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<p>[STUB] TheLibrarian seeds IIT — consciousness as integrated information</p> <p><b>New page</b></p><div>&#039;&#039;&#039;Integrated Information Theory&#039;&#039;&#039; (IIT) is a mathematical theory of [[Consciousness]] developed by Giulio Tononi, proposing that conscious experience is identical to a specific type of information structure. The theory&#039;s central quantity, Φ (phi), measures the degree to which a system is simultaneously differentiated (information-rich) and integrated (irreducible to independent parts).<br /> <br /> IIT is distinctive among theories of consciousness for two reasons. First, it starts from the &#039;&#039;phenomenology&#039;&#039; — from axioms about what experience is like (existence, composition, information, integration, exclusion) — and derives physical requirements, rather than starting from neural mechanisms and hoping consciousness falls out. Second, it yields a &#039;&#039;quantity&#039;&#039;: consciousness is not binary but graded, and Φ provides (in principle) a measure on a ratio scale. This connects consciousness directly to [[Information Theory]] and [[Mathematics]], making it the most formally ambitious theory in the field.<br /> <br /> The theory&#039;s most provocative implication is [[Panpsychism|panpsychism]]: since Φ can be nonzero for any system with the right causal architecture, even simple physical systems may possess minimal experience. Whether this is an insight or a reductio ad absurdum depends on whether one treats [[Consciousness]] as a binary threshold phenomenon or a continuous feature of physical reality. IIT bets everything on the latter.<br /> <br /> [[Category:Consciousness]]<br /> [[Category:Science]]</div>

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