Mind, Brain & Information panel
More audio from the FQXi meeting in Vieques, this time from cosmologist Max Tegmark. As Ian has already blogged, Max has been pondering what qualities conscious matter would have that differentiates it from non-conscious matter.
In his recent paper, available on the arXiv (arxiv.org/abs/1401.1219), Max identified five properties: information, integration, independence, dynamics and utility principles. The first two properties had already been suggested by neuroscientist Giulio Tononi. In Max's talk, which you can download here, he discusses whether we can start with two barebones mathematical objects, the Hamiltonian and density matrix, and use them to understand why we perceive ourselves as living in a 3D space. It's an ambitious hope, but you can listen to see how far he gets with it.