Consciousness generates agent action.
Jonathan Delafield-Butt, Colwyn Trevarthen
The Behavioral and brain sciences March 23, 2022 DOI: 10.1017/s0140525x2100203x (opens in new tab) via PubMed
Summary
AI-generated from the abstractConsciousness enables an agent to act for its own purposes, reorganizing simple stimulus-response causality into generative, creative action that evaluates future experience. This reversal of causality provides control properties not explained by integrated information theory (IIT), which relies on a linear, deterministic cause-effect model. IIT is therefore incomplete, abstract, and disembodied, lacking an account of the psychobiology of consciousness that serves the vital agency of the organism.
Study at a glance
| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Argues that consciousness inverts linear causality to enable prospective, generative agent action, a property not captured by integrated information theory. |
Abstract
Consciousness directs the actions of the agent for its own purposive gains. It re-organises a stimulus-response linear causality to deliver generative, creative agent action that evaluates the subsequent experience prospectively. This inversion of causality affords special properties of control that are not accounted for in integrated information theory (IIT), which is predicated on a linear, deterministic cause-effect model. IIT remains an incomplete, abstract, and disembodied theory without explanation of the psychobiology of consciousness that serves the vital agency the organism.