I suggest a heuristic for calculating the spatial boundaries and
phenomenal capacity of conscious resonating structures in General
Resonance Theory (GRT), a theory developed by Hunt and Schooler over the
last decade. GRT suggests that consciousness is a product of various
resonating frequencies at different physical scales. All physical
structures vibrate and should be considered processes rather than static
things. Resonance assists in achieving phase transitions to higher
levels of complex consciousness. When vibrating structures resonate in
proximity to each other they will under certain circumstances “sync
up” in a shared resonance frequency. GRT suggests that a shared
resonance is the key requirement for the combination of micro-conscious
entities into a larger-scale macro-consciousness. This approach is,
thus, a solution to the “combination problem” of consciousness. The
proposed mathematical heuristic allows for a practical approach for
identifying potential conscious structures and the spatial boundaries of
such structures as they change over time, and for calculating the
capacity for phenomenal consciousness present within the putative
conscious resonating structure. The slowest-frequency shared resonance
is the limiting factor for the size of any macro-consciousness. I
describe some limitations of the proposed framework, and how it compares
to Tononi’s Integrated Information Theory. IIT’s constellation-qualia
characterization framework may be compatible with GRT and may be a
useful tool to use in conjunction with GRT’s quantification framework.
1. Introduction
This paper builds upon the mathematical framework described in Hunt
2011, which suggested a method for calculating the phenomenal capacity
of any conscious entity, by providing a new method for calculating the
spatial boundaries of any conscious entity in each moment. This
methodology is grounded in a panpsychist framework (Hunt 2011, Schooler,
Hunt, and Schooler 2011, Hunt and Schooler 2019; Goff 2017) that assumes
that all matter is associated with at least some capacity for phenomenal
consciousness, albeit extremely rudimentary in the vast majority of
matter. Accordingly, the General Resonance Theory (GRT) developed
further in the present paper is applicable to all physical systems,
rather than being limited to neurobiological or biological systems.
The notion of resonance (synchrony, coherence, shared vibrations) has a
long history in neuroscience. Crick and Koch featured this concept in
their neurobiological theory of consciousness (Crick and Koch 1990, Koch
2004). Fries has made the concept of “communication through coherence”
(neuronal synchrony/resonance) even more widely known (Fries 2005,
2015). Dehaene 2014 highlights the role of long-range synchrony between
cortical areas a key “signature of consciousness,” (as does Koch
2004). Bandyopadhyay has made the concept central to his Fractal
Information Theory of consciousness (Bandyopadhyay 2019).
The resonance theory of consciousness developed in Hunt and Schooler
2019, Hunt 2011, and the present paper, also makes resonance the key
mechanism by which rudimentary consciousness combines – through shared
resonance in proximity – into more complex consciousness. This is the
case because resonance allows for phase transitions in information flows
to occur at various organizational levels, allowing previously chaotic
systems to self-organize and thus become coherent.
The primary insight offered in the present paper is that consciousness
is a product of resonance chains (Fn 1) of various information/energy (Fn 2) pathways, and that the spatial and temporal boundaries of any particular conscious entity is established by the slowest frequency shared resonance within that conscious entity, for each particular information/energy pathway. Resonance frequencies and resonance chains are constantly changing in most entities; thus, the spatial boundaries of conscious entities will be constantly changing at least a little. Most combinations of consciousness, in which less complex entities combine into more complex entities, will be comprised of a nested hierarchy of conscious entities, with one dominant conscious entity in each moment, without extinction of the nested entities’ consciousness, distinguishing this approach from Integrated Information Theory and other theories that assume the extinction of nested conscious entities, leaving only one macro-conscious entity left (this is IIT’s “exclusion principle”).