Can We Measure Consciousness?

What makes a brain or machine conscious? Will robots become more conscious than we are? One theory, which can actually calculate consciousness, is beginning to provide some answers.
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SCIENTIFIC NOTES:

CREDITS:

Host, Writer, Producer: Greg Kestin

Animation & Compositing: Marquee Productions & Greg Kestin

Contributing Writer: Lissy Herman

Scientific Consultants:
Masafumi Oizumi
Larissa Albantakis
Christof Koch

Filming, Writing, & Editing Contributions from:
Samia Bouzid and David Goodliffe

Image Contributions from: Drew Ganon

Editorial Input form:
Julia Cort
Lauren Aguirre
Anna Rothschild

Special thanks:
Ari Daniel
Allison Eck
Fernando Becerra
Gil Kaplan
Bella Solanot
Eric Brass
Lauren Miller
And the entire NOVA team

From the producers of PBS NOVA
© WGBH Educational Foundation

Funding provided by FQXi

Music provided by APM
Neuron & MRI footage: Pond5
Additional footage from: Rise of the Robots, find credits at

[zellhaufen]

If I sum up my thoughts on this matter: we must begin to consider that the universe not only has an outside but also an inside. Consciousness as we experience it cannot be explained if we only consider the outside, no matter how interconnected we make it. Interconnectivity explains a lot of other things, like the details of thought processes or memory but NOT the conscious experience.

[barbudania]

I've been searching for a video that explains IIT for some time and this one is by far the best.

[dankwarmouse]

Just something to know, the IIT doesn't just apply to animals and machines -- it applies to any structured system of matter. It can be used to show that higher constructs, such as planets and even the entire universe, are conscious too.

[jiankuo]

a simple and basic thought on quantifying consciousness, aside from some unknown factors which I am not sure how to describe.

<measure of consciousness of a brain system towards a subject>

Short term:

number of neurons * quality of neurons (life cycle) * input energy (chemicals in the brain can be used for neural connections/firing)

*number of neurons: number of neurons can be used for (topic 1+related topics that results neural firing)
*Input energy: The brain and body system can quickly maintain short-term chemical supply for neural connections/firing

long-term:

number of neurons * quality of neurons (life cycle) * input energy (chemicals in the brain + body’s system that con provide continuous necessary chemicals)

*number of neurons: number of neurons can be used for (topic 1+related topics)
*Input energy: The brain and human system can supply relatively long term chemical substances for connection of neurons

[novapbs]

Woah... this is blowing our minds. Thanks, Greg!

[BC-snim]

Ive actually thought about this for a long time, trying to understand concsiencious.

[davidsamuels]

Very helpful. Thanks for the great presentation.

[krisc]

But beyond creating consciousness, there is an even bigger problem. How do you create a subjective experience within that consciousness? You can determine the color red, but do you like it? Why do you like it, or not?
Recreating human consciousness is not going to happen, never. Because we are falsely seeing consciousness as something separate, something that is out there. But consciousness is beyond everything there is. It would be like an eyeball wanting to look directly to itself; it’s impossible. The question is not ‘does a dolphin has consciousness?’, it’s rather the dolphin that exists within consciousness. We exist within consciousness and as far as we know, we are that consciousness experiencing itself. Consciousness is fundamental. It’s like a landscape on a screen. There is no landscape on a screen, but the screen is modulating itself as a landscape. Just like consciousness is modulating itself as you, as me, as time, as space, as the whole universe, all seemingly separate. But in fact it’s all one.

[imsidetracted]

how much does a hard drive weigh? How much does it weigh after there is a terra bite of information in it?

[mdedina]

He seems to be equating interconnectedness with consciousness, but gives no basis for that. In fact he gives no definition of consciousness, yet claims to be able to measure it. It’s BS.

[youmaycallmeken]

"the will to create new intentions" Do the world's top computer programs that play chess or go, do this?

[BugRib]

Consciousness can’t be measured or detected in any empirical way because the contents of conscious experience have purely _qualitative_ properties, like the _experienced_ redness of red, or the _experience_ of pain.

No equation will ever give you a meaningful description of even a simple pure quality like “red”, and for obvious reasons. That’s why these experiential qualities (i.e. “qualia”) are literally invisible to physics, and therefore to science in general—they exist only in our experience, only in minds.

But our experiences are real things. They actually, objectively exist. Calling them “illusions”, as some do (so as to claim they don’t need to be explained in physical terms), completely misses the he point of what conscious experience is. I mean, who’s being fooled by this “illusion”? The experiencing self that is also an illusion? Anyone seeing a problem with this illusionism theory?

So conscious experience is, by definition, non-physical. That doesn’t exactly make it supernatural, it just means (standard) physicalism can’t possibly be true.

IMHO.

[angelar]

According to the govt I'm vegetative. I'm not conscious cuz I was in a coma long ago. I'm still in a "coma" cuz I don't swallow. Putting a # to amount of awareness could get me out of this situation.

[zellhaufen]

Where is the proof that interconnectivity = consciousness. I think it's just a theory, and probably wrong.

[jsmdnq]

I love(actually hate) the new scifi BS. Specially coming from people that can't do basic mathematics and never solved the Schrodinger wave equation much less computed the Euler characteristic for the hopf field of fribration 27. Hint, you can't learn real science from movies.

[Sarmatek]

If you like this topic you should try pc game Portal and Portal 2

[ExploreLifegether]

Being conscious is different then higher consciousness. Higher consciousness is not measurable because it is beyond the brain. Whether someone is conscious or not is measurable. Higher consciousness exists beyond the individual & the human brain, more connected to what might be called our soul or spirit which exists before and after the human journey. I am on Twitter @explorelife if you want to connect.