Coverings of Automata

“…Suppose the control structure has more than one internal state or condition in which it can find itself at the end of an interaction, and note that the particular state in which it does terminate depends on (is partially determined by) the environment with which the interaction is taking place (that is, suppose the system is a Moore machine that is also a recognizer; see Ginzburg, 1968). Then, the particular final state in which the interaction terminates will serve to classify that environment: tire environment will be of the sort that yields final state A, say, or final state B.…”

Section: The Relationship O F Knowingmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Automata theory and Turing machine theory are the particular languages that 1 have been most concerned with to date (sec Davis, 1958;Ginzburg, 1968;Minsky, 1967). does not yield a condition in the system for which the system's actions are not defined -that is, insofar as the interaction is well defined from the system's perspective.…”

Section: The Relationship O F Knowingmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Nature of Developmental Stages

Bickhard¹

1978

Human Development

133

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A theoretical analysis of the nature of developmental stages is presented. A formal model of the relationship of knowing is outlined from which developmental stages, egocentrism, and vertical decalage can be derived as logically necessary consequences. A number of implications of the model for the nature of developmental stages are discussed, and it is noted that these implications show several important divergences from Piaget. The underlying model of knowing is illustrated, primarily with respect to imagery.

show abstract

“…Our methodology is based on automata theory [ 18 , 19 ], where the concept of philosophical zombies has a natural interpretation in terms of “emulation” [ 20 ]. The goal of our methodology is to demonstrate that it is possible to isomorphically emulate an integrated finite-state automaton (

) with a feed-forward finite-state automaton (

) using techniques closely related to the Krohn–Rhodes theorem [ 16 , 21 ].…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Integrated Information Theory and Isomorphic Feed-Forward Philosophical Zombies

Hanson

Walker

2019

Entropy

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Any theory amenable to scientific inquiry must have testable consequences. This minimal criterion is uniquely challenging for the study of consciousness, as we do not know if it is possible to confirm via observation from the outside whether or not a physical system knows what it feels like to have an inside -a challenge referred to as the "hard problem" of consciousness. To arrive at a theory of consciousness, the hard problem has motivated development of phenomenological approaches that adopt assumptions of what properties consciousness has based on first-hand experience and, from these, derive the physical processes that give rise to these properties. A leading theory adopting this approach is Integrated Information Theory (IIT), which assumes our subjective experience is a "unified whole", subsequently yielding a requirement for physical feedback as a necessary condition for consciousness. Here, we develop a mathematical framework to assess the validity of this assumption by testing it in the context of isomorphic physical systems with and without feedback. The isomorphism allows us to isolate changes in Φ without affecting the size or functionality of the original system. Indeed, we show that the only mathematical difference between a "conscious" system with Φ > 0 and an isomorphic "philosophical zombie" with Φ = 0 is a permutation of the binary labels used to internally represent functional states. This implies Φ is sensitive to functionally arbitrary aspects of a particular labeling scheme, with no clear justification in terms of phenomenological differences. In light of this, we argue any quantitative theory of consciousness, including IIT, should be invariant under isomorphisms if it is to avoid the existence of isomorphic philosophical zombies and the epistemological problems they pose.

show abstract

Coverings of Automata

Cited by 52 publications

References 0 publications

Anti-inflammatory activity of chondroitin sulfate

Anti-inflammatory activity of chondroitin sulfate

The Nature of Developmental Stages

Integrated Information Theory and Isomorphic Feed-Forward Philosophical Zombies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About