The emergence of integrated information, complexity, and consciousness at criticality
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Abstract Using the critical Ising model of the brain, integrated information as a measure of consciousness is measured in toy models of generic neural networks. Monte Carlo simulations are run on 159 random weighted networks analogous to small 5-node neural network motifs. The integrated information generated by this sample of small Ising models is measured across the model parameter space. It is observed that integrated information, as a type of order parameter not unlike a concept like magnetism, undergoes a phase transition at the critical point in the model. This critical point is demarcated by the peaks of the generalized susceptibility of integrated information, a point where the ‘consciousness’ of the system is maximally susceptible to perturbations and on the boundary between an ordered and disordered form. This study adds further evidence to support that the emergence of consciousness coincides with the more universal patterns of self-organized criticality, evolution, the emergence of complexity, and the integration of complex systems. Author summary Understanding consciousness through a scientific and mathematical language is slowly coming into reach and so testing and grounding these emerging ideas onto empirical observations and known systems is a first step to properly framing this ancient problem. This paper in particular explores the Integrated Information Theory of Consciousness framed within the physics of the Ising model to understand how and when consciousness, or integrated information, can arise in simple dynamical systems. The emergence of consciousness is treated like the emergence of other classical macroscopic observables in physics such as magnetism and understood as a dynamical phase of matter. Our findings show that the sensitivity of consciousness in a complex system is maximized when the system is undergoing a phase transition, also known as a critical point. This result, combined with a body of evidence highlighting the privelaged state of critical systems suggests that, like many other complex phenomenon, consciousness may simply follow from/emerge out of the tendency of a system to self-organize to criticality.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.004 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.002 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".