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Noospheric Consciousness Beigi, Shima; Heylighen, Francis Vrije Universiteit Brussel Noospheric consciousness Beigi, Shima; Heylighen, Francis Published in: 13th ACM Web Science Conference 2021 (WebSci ’21 Companion) DOI: 10.1145/3462741.3466657 Publication date: 2021 License: Unspecified Document Version: Final published version Link to publication Citation for published version (APA): Beigi, S., & Heylighen, F. (2021). Noospheric consciousness: integrating neural models of consciousness and of the web. In 13th ACM Web Science Conference 2021 (WebSci ’21 Companion): ,June 21–25, 2021, Virtual Event, United Kingdom (pp. 63-66). (ACM International Conference Proceeding Series). New York: ACM. https://doi.org/10.1145/3462741.3466657 General rights Copyright and moral rights for the publications made accessible in the public portal are retained by the authors and/or other copyright owners and it is a condition of accessing publications that users recognise and abide by the legal requirements associated with these rights. • Users may download and print one copy of any publication from the public portal for the purpose of private study or research. • You may not further distribute the material or use it for any profit-making activity or commercial gain • You may freely distribute the URL identifying the publication in the public portal Take down policy If you believe that this document breaches copyright please contact us providing details, and we will remove access to the work immediately and investigate your claim. Download date: 30. Sep. 2021 Noospheric consciousness integrating neural models of consciousness and of the web Shima Beigi Francis Heylighen Center Leo Apostel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel Center Leo Apostel, Vrije Universiteit Brussel [email protected] [email protected] ABSTRACT learn from the way documents are being used in the same con- The world-wide web has been conceptualized as a global brain for text in order to suggest related documents. This is similar to the humanity due to its neural network-like organization. To deter- mechanism of Hebbian learning [16, 17] in the brain, which can be mine whether this global brain could exhibit features associated summarized as “neurons (documents) that fire (are used) together, with consciousness, we review three neuroscientific theories of wire (become linked) together”. Finally, when the knowledge in consciousness: information integration, adaptive resonance and the web is structured according to a consensual ontology, as pro- global workspace. These theories propose that conscious states are posed for the Semantic Web [2], its links can be used to perform characterized by a globally circulating, resonant pattern of activity automatic inferences and thus answer queries across distributed that is sufficiently coherent to be examined and reflected upon. We memory elements. then propose a correspondence between this notion and Teilhard de The theories of distributed cognition [7] and of the extended Chardin’s concept of the noosphere as a forum for collective think- mind [5] have shown that these brain-like functions are not just ing, and explore some implications of this self-organizing dynamics metaphorical: the information stored, processed and propagated for the evolution of shared, global understanding. across the web effectively extends our individual and collective mental capabilities. Thus, they are becoming increasingly integrated KEYWORDS with the processes inside our brains—a development that may reach its apogee with direct brain-computer interfaces [10], as envisaged noosphere, global brain, consciousness, world-wide web e.g. by Neuralink, the company recently founded by Elon Musk. ACM Reference Format: Shima Beigi and Francis Heylighen. 2021. Noospheric consciousness: in- 2 CONSCIOUSNESS tegrating neural models of consciousness and of the web. In 13th ACM Web Science Conference 2021 (WebSci ’21 Companion), June 21–25, 2021, Still, there is one crucial feature of the brain that does not have Virtual Event, United Kingdom. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages. https: a clear equivalent in the web: consciousness. We will here define //doi.org/10.1145/3462741.3466657 consciousness as the ability to monitor, examine and, if necessary, intervene in mental processes [13]. In contrast, subconscious pro- 1 THE WEB AS A GLOBAL BRAIN cesses happen automatically: information propagates immediately from stimulus (input, data) to response (output, interpretation) in a A recurrent metaphor used to understand the long-term develop- direct, reflex-like manner, leaving no occasion for assessment or ment of the World-Wide Web is that of a global brain [8, 12, 18], intervention. Conscious processes, on the other hand, allow inter- i.e. a collective central nervous system for humankind. There are mediate reflection, i.e. the conception, consideration and evaluation several aspects to this analogy. of different possibilities for interpretations or conclusions. Thus, First, the web, and more generally the Internet, is a network of consciousness is the crucial condition for voluntary control or “free communication links that transfer signals between the different will”: the ability to consider and decide between different courses elements of the global superorganism [14, 23]—the system formed of action. Note that this understanding corresponds to what the by individuals, organizations and machines collectively—thus help- philosopher Ned Block has called “access consciousness” [3], which ing them to function in a coordinated manner. Second, the web is a he distinguished from “phenomenal consciousness” or what we repository for nearly the whole of human knowledge, thus acting prefer to call “subjective experience”, a topic we will not address in like a collective memory for the species. Third, the knowledge in this paper. the web is structured like an associative network of documents Applied at the collective, global level, this conception of reflec- connected by hyperlinks [2]. This is similar to the associative struc- tive consciousness corresponds to what the visionary scientist and ture of semantic memory in the brain. Fourth, additional links are theologian Teilhard de Chardin has called the “noosphere”: the created either manually or through recommendation systems that sphere of thought that envelops the Earth in which new ideas are formed through discussion [19, 21, 24]. Anticipating to some de- Permission to make digital or hard copies of part or all of this work for personal or gree the birth of the web, Teilhard described the emerging global classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed network of communications with the same metaphor of a “brain of for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for third-party components of this work must be honored. brains” that would allow humanity and its technological support For all other uses, contact the owner/author(s). systems to reflect on itself. However, Teilhard’s writings on this WebSci ’21 Companion, June 21–25, 2021, Virtual Event, United Kingdom topic have been criticized for being vague, obscure and mystical, © 2021 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). ACM ISBN 978-1-4503-8525-1/21/06. lacking a scientific foundation. Given our presently much more https://doi.org/10.1145/3462741.3466657 advanced understanding of both the web and the brain, we now WebSci ’21 Companion, June 21–25, 2021, Virtual Event, United Kingdom Shima Beigi and Francis Heylighen seem to be in a position to develop a clear foundation. For that, we crossroads of neural connections in the brain. As such, this activ- can draw inspiration from the most recent neuroscientific theories ity can be examined by different more specialized brain modules of consciousness in the brain. that otherwise have few connections. The global workspace func- tions like a public forum or shared medium where these modules, functioning as the agents that constitute the “society of mind”, can 3 THE NEUROSCIENCE OF CONSCIOUSNESS enter in a conversation so as to come to a consensus on what to Giulio Tononi’s Information Integration Theory of consciousness do. Broadcasting requires widespread and intense activation that [26] is most directly extendible to cognition outside the human “reverberates” or circulates across the workspace network. For a brain. It observes that consciousness is characterized by the fact subconscious stimulus to become conscious the initial activation that activity in different parts of the brain is strongly correlated must be non-linearly amplified until it crosses the threshold for or coherent. The degree of coherence can be determined using “ignition” [6], when the circulating activity is strong enough to measures of mutual information between activities in different re- become self-sustaining and reach all parts of the workspace. That gions, leading to the overall information integration function Phi. allows it to be maintained for a while in working memory, where Tononi posits that any network, organic or not, of which the states it can now be consciously examined and processed by more spe- of the components change in a sufficiently integrated way exhibits cialized brain circuits. This theory confirms that conscious activity consciousness. Since the definition of Phi merely depends on prob- is characterized by widespread, coherent circulation, but adds that ability distributions for the states of the different components, it this allows it to be scrutinized and if necessary redirected, thus
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