Toy Models of Top Down Causation.
Entropy (Basel, Switzerland) October 27, 2020 DOI: 10.3390/e22111224 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Keywords | Cellular automata Consciousness Panprotopsychism Top-down causation |
| Citations | 4 |
| Key points | Proposes that higher-level causal models may unify quantum theory with classical physics and support a panprotopsychist property dualism where consciousness and physics interact. |
Abstract
Models in which causation arises from higher level structures as well as from microdynamics may be relevant to unifying quantum theory with classical physics or general relativity. They also give a way of defining a form of panprotopsychist property dualism, in which consciousness and material physics causally affect one another. I describe probabilistic toy models based on cellular automata that illustrate possibilities and difficulties with these ideas.