Human Consciousness Could Be Side Effect of Entropy
Just like the Universe, our brains might be programmed to maximise disorder – similar to the principle of entropy – and our consciousness could simply be a side effect, a new paper suggests
The quest to understand human consciousness – our ability to be aware of ourselves and our surroundings – has been going on for centuries.
Although consciousness is a crucial part of being human, researchers are still grappling with where it comes from, when it starts, and why we have it.
But the 2016 study, led by researchers from France and Canada, puts forward a new possibility: what if consciousness arises naturally as a result of our brains maximising their information content?
In other words, what if consciousness is a side effect of our brain moving towards a state of entropy?
Entropy is basically the term used to describe the progression of a system from order to disorder. Picture an egg: when it’s all perfectly separated into yolk and white, it has low entropy, but when you scramble it, it has high entropy – it’s the most disordered it can be.
This is what many physicists believe is happening to our Universe. After the Big Bang, the Universe has gradually been moving from a state of low entropy to high entropy, and because the second law of thermodynamics states that entropy can only increase in a system, it could explain why the arrow of time only ever moves forwards.
So researchers decided to apply the same thinking to the connections in our brains, and investigate whether they show any patterns in the way they choose to order themselves while we’re conscious.
To do this, a team from the University of Toronto and Paris Descartes University used a type of probability theory called statistical mechanics to model the networks of neurons in nine people’s brains – including seven who had epilepsy.
Specifically, they were looking at synchronisation of neurons – whether neurons were oscillating in phase with each other – to figure out whether brain cells were linked or not.
They looked at two datasets: first they compared the connectivity patterns when participants were asleep and awake; and then they looked at the difference when five of the epileptic patients were having seizures, and when their brains were in a normal, ‘alert’ state.
In both situations, they saw the same trend – the participants’ brains displayed higher entropy when in a fully conscious state.
“We find a surprisingly simple result: Normal wakeful states are characterized by the greatest number of possible configurations of interactions between brain networks, representing highest entropy values,” the team wrote.
This lead the researchers to argue that consciousness could simply be an “emergent property” of a system that’s trying to maximise information exchange.
Before we get too carried away, there are some big limitations to this work – primarily the small sample size. It’s hard to spot any conclusive trends from only nine people, particularly as everyone’s brains responded slightly differently to the various states.
At this stage, it’s also mostly just speculation.
Physicist Peter McClintock from Lancaster University in the UK, who wasn’t involved in the research, told Edwin Cartlidge over at Physics World at the time that the results were “intriguing”, but need to be replicated in a larger number of subjects, including experiments during other brain states, such as while patients are under anaesthesia.
But the study is a good starting point for further research, and hints at a possible new hypothesis for why our brains tend to be conscious.
We’re only just beginning to understand how the brain’s organisation might affect our consciousness, but it’s a pretty fascinating rabbit hole to fall down.
And a nice reminder that we’re all connected by the laws that govern the Universe.
See more here sciencealert.com
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Howdy
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In my research, most people who use the word, attribute ‘consciousness’ to the basic mind – “an idea just lit up my consciousness”.
It can be improved far beyond normal if certain ‘trends’ are followed, for example, obtaining “Christ consciousness”, which itself is ‘the mind of Christ’. I see that possible, but in extremely rare circumstances. 1 chance in 100s of 1000s of years type rarity.
Science will never explain it since it is by convention, closed box, and dare not venture into ‘fairyland’.
Humans are specifically ordered. Entropy is of no consequence, though a crazed mind by design is.
“an “emergent property” of a system that’s trying to maximise information exchange.”
Information exchange? How very logical.
What are people here for, right now? What drives you, what arouses your interest, why do you follow the behaviour you do, why do some seek what others don’t?
What does anesthesia have to do with it? It’s not consciousness is it.
It is not the brain’s organization, it is the root programing
“This is what many physicists believe is happening to our Universe. After the Big Bang”
Belief is irrelevant. Proof, or stop the esoteric nonsense, it isn’t scientific you know. Don’t equate hope with the same subjects that science shuns in every other way.
Big bang… Really?
“we’re all connected by the laws that govern the Universe.”
No. Scientists can’t see the laws of connection. There is only one, and the universe does not call the shots. The universe is not an entity, it is a word, a space containing objects. It takes nothing and bestows nothing.
As for reversed time, well… Supposing time is simply for mortals to count their days, months years, and beyond Humanity, time is of no consequence, as in free of, no restriction, like a walk across the road to get from one time to another, while not bound by it. Think about that.
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monkey*poops
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ah, another study
we are just a monkeys with accidental consciousness.
completely opposite to the trend of general dehumanization of humanity, how come? – that was sarcasm
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Tom
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We don’t know much of nothing about the brain, the mind and consciousness, but big pharma and the medical system is always trying to drug away that which we know so little about. Have a mind or psychological problem, take drugs to manage and fix it. Clueless morons, at best.
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