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Article

Fusions of Consciousness

by
Donald D. Hoffman
1,
Chetan Prakash
2,3 and
Robert Prentner
3,4,*
1
Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA 92697, USA
2
Department of Mathematics, California State University, San Bernadino, CA 92407, USA
3
Association for Mathematical Consciousness Science, D-80539 Munich, Germany
4
Munich Center for Mathematical Philosophy, LMU Munich, D-80539 Munich, Germany
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Entropy 2023, 25(1), 129; https://doi.org/10.3390/e25010129
Submission received: 24 November 2022 / Revised: 2 January 2023 / Accepted: 3 January 2023 / Published: 9 January 2023

Abstract

What are conscious experiences? Can they combine to form new experiences? What are conscious subjects? Can they combine to form new subjects? Most attempts to answer these questions assume that spacetime, and some of its particles, are fundamental. However, physicists tell us that spacetime cannot be fundamental. Spacetime, they say, is doomed. We heed the physicists, and drop the assumption that spacetime is fundamental. We assume instead that subjects and experiences are entities beyond spacetime, not within spacetime. We make this precise in a mathematical theory of conscious agents, whose dynamics are described by Markov chains. We show how (1) agents combine into more complex agents, (2) agents fuse into simpler agents, and (3) qualia fuse to create new qualia. The possible dynamics of n agents form an n(n1)-dimensional polytope with nn vertices—the Markov polytopeMn. The total fusions of n agents and qualia form an (n1)-dimensional simplex—the fusion simplexFn. To project the Markovian dynamics of conscious agents onto scattering processes in spacetime, we define a new map from Markov chains to decorated permutations. Such permutations—along with helicities, or masses and spins—invariantly encode all physical information used to compute scattering amplitudes. We propose that spacetime and scattering processes are a data structure that codes for interactions of conscious agents: a particle in spacetime is a projection of the Markovian dynamics of a communicating class of conscious agents.
Keywords: consciousness; qualia; subjective experience; hard problem of consciousness; panpsychism; combination problem; conscious agents; interface theory of perception; decorated permutations; amplituhedron; positive Grassmannian; Markov chains; Markov polytopes; fusion simplex consciousness; qualia; subjective experience; hard problem of consciousness; panpsychism; combination problem; conscious agents; interface theory of perception; decorated permutations; amplituhedron; positive Grassmannian; Markov chains; Markov polytopes; fusion simplex

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MDPI and ACS Style

Hoffman, D.D.; Prakash, C.; Prentner, R. Fusions of Consciousness. Entropy 2023, 25, 129. https://doi.org/10.3390/e25010129

AMA Style

Hoffman DD, Prakash C, Prentner R. Fusions of Consciousness. Entropy. 2023; 25(1):129. https://doi.org/10.3390/e25010129

Chicago/Turabian Style

Hoffman, Donald D., Chetan Prakash, and Robert Prentner. 2023. "Fusions of Consciousness" Entropy 25, no. 1: 129. https://doi.org/10.3390/e25010129

APA Style

Hoffman, D. D., Prakash, C., & Prentner, R. (2023). Fusions of Consciousness. Entropy, 25(1), 129. https://doi.org/10.3390/e25010129

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