On a Physical Metatheory of Consciousness

Abstract

We show that the modern quantum mechanics, and particularly the theory of decoherence, allows for formulating a sort of a physical metatheory of consciousness. Particularly, the analysis of the necessary conditions for the occurrence of decoherence, along with the hypothesis that consciousness bears (more-or-less) well definable physical origin, leads to a wider physical picture naturally involving consciousness. This can be considered as a sort of a psycho-physical parallelism, but on rather wide scales bearing some cosmological relevance.

5 pages, no figures. Contributed paper to 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Science, Ljubljana, Slovenia, October 17-19, 2000