.

These must all be instantiated within a framework, apparatus, or brain that is entirely within the UIP/URE substrate.

Now, to model this out in our current world, lets imagine that we are walking down the street.

We glance over and see a child pick up a rock and throw it at us -

First, we observe the child throwing the rock.

But that fact will quickly fade into history, into subsequent UIPs, so it’s essential that we don’t forget this as the rock is in flight. We must remember this information.

It’s also important to be able to model the rocks flight and that it will impact us in a future UIP.

Obviously we don’t want that to happen; we prefer not to be hit by rocks. We will be in a worse state if it does and a better state if it does not.

And so, putting this all together, we observe this with our eyes and model it in our brain and central nervous system. Our nerves send impulses to our muscles and our body takes quick action, ducking our head so the rock flies safely over our heads. As the rock’s flight emerges UIP to UIP we were able to model its trajectory and take action so our body is no longer in its path.

In this simple example, we find all five elements: observation, memory, modeling, preference and action.

Notice how quickly and instinctively all five features appear. In our universe, this ballet of the rock in flight and our cascading biological mechanism to avoid it unfold instantly but over literally millions of UIPs.

It seems to me, that these five elements; observation, memory, modeling, preference and action, can exist in a small and rudimentary way, but they can also grow more and more and more rich and complex.

It also seems that if these elements grow to sufficient complexity and robustness, eventually they will become self referential where the entity includes an awareness of itself in its own observations, memory and modeling. And if it becomes more complex, it can also model and integrate others as similar to self and include that in its observation, memory and modeling as well.

In fact, it seems that as these five elements grow and flourish (in degree but not in kind) eventually it will reach a place where an outside observer such as ourselves will say “clearly this entity is conscious”.

And so, as we flow through the “eternal now” of our universe’s UIPs, we observe, we remember, we model, we have goals and preferences and we take action. These are all mediated via our brains and our sensory organs and our nervous system.  

We do this across multiple time scales and across multiple social and meaning domains; from second to second, minute to minute, hour to hour, week to week, year to year, to lifetime, but always in the now. We take in a vast array of information about our universe, our past, our memories of ourselves, and others, constructing enormous models that are constantly being updated as the UIPs unfold. 

As this process becomes more complex, rich and more self-referential and self-aware, some form of  consciousness inevitably emerges.

And eventually we can say all sorts of things, including things like: “I need to go to the store to buy eggs to make a cake for aunt Joan’s birthday” or “I’m feeling very relaxed from taking that nap” or “why am I here, what is my existential purpose?”.

What exactly this conscious experience might be like “from the inside” is hard to say, except that it emerges UIP by UIP and this temporal emergence and feedback awareness of itself may be a key part of the experience.

As the five elements come together with sufficient robustness, something we identify as consciousness emerges. And so, if an entity wishes to exist and thrive in a UIP/URE universe, it must observe, remember, model, predict, choose and act.

As it does so, if it has sufficient sophistication, robustness and self-awareness, consciousness eventually emerges.

And so this is our Simple Model of Consciousness. 

And together this forms our Simple Model of Physics and Consciousness.