Range of Science
In this episode Zaza speaks with Professor JohnJoe McFadden on various aspects of quantum biology and CEMI (conscious electromagnetic information) field theory of consciousness.
How the quantum mechanical notions of entanglement, quantum tunneling and wave-particle duality are relevant to the migration of european robin, functioning of enzymes and photosynthesis respectively?
What experimental Evidence is there to support conscious electromagnetic information field theory of consciousness. How is this theory related to integrated information theory and Global Neuronal Workspace. How does cemi field theory account for this shift from objective third person to subjective first person phenomenology? What is Free Will According to cemi field theory?
Source
Integrated Information Theory was very comically dealt with by Scott Aaronson,
Who concluded a gigantic NAND gate would (by the theory) have a higher consciousness than the human brain. "In the most impressive example of bullet biting, Giulio Tononi said yes it would have", Scott concluded.
There was much laughter in the room.
CEMI explanation begins at 21min
It's becoming clearer that with all the brain and consciousness theories out there, the proof will be in the pudding. By this I mean, can any particular theory be used to create a human adult level conscious machine. My bet is on the late Gerald Edelman's Extended Theory of Neuronal Group Selection. The lead group in robotics based on this theory is the Neurorobotics Lab at UC at Irvine. Dr. Edelman distinguished between primary consciousness, which came first in evolution, and that humans share with other conscious animals, and higher order consciousness, which came to only humans with the acquisition of language. A machine with primary consciousness will probably have to come first.
The thing I find special about the TNGS is the Darwin series of automata created at the Neurosciences Institute by Dr. Edelman and his colleagues in the 1990's and 2000's. These machines perform in the real world, not in a restricted simulated world, and display convincing physical behavior indicative of higher psychological functions necessary for consciousness, such as perceptual categorization, memory, and learning. They are based on realistic models of the parts of the biological brain that the theory claims subserve these functions. The extended TNGS allows for the emergence of consciousness based only on further evolutionary development of the brain areas responsible for these functions, in a parsimonious way. No other research I've encountered is anywhere near as convincing.
I post because on almost every video and article about the brain and consciousness that I encounter, the attitude seems to be that we still know next to nothing about how the brain and consciousness work; that there's lots of data but no unifying theory. I believe the extended TNGS is that theory. My motivation is to keep that theory in front of the public. And obviously, I consider it the route to a truly conscious machine, primary and higher-order.
Dr. Edelman's roadmap to a conscious machine is at https://arxiv.org/abs/2105.10461
I highly recommend reading the PDF of McFadden's recent paper on Cemi Field Theory.