The Meta-Dynamic Nature of Consciousness

Abstract

How, if at all, consciousness can be part of the physical universe remains a baffling problem. This article outlines a new, developing philosophical theory of how it could do so, and offers a preliminary mathematical formulation of a physical grounding for key aspects of the theory. Because the philosophical side has radical elements, so does the physical-theory side. The philosophical side is radical, first, in proposing that the productivity or dynamism in the universe that many believe to be responsible for its systematic regularities is actually itself a physical constituent of the universe, along with more familiar entities. Indeed, it proposes that instances of dynamism can themselves take part in physical interactions with other entities, this interaction then being “meta-dynamism” (a type of meta-causation). Secondly, the theory is radical, and unique, in arguing that consciousness is necessarily partly constituted of meta-dynamic auto-sensitivity, in other words it must react via meta-dynamism to its own dynamism, and also in conjecturing that some specific form of this sensitivity is sufficient for and indeed constitutive of consciousness. The article proposes a way for physical laws to be modified to accommodate meta-dynamism, via the radical step of including elements that explicitly refer to dynamism itself. Additionally, laws become, explicitly, temporally non-local in referring directly to quantity values holding at times prior to a given instant of application of the law. The approach therefore implicitly brings in considerations about what information determines states. Because of the temporal non-locality, and also because of the deep connections between dynamism and time-flow, the approach also implicitly connects to the topic of entropy insofar as this is related to time.

Differences and relationships between talent detection, identification, development and selection in sport: A systematic review

“…Thus, the preliminary training in TAD and TID is achieved at two levels, on the one hand, the development of sports professional knowledge and technical skills, and on the other hand, the formation of sports expertise and innovation consciousness. Consciousness, as a subjective and dynamic element [ 80 , 81 ], has a guiding role in training and tactical skill learning. The proactive role of professionalism and innovation in the growth of students’ sports is a fundamental stimulus that leads coaches, teachers and students to make individual efforts in accordance with the established goals of training [ 82 , 83 ].…”

Perspectivas del estudio de la consciencia: aproximación desde las ciencias de la complejidad y la biología evolutiva

“…Propone a la consciencia como un sistema dinámico con puntos de estabilidad, autosensibles entre ellos y con un alto grado de recursividad. La interacción entre estos puntos de estabilidad es lo que constituye la consciencia (Barnden, 2020). Sin embargo, al igual que muchos intentos de modelación, se queda en un planteamiento debido a la cantidad de variables, control y el manejo matemático que requieren las pruebas empíricas (Wallace, 2021), dejando el campo abierto a la búsqueda de nuevos ingredientes.…”

Pre-Reflective Self-Consciousness: A Meta-Causal Approach

“…What I will call the "full" MCA includes a commitment to the particular physical nature of causation and meta-causation, whereas the present article leaves this nature open, as this nature does not affect the article's concerns, except in comments in sections 6. That physical nature is given a mathematical regimentation in Barnden (2020), where causation is called dynamism and the full MCA is called MDyn (for meta-dynamism). But that treatment does not need to be considered in order to understand the present article.…”

“…InBarnden (2020) I lay out my view of dynamism, including an initial mathematical formulation of how dynamism can be explicitly mentioned by an extended type of physical law, and thus appear in mathematical system equations. This appears to be the most precise regimentation of the notion of dynamism or oomph that is available.…”