INTEGRATED INFORMATION THEORY | IIT | DETAILED | TONONI & KOCH ➤➤

SPIRITUALITY & INTEGRATED INFORMATION THEORY | IIT

LION'S ROAR | BUDDHISM & SCIENCE | 04.01.2016

|| LEADING NEUROSCIENTISTS & BUDDHISTS AGREE : " CONSCIOUSNESS IS EVERYWHERE " ||

New theories in neuroscience suggest consciousness is an intrinsic property of everything , just like gravity . That development opens a world of opportunity for collaboration between Buddhists and neuroscientists .

" The heart of consciousness " , says neuroscientist Christof Koch , " is that it feels like something . How is it that a piece of matter , like my brain , can feel anything ? "

Christof Koch , one of the world's leading experts on consciousness , went to a monastery in India to discuss that question with a group of Buddhist monks . Koch and the Dalai Lama debated neuroscience and mind for a full day .

They had different approaches . Koch offered contemporary scientific theories on the subject, and Dalai Lama countered with ancient Buddhist teachings . Yet , at the end of their discussion , the two thinkers agreed on almost every point .

" What struck me most was the Dalai Lama's belief in what we in the West call panpsychism — the belief that consciousness is everywhere " , says Koch . " And that we have to reduce the suffering of all conscious creatures . "

Panpsychism , the idea of universal consciousness , is a prominent thought in some branches of ancient Greek philosophy , paganism , and Buddhism .

It has been largely dismissed by modern science — until recently .

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HUFFPOST SCIENCE BLOG | BOBBY AZARIAN | 09.21.2015

|| NEUROSCIENCE'S NEW CONSCIOUSNESS THEORY IS SPIRITUAL ||

It appears that we are approaching a unique time in the history of humans and science where empirical measures and deductive reasoning can actually inform us spiritually .

Integrated Information Theory ( IIT ) — put forth by neuroscientists Giulio Tononi and Christof Koch — is a new framework that describes a way to experimentally measure the extent to which a system is conscious .

As such , it has the potential to answer questions that once seemed impossible , like " Which is more conscious , a bat or a beetle ? "

Furthermore , the theory posits that any system that processes and integrates information , be it organic or inorganic , experiences the world subjectively to some degree .

Plants , smartphones , the Internet — even protons — are all examples of such systems .

The result is a cosmos composed of a sentient fabric .

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