IIT's Scientific Counter-Revolution: A Neuroscientific Theory's Physical and Metaphysical Implications.
Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) July 23, 2021 Francis Fallon, James C Blackmon
Integrated Information Theory (IIT) makes commitments about the nature of physical reality that are intimately tied to the theory, not incidental. This paper demonstrates this by raising objections in a naive way and showing how principled IIT responses rely on metaphysical positions. The paper applies the Placement Argument to generate a problem involving zombies, frames this as an apparent dilemma, and addresses it by drawing on IIT literature concerning physical reality. A related dilemma is treated in a way that dovetails with the earlier treatment. The analysis underscores the breadth of IIT and the relevance of this breadth to evaluating its merits.