According to the theories of neurology, consciousness is an inherent property of everything around us, just as gravity is. These theories are not formulated for the first time. They exist in several ancient Eastern beliefs and religions, but also in ancient philosophical writings. One of the first to make such a reference was Plato 2300 years ago.

In 2008, Giulio Tononi, a neuroscientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Center, developed the ” Intelligence Integrity Theory (IIT) ” theory, which at this time gives the most acceptable explanation for what consciousness is.

One of the central points of the theory is that, in order to be conscious, it must have some effect on itself. In other words, in order for something to exist, it should be able to produce an outcome. It should be able to cause a change to something else.

” Consciousness exists for itself and derives from itself. So she should have a cause and a cause for herself, “ said Melanie Boly, a neurologist at the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health. She points out that, well before this explanation for consciousness was given by modern scientists, the philosopher Plato expressed the idea that for something to exist, it must itself be able to exert an influence. And so consciousness (the “being,” for Plato) is nothing more than a divine one.

In the dialogue “Sophistus” or “ Or ” about the “logical”, written in 360 BC, Plato wrote:

“So I say that what, by nature, has 
any power, either to act in any way on 
another, or to suffer even the slightest of the slightest 
the thing, even for once, all that 
is real” to be “. That is to say, to 
define the “beings”, how these are nothing more than just 
“ (Translation by D. Glynou, Ed. I. Zacharopoulos)

Another neuroscientist, Christof Koch says, “The heart of consciousness is the feeling. How can a part of matter, like the mind, be able to feel something?”. Koch studied and researched a theoretical level on how eastern religions and especially Buddhism are approaching the concept of consciousness.

“What impressed me most was the belief of these societies in what we in the West call” bullying “that leads them on the path of compassion to reduce the pain of every conscious creature.”

The Pampsychia, the idea of universal consciousness, was prominent in the thinking in some sectors of ancient Greek philosophy. And until recently it has, to a large extent, been rejected by modern science.

In his study of consciousness, Koch worked with Giulio Tononi, whom we mentioned at the beginning, and as we have said, he is the father of the most popular contemporary consciousness theory, the “Intelligence Integrating Theory of Consciousness (IIT) which Koch regards as the only truly promising fundamental theory of consciousness.

Tononi’s theory suggests that consciousness appears in physical systems that contain many different and complex interconnected pieces of information. Based on this hypothesis, consciousness can be a measured quantity, with the unit of measure ‘fi’ (‘phi’), whose symbol is the capital of Greek ‘Φ’.

Tononi attempted to measure “Φ” (the amount of consciousness) in a human brain. The method that followed was similar to a bell stroke. A magnetic pulse was sent to a human brain and watched that pulse echo among the neurons. The greater and clearer the resonance, the higher the value of the consciousness. Using this method, Koch and Tononi were able to ascertain whether a patient was awake, sleeping, or anaesthetized (data for verification).

The need to measure consciousness is imperative both for practical reasons and for ethical reasons. Doctors and scientists could use the unit of measurement ‘Φ’ to determine when a person, in a plant state, has left life, the cognitive ability of a person suffering from dementia, how and when consciousness develops to an embryo, what and how the animals perceive and whether a computer can feel emotions.

As Koch claims, “We are in the age of the birth of artificial intelligence and very critical questions arise: Can a machine be conscious? Can she feel something? And if he has feelings, will he be entitled to legal rights and will have moral obligations? Such questions can not be avoided. “

The IIT theory also combines these practical applications with more profound ideas. The theory says that every object with a “φ” greater than zero has consciousness. This may mean that animals, plants, cells, bacteria, and perhaps even the protons in an atomic element are conscious beings.

Koch believes this theory is promising because it provides an understanding of the ideas of ancient philosophy, matching them with modern science. Koch and Tononi treat consciousness as an intrinsic, fundamental property of reality.

On the other hand, critics of the Tononi theory argue that this theory does not explain the origin of consciousness. The scientific writer John Horgan argues that “we can not explain consciousness by saying it consists of information, because the information exists only in relation to consciousness.”

Understanding the origin of consciousness is an extremely difficult obstacle, but Koch is optimistic. He says, “Our ultimate goal is to understand the universe and the best way to do that is to look deep into our minds. ” This can lead us to philosophical thinking again and update it.

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