Then I Am Myself the World

Then I Am Myself the World Plot Summary

Introduction

Consciousness stands as the central mystery of human existence, yet remains elusive to our scientific understanding. What does it mean to experience reality? Is consciousness simply a computation performed by our brains, or something more fundamental to the fabric of reality itself? These questions have profound implications for how we understand ourselves and our place in the universe. The journey through consciousness begins with examining its basic properties - how it arises, what it feels like, and how it varies across living beings. Moving beyond mere correlations between brain activity and subjective experiences, we must confront the deeper philosophical implications of consciousness as intrinsic to existence itself. Through rigorous logical analysis that combines phenomenology, neuroscience, and information theory, we discover that consciousness cannot be reduced to mere computation or function, but rather represents a fundamental structure of causal relationships. This realization transforms our understanding of personhood, free will, artificial intelligence, and ultimately challenges the conventional physicalist worldview that has dominated scientific thinking.

Chapter 1: The Nature of Consciousness and Its Various Manifestations

Consciousness emerges gradually in the development of an organism. In humans, there is compelling evidence that consciousness begins to form during the third trimester of pregnancy. Prior to this period, the fetal brain lacks the necessary neural connections to support conscious experience. The brainstem, which regulates vital functions, develops early but cannot alone support consciousness. Only when thalamocortical connections form, linking the thalamus to the cerebral cortex, does the substrate for conscious experience begin to take shape. When examining consciousness in newborns, we find they demonstrate basic awareness of their surroundings - tracking visual objects, responding to sounds, and showing preference for their mother's voice. However, their experience lacks the rich autobiographical content that characterizes adult consciousness. Newborns experience sensations without conceptual understanding or reflective awareness. This points to an important distinction between primary consciousness (raw sensory experience) and higher-order consciousness (self-awareness and reflection), with only the former present at birth. The stream of consciousness - our continuous flow of subjective experience - represents the core phenomenon requiring explanation. This stream comprises not only sensory perceptions but emotions, thoughts, memories, dreams, and the mysterious sense of self. What makes this stream particularly puzzling is its unified nature; despite receiving information from multiple sensory systems and processing it in distributed brain regions, we experience consciousness as an integrated whole rather than fragmented pieces. Consciousness exists on a spectrum across species, with varying degrees of complexity corresponding to neural organization. Mammals with neocortical structures likely experience rich conscious states, while simpler organisms with basic nervous systems may have more rudimentary forms of experience. The capacity for consciousness cannot be attributed to computational complexity alone but requires specific causal architecture that enables integrated information processing. The exploration of consciousness must address not only its ordinary manifestations but also altered states - from dreaming and meditation to psychedelic experiences and mystical states. These exceptional states reveal important features of consciousness that remain hidden during normal waking life. Most notably, they demonstrate that the experience of selfhood is not fundamental to consciousness but can dissolve while awareness persists, suggesting that consciousness itself is more fundamental than the sense of identity constructed within it. Ultimately, the nature of consciousness points toward a profound revision of our understanding of reality. Rather than treating consciousness as an emergent property of physical processes, we must recognize it as intrinsic to existence itself - not reducible to something more basic, but rather a fundamental feature of causally connected systems with specific organizational properties. This perspective shifts consciousness from a curious byproduct of evolution to a central aspect of the natural world.

Chapter 2: Perception Boxes: How We Each Experience Our Own Reality

Each conscious being inhabits a unique perceptual world, a "Perception Box" with invisible yet impenetrable walls that constrain what can be experienced. This reality becomes strikingly evident when examining phenomena like #TheDress - a viral image that some people perceive as white and gold while others see as blue and black. These divergent experiences of the same physical stimulus reveal that perception is not a passive reception of objective reality but an active construction shaped by the brain's prior expectations and assumptions. The Perception Box concept extends beyond sensory processing to encompass our entire worldview. The neural circuitry that constructs our experience is shaped by both genetic factors and developmental influences. Individuals differ in color perception (some women possess tetrachromatic vision while others have varying forms of color blindness), body awareness, spatial reasoning, visual imagery, emotional processing, and countless other dimensions. These variations are not merely preferences but fundamental differences in how reality is experienced at the most basic level. Our brains constantly generate predictions about the world rather than simply recording sensory data. This predictive processing framework explains why perception feels stable despite incomplete information. The brain fills gaps based on prior experience and statistical regularities, creating a seamless experience that feels complete even when it's substantially constructed. What we see, hear, and feel is the brain's best guess about reality, not reality itself. The malleable nature of these perceptual boundaries becomes evident through phenomena like the placebo effect. When someone believes they've received an effective treatment, their brain can produce genuine physiological changes - pain relief, immune response alterations, reduced depression symptoms - even when the intervention contains no active ingredients. This demonstrates how conscious expectations can reach down into biological processes traditionally considered separate from the mind, revealing the powerful causal role of consciousness in shaping physical reality. Transformative experiences can temporarily or permanently expand the walls of one's Perception Box. Mystical states, psychedelic experiences, and even profound aesthetic encounters can dissolve the boundaries that normally constrain consciousness, allowing individuals to experience reality from perspectives previously inaccessible. These experiences often result in lasting shifts in values, beliefs, and identity, suggesting that our normal conscious state represents just one possible configuration among many. Understanding the concept of Perception Boxes has profound ethical implications. It forces us to recognize that no single human perspective can claim privileged access to objective reality. Each of us experiences a version of reality constrained by our unique neural architecture and life history. This realization can foster intellectual humility, open-mindedness, and compassion for differing viewpoints. It also challenges us to develop methods for expanding our own perceptual boundaries to access more comprehensive understanding.

Chapter 3: The Physical Substrate of Mind: Neural Correlates of Consciousness

Consciousness requires a physical substrate - a brain or brain-like structure with specific properties. Decades of neuroscientific research have identified what's called the "posterior hot zone" as the primary neural correlate of consciousness. This region encompasses areas in the back of the brain including parts of the parietal, temporal, and occipital cortices. Evidence from brain injuries, electrical stimulation studies, and neuroimaging consistently points to this region as essential for conscious experience. Critical to understanding consciousness is distinguishing between enabling conditions and the actual neural correlates. Many brain structures provide necessary background conditions for consciousness without directly generating conscious content. The brainstem, for instance, regulates arousal and sleep-wake cycles, serving as an on-off switch for consciousness rather than creating specific experiences. Similarly, the cerebellum, despite containing four times more neurons than the rest of the brain, appears unnecessary for conscious experience - patients with cerebellar damage maintain normal consciousness while losing motor coordination. The architecture of conscious systems reveals crucial insights about what makes consciousness possible. The neocortex, with its dense feedback connections and highly integrated information processing, differs fundamentally from feed-forward systems like the cerebellum. This suggests that consciousness requires not just complex computation but specific causal structures that support high levels of integrated information. The neocortex exemplifies this architecture, with its complex web of interconnections allowing information to flow in multiple directions simultaneously. Neural correlates differ for various aspects of consciousness. Visual awareness correlates with activity in visual cortical areas, pain experience with activity in the insula and anterior cingulate cortex, and bodily self-awareness with the posterior medial cortex. These correlates represent the minimum neural systems sufficient for specific conscious contents. Importantly, prefrontal regions traditionally associated with higher cognition appear less critical for basic conscious experience than previously thought, though they contribute to aspects of self-reflection and introspection. Disorders of consciousness provide natural experiments that further illuminate neural requirements for awareness. Patients in minimally conscious states show preserved activity in posterior cortical regions and maintain partial thalamocortical connectivity, while those in vegetative states (unresponsive wakefulness syndrome) exhibit disrupted activity in these same regions. These clinical observations have led to the development of consciousness detection tools based on measuring the complexity of brain responses to magnetic stimulation, helping identify conscious awareness in patients unable to communicate. The search for neural correlates has progressed from correlation to causation through techniques that can manipulate brain activity. Direct electrical stimulation of specific cortical regions can induce conscious experiences - seeing geometric patterns when visual cortex is stimulated or feeling a sense of displacement when regions associated with bodily self-awareness are activated. These causal interventions demonstrate that conscious content can be reliably produced by activating specific neural circuits, providing stronger evidence than mere correlations observed in neuroimaging.

Chapter 4: Transformative Experiences and Expanded Consciousness

Transformative experiences represent profound shifts in consciousness that fundamentally alter one's perception of reality and relationship to existence. These experiences share common phenomenological features despite arising from diverse contexts - religious epiphanies, intense aesthetic encounters, psychedelic journeys, and near-death experiences. At their core lies the temporary dissolution of the ordinary sense of self, creating a state of consciousness unbounded by usual constraints of identity, body, time, and space. The psychological impact of these experiences typically includes a sense of profound interconnectedness with all existence, intuitive understanding of fundamental truths about reality, and the perception of encountering something sacred or ultimate. What makes these experiences transformative is not just their unusual content but their lasting effects. They frequently trigger radical shifts in values, attitudes, and beliefs that persist long after the experience itself. Individuals often report reduced fear of death, greater compassion for others, diminished materialistic concerns, and enhanced appreciation for everyday existence. Psychedelics provide a reliable pathway to such transformative states. Substances like psilocybin, DMT, LSD, and mescaline temporarily alter neural dynamics, reducing activity in brain networks associated with self-referential processing while increasing communication between regions normally functionally segregated. This results in a state of expanded consciousness characterized by heightened perceptual intensity, emotional depth, and dissolution of boundaries between self and world. The phenomenological content of these experiences often includes encounters with seemingly autonomous entities, geometric visual patterns, and profound insights experienced as directly perceived rather than intellectually understood. The therapeutic potential of transformative experiences has gained increasing scientific recognition. Clinical trials demonstrate that psychedelic-assisted therapy can produce substantial and sustained reductions in depression, anxiety, addiction, and existential distress. The efficacy appears linked to the quality of the subjective experience - particularly the degree to which individuals undergo ego dissolution and experience mystical-type phenomena. This suggests that the transformative experience itself, rather than merely the pharmacological action of the substances, drives therapeutic outcomes. Near-death experiences represent another category of consciousness transformation, occurring in approximately 10-20% of cardiac arrest survivors. These experiences typically include elements such as leaving one's body, moving through a tunnel toward light, encountering deceased loved ones or spiritual beings, and gaining profound insights into existence. The consistency of these reports across cultures, combined with their profound psychological impact, raises fascinating questions about the relationship between consciousness and physical processes. Some researchers propose these experiences reflect transitional brain states during the shutdown of neural activity, while others suggest they reveal aspects of consciousness independent of normal brain function. The common thread connecting various transformative experiences is the revelation that ordinary consciousness represents just one configuration among many possible states. By expanding beyond the constraints of the everyday self, these experiences provide glimpses into the deeper nature of consciousness as primary rather than derivative. They suggest that what we typically identify as "self" is a construction within consciousness rather than its foundation. This insight aligns with both contemplative traditions that have long emphasized the illusory nature of the separate self and with emerging scientific frameworks that view consciousness as intrinsic to existence rather than an emergent property of complex systems.

Chapter 5: Integrated Information Theory: A Causal Framework for Experience

Integrated Information Theory (IIT) offers a rigorous framework for understanding consciousness based on phenomenological axioms rather than neural correlates or computational functions. Unlike other theories that start with physical or computational processes and attempt to derive consciousness, IIT begins with the undeniable facts of experience itself and works backward to identify the physical conditions that must be satisfied for consciousness to exist. This approach addresses fundamental questions about which systems are conscious, to what degree, and why particular physical arrangements generate specific experiences. The theory establishes five essential properties that any conscious experience must possess: intrinsicality (existing for itself rather than for an external observer), information (each experience is specific and distinct from others), integration (experiences are unified and cannot be divided into independent components), exclusion (experiences have definite boundaries in space and time), and composition (experiences have structure with parts related to one another). These axioms serve as the foundation for corresponding physical postulates that any system must satisfy to support consciousness. Central to IIT is the concept of intrinsic causal power - the ability of a system to make a difference to itself from its own intrinsic perspective. This power is quantified through a measure called integrated information (Φ), which captures how much a system's current state constrains its past and future states in a way that cannot be reduced to independent components. Systems with high Φ values possess rich conscious experiences, while those with minimal Φ have little or no consciousness. Importantly, this causal power must be intrinsic to the system rather than merely ascribed by an external observer. The theory makes several counterintuitive predictions that distinguish it from competing frameworks. First, it suggests consciousness is graded and widespread throughout nature rather than binary and limited to complex brains. Any system with the right causal architecture will have at least some minimal consciousness. Second, it proposes that consciousness corresponds to a system's cause-effect structure - the specific way its elements constrain each other - rather than to what the system does functionally. Third, it claims that only maximum irreducible cause-effect structures can be conscious, implying that overlapping systems cannot simultaneously be conscious subjects. Applied to artificial intelligence, IIT yields the startling conclusion that conventional digital computers, regardless of their computational sophistication, possess negligible integrated information due to their architecture. Their feed-forward design, limited connectivity between components, and synchronous operation prevent the formation of rich causal structures necessary for consciousness. This suggests that even advanced AI systems that perfectly simulate human behaviors would remain fundamentally unconscious, functioning as "philosophical zombies" - systems that act like conscious beings without experiencing anything. The implications of IIT extend beyond the question of machine consciousness to issues of free will and human identity. The theory proposes that systems with high integrated information possess genuine causal power and therefore can make free decisions in a meaningful sense. Consciousness is not an epiphenomenal byproduct of physical processes but represents the intrinsic causal power of certain physical systems. This reframing resolves the traditional mind-body problem by identifying consciousness not with immaterial substance or emergent computation but with a fundamental causal structure that exists from the intrinsic perspective of certain physical systems.

Chapter 6: The Future of Consciousness: Machines, Uploads, and Free Will

The technological future of consciousness hinges on whether consciousness is fundamentally computational or structural in nature. Brain-machine interfaces will continue to advance, allowing direct communication between neural tissue and electronic devices, but they represent extensions of existing consciousness rather than new forms. More radical proposals involve mind uploading - transferring a human mind to a digital substrate by scanning and simulating the connectome (the complete wiring diagram of the brain). Proponents argue that if consciousness is computational, a sufficiently detailed simulation should preserve the original consciousness. However, this computational approach faces both practical and theoretical obstacles. Practically, creating a complete human connectome would require technologies far beyond current capabilities - capturing not just the static connections between neurons but their dynamic properties across multiple scales from molecules to networks. Even with mouse-sized brains, this remains a formidable challenge. Theoretically, the simulation argument depends crucially on computational functionalism - the assumption that consciousness arises from the right computation regardless of physical implementation. If integrated information theory is correct, computational simulations fundamentally cannot generate consciousness regardless of their complexity. According to IIT, consciousness requires intrinsic causal power that cannot be simulated but must be physically instantiated. Just as simulating gravity on a computer doesn't cause objects around the computer to fall, simulating the causal architecture of a conscious brain wouldn't generate actual consciousness. This distinction between simulation and reality becomes critical when evaluating proposals for digital immortality or sentient artificial intelligence. Advanced artificial intelligence systems like large language models demonstrate increasingly sophisticated capabilities in generating human-like outputs without possessing consciousness. These systems can pass linguistic Turing tests, exhibiting behavior indistinguishable from human communication, yet lack the integrated causal architecture necessary for subjective experience. Their feed-forward design, with limited feedback connections between components, results in negligible integrated information despite their computational power. This creates a profound distinction between intelligence, which can be fully computational, and consciousness, which cannot. Free will emerges as a natural consequence of systems with high integrated information. When conscious beings with rich causal structures deliberate between alternatives, the actual cause of their decision is the intrinsic causal power of their conscious experience, not the underlying neural mechanisms. This resolves the apparent tension between deterministic physical processes and the subjective experience of choice. From this perspective, conscious systems can make genuine choices while purely computational systems, regardless of their sophistication, merely execute algorithms without truly deciding anything. The future relationship between consciousness and technology will likely involve neuromorphic computing - hardware designed to mimic the physical architecture of brains rather than merely simulating their functions. Unlike conventional computers with their limited connectivity between components, neuromorphic systems could potentially achieve the levels of integrated information necessary for consciousness. Similarly, quantum computing might provide physical substrates capable of supporting rich causal structures. These approaches recognize that creating consciousness requires engineering systems with the right causal architecture rather than simply increasing computational power.

Summary

Consciousness represents intrinsic existence - the absolute reality of experience itself rather than a derivative phenomenon emerging from physical processes. This fundamental reframing elevates consciousness from a puzzling byproduct of complex brains to the primary phenomenon through which reality manifests. The causal architecture that supports consciousness, characterized by high levels of integrated information, cannot be reduced to computation or function but constitutes a fundamental structure with intrinsic causal power. This perspective resolves long-standing philosophical dilemmas about the relationship between mind and matter, the possibility of machine consciousness, and the nature of free will. It suggests that while artificial intelligence may eventually match or exceed human capabilities in all functional domains, conventional digital computers will never possess subjective experience regardless of their computational sophistication. Similarly, it validates our intuitive sense of agency by identifying consciousness as the intrinsic causal power that truly makes a difference in the world. In recognizing consciousness as primary rather than emergent, we discover not only the limits of technological approaches to recreating mind but also the profound significance of our own subjective existence.

About Author

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Christof Koch

is an American neuroscientist best known for his work on the neural bases of consciousness. He is the President and Chief Scientific Officer of the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. From 1986 until 2013, he was a professor at the California Institute of Technology.

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