Abstract

Roman R. Poznanski  (2023). How consciousness arises from the functionality of multiscale complexity. Journal of Multiscale Neuroscience 3(1) 

OIGINAL RESEARCH

The fine structure of consciousness is temporally experienced. At present, empirical neuroscience cannot provide proof of its existence due to technological limitations. However, according to informational relationalism, space-time functions only as relational entities that carry meaning between them. This makes possible a theory of consciousness in terms of self-referential amplification of intentionality in the non-cognitive temporal domain as experienceable forms. This work presents such a theory based on a fundamental approach to understanding consciousness using a functional systems approach. It explains how the consciousness code arises from the fluctuations across numerous boundary conditions in the functional organization. This brain activity carries noncontextual ‘meanings’ from the reduction of uncertainty in informational redundancy structures, which leads to a measure of functionality of multiscale complexity as a temporal process. The approach postulates that information-based action gives an experienceable form to the restructuring of redundancies in the process of building ‘meaning’, leading to understanding ‘meaning’ independent of language. The brain's time irreversibility is nonlinear, allowing information to act as a self-referential diachrony in an informational holon. The constraints of space are implicitly grounded as boundary conditions in holons from the microscale to the macroscale. Overall, this approach provides a comprehensive understanding of how consciousness arises from the complex functionality of the brain. Consciousness requires functionality, which considers not only the multiplicity of the system but also how its components exhibit functional interactions that give rise to a sense of self. In other words, the complex functionality of the system is crucial to its qualitative existence with an inferred purpose that has intentionality, like being alive.

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Keywords: Intentionality, functional interactions, nonlinear time, consciousness, negentropic action, redundancy structure, self-referential diachrony, experienceable forms, functional structure realism, complexity, functionality.

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Conflict of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest

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Copyright: © 2023 The Author(s). Published by Neural Press.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the CC BY 4.0 license.

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