INTEGRATED INFORMATION THEORY

Integrated information theory (ITT) attempts to identify the essential properties of consciousness (axioms) and, from there, infers the properties of physical systems that can account for it (postulates). Based on the postulates, it permits in principle to derive, for any particular system of elements in a state, whether it has consciousness, how much, and which particular experience it is having. ITT offers a parsimonious explanation for empirical evidence, makes testable predictions, and permits inferences and extrapolations. According to this theory, conscious experience is characterized in terms of integrated information; that is information specified by a whole system that cannot be reduced to that specified by its parts. ITT using a mathematical formula seeks to determine how conscious a system is by qualifying the extent to which its current internal state is a causal determinant of its own future state. The explanatory and predictive power of ITT mainly relies on its formal and conceptual accuracy. In all theories, including ITT, the concept of information has the same core meaning strongly linked with manipulability.