Questions for Theories of Consciousness

Questions for Theories of Consciousness

There are almost three dozen theories of consciousness—or maybe more. There is no point in listing them out, but there is a point in asking questions—which those theories don’t answer for various reasons.

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Did consciousness arise from specific computations, or does consciousness make those very computations in the course of, let’s say, vital activity? And if it does make those specific computations, are they somehow different from the specific computations made by thinking?

Finally, what is the place occupied by thinking? And where is it? If consciousness is non-computable, then can thinking be computable as a process? Can it therefore be represented in the form of binary code or AI models (architectures, approaches)? Hardly. May it be so that specific computations are what thinking is?

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If consciousness can be reproduced in computing machines, albeit with a specific architecture, then probably thinking must also be reproduced in computing machines with a specific architecture. Or have we suddenly left it behind?

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But in reality, something else matters here: true, thinking is not algorithmic or even — in the current understanding of the laws of algorithms, logic, mathematics, linguistics, and so on — non-computable, though it most likely has a different computability that surely cannot be described by binary code and weights.

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More importantly, thinking is a process made up of specific computations and somehow involved in the "production" of consciousness. Separating consciousness and thinking is inefficient to say the least, they rather represent something unitary and indivisible (a whole). It is difficult to talk about consciousness and leave thinking out.