#17 - Nested Hierarchical Consciousness: viewing your mind as composed of minds

In episode 17 of the Quantum Consciousness series, Justin Riddle explores the theory that your mind is composed of conscious beings in a nested hierarchy. Is your mind a single narrative flow or is it a conversation between competing viewpoints? Do you create your thoughts or do they spring into your mind fully formed? How much control do you have over your body and perception? In the Nested Observer Windows (NOW) Model, information integration units are created at multiple spatial temporal scales (brain region level, neuron level, protein level, etc) via SYNCHRONY. Synchrony sets your perception of time. Information is shared between observer windows at the same level via COHERENCE. Coherence is a dynamic conversation between semi-autonomous observer windows. Information is shared up and down the hierarchy via CROSS-FREQUENCY COUPLING. Cross-frequency coupling explains our rich experience and how simple decisions lead to complex behavior. Each of these three principles is explored with evidence from cognitive neuroscience. Next, the fractal nature of the NOW model is explored and the assertion is made that there is not an arbitrary, nor infinite, number of observer windows. Instead, observer windows are formed at distinct spatiotemporal levels. But how high and how low does the nested hierarchy of beings go? Finally, observer windows could be quantum computers where the strict requirements needed to create a quantum computer are the same requirements needed to create an observer window. There is plenty of ponder about the nature of your mind!

~~~ Timestamps ~~~
0:00 Introduction
2:58 Epigraph and assumptions about our mind
10:06 Nested Observer Windows (NOW) Model
17:04 Where is consciousness in the NOW Model?
21:00 Three Principles of the NOW Model
24:48 Synchrony: the formation of an observer window
34:18 Integration rate creates the perception of time
37:34 Coherence: lateral transfer within functional networks
44:53 Your mind is a conversation between observer windows
47:46 Cross-frequency coupling: vertical transfer in nested observer windows
53:07 Rich experience and simple decisions
56:04 Nested observer windows in a fractal
1:00:43 Observer windows as quantum computers

#quantum #consciousness #neuroscience

Twitter: @JRiddlePodcast
Music licensed from and created by Baylor Odabashian. BandCamp: @UnscrewablePooch

[realsushrey]

This was one of the best episodes in the series so far. Learned a lot.

[chrisconey]

Hi Justin. 21 minutes into this one and I just want to say how much of a joy you are to watch. While possessing a very sharp intellect and achieving great things academically you’ve managed to keep a humour, humanity and enthusiasm that I find very rare and special.

I say this with respect but you have a child like wonder when talking your work which I deem to be incredibly valuable because it means you more than likely see your work as being meaningful and serving a higher purpose than just ‘a job’.

[MrGunderfly]

as a software developer, i am fascinated by the idea of a model that allows continuous reconstruction of an n-ary tree given multiple inputs; while simultaneously traversing each tree before it is updated, reading from and writing to a seperate "virtual" model of that tree (that is persistent across updates and even loaded from past experience), while comparing the expectation of a prediction of that virtual tree's virtual time-line to the actual real time of all the same inputs, and reporting that to an observer that can then update the tree before it is refreshed.

[abenedict]

I took some mushrooms last week and had a common experience of what I call "coming out of time" where much more happens within the same amount of time. Your explanation of the alpha wave refresh rate makes sense if the hallucinatory compounds can somehow speed up the alpha wave rhythm, then the experience would be faster update rates and possibly more information integration. Hmmmm.

[TacoDude]

15:38 What you're describing sounds like compatible sections of a sheaf. Have the ideas in this video been formalized sheaf-theoretically?

[MengsenZhang]

Without the consciousness part, this nicely summarized major principles of complex systems - hierarchical structure, self organization and fractal. With the nested consciousness part it sounds pretty much like Upanishads + Bhagavad Gita to me. If you need a mathematical model for synchronization (and beyond) of oscillations in nested spatial scales, check out my dissertation "the Coordination Dynamics of Multiple Agents" or the paper "Connecting empirical phenomena and theoretical models of biological coordination across scales", which includes some cool proofs of what properties transcends scales. 😉😉

[viyoddha]

Whai I understood from this that, In consciousness hierarchy, there are many thoughts, one thought becomes observer and he observes other thoughts.

[trashpostersanonymous]

Regarding higher observer windows, couldn't one consider the will or collective mind of for example a nation such an entity? The policies enacted by a nation upon the word as a decision composed of all the political activity within it - Down through governmental bodies consisting of different parties consisting of individual people, these people themselves composites of the kind of observer windows that is dicussed in this video. Also, regarding the repeating forms in a set of fractals, maybe such forms could be considered platonic ideas? Very interesting stuff.

[thiagodasilva]

omg i can't believe how privileged am I to be one of the 40 first likes. i wish all my grad colleges could have seen it.

[StephenPaulKing]

But a spectrum of frequencies only gives scalar valued information. Should we not expect complex-valued relationships? Coherence that spans complex valences offers a far richer matrix.

[MichiSzerman]

So I have a question, in the beginning you mention the internalize monologue as the self which is in fact many selves, or observer windows. I don’t know if there are any new conclusions based on the theory of bicameral mind (re: Origins of Consciousness and the Bicameral Mind), but have there been any studies regarding what you spoke of and any implications to schizophrenia or indigenous cultures with externalized dialogue and forms of volition?

[StephenPaulKing]

Since Separability is in NP, approximations are all that is available for the bisimilarity of two-way windows.

[StephenPaulKing]

Any given mind is bounded by its local neighborhood. The local neighborhood is given by the star graph of a node that is capable of implementing that mind.
A mind is, minimally, a self-referencing and updating logical system that is capable in some way of generating a model of a "common world" with the other minds that are possibly coherent with it.

[starxcrossed]

Since encountering the work of Michael Levin, the question of nested cognition has been floating in my mind. I think of it every day. Are we plural in this body? They definitely control me but I’m totally the president and can override to our detriment should I wish to. Even Daniel Dennett admits cognition all the way down and I never thought id see that day (Levin and Dennett wrote a paper on this subject). But Dennett still thinks the brain is a classical computer and I disagree.

[StephenPaulKing]

The observer is a separable quantum system.

[walkerknight]

Holy shit this man is a veritable genius

[PaulSinghSelhi-VFX-TUTORIALS]

There would be something 'neat' in the idea that I am strapped into some mental hologram machine, somewhere, somewhen and experiencing my life as a form of mental simulation
' What year do you want ? What decade ?'
'Oh man..give me the '60s'
'As you wish'
I was born in 1960

[starxcrossed]

To me I don’t understand the difference between consciousness and life. Everything alive seems to be intelligent. So if life is a special case of matter (abundantly found elements in the universe organizing in a self-copying way, has agency) then consciousness is a special case of matter BUT! All the other elements and forms of matter are necessary in specific quantities to ensure life as well! So it’s like every element and force has a role to play in the creation of life. That was my biggest problem with panpsychism, because not all matter can form life as we know it. But what if there is top down control in the universe? I know that’s woo woo but it would make more sense knowing that the entire universe and nothing missing was necessary for life on earth.

[samsaraAI]

Why quantum? All is quantum or AI today.. are they the fashion words? Csme on!

[frenchy]

"you are a quantum computer with free will"
*laugh in determinism*