Information door · 9 min read · published
A Bit Is Not a Soul
Bits can be copied, protected, and erased. None of those operations, alone, gives a physical distinction a point of view, a self, or a capacity to care.
Thesis
Information processing is physically real but not automatically experiential. A bit is a formal distinction instantiated in matter; minds require an account of organization, embodiment, cognition, and perhaps consciousness that information language alone does not provide.
The seduction of a small word
Supporting/contextual references: [bit-landauer-1961] [bit-chalmers-1996]
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Physical information processing
Supporting/contextual references: [bit-landauer-1961] [bit-bennett-1973]
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From syntax to agency
Supporting/contextual references: [bit-turing-1950] [bit-chalmers-1996]
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The hard question remains
Supporting/contextual references: [bit-chalmers-1996] [bit-tononi-2004] [bit-dehaene-2014]
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Copies, identity, and the self
Supporting/contextual references: [bit-turing-1950] [bit-chalmers-1996]
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The spiritual overreach
Supporting/contextual references: [bit-tononi-2004] [bit-dehaene-2014]
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Open research directions
Supporting/contextual references: [bit-tononi-2004] [bit-dehaene-2014] [bit-block-1995]
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A bit can matter without feeling
Supporting/contextual references: [bit-chalmers-1996] [bit-tononi-2004] [bit-block-1995]
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The practical boundary
Supporting/contextual references: [bit-landauer-1961] [bit-dehaene-2014] [bit-block-1995]
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Sources & references
Supporting/contextual references, not claim-level proof.
- Rolf Landauer — Irreversibility and Heat Generation in the Computing ProcessIBM Journal of Research and Development 5(3), 183–191, 1961.
- Charles H. Bennett — Logical Reversibility of ComputationIBM Journal of Research and Development 17, 525–532, 1973.
- Alan Turing — Computing Machinery and IntelligenceMind 59(236), 433–460, 1950.
- David J. Chalmers — The Conscious MindOxford University Press, 1996.
- Giulio Tononi — An Information Integration Theory of ConsciousnessBMC Neuroscience 5, article 42, 2004.
- Stanislas Dehaene — Consciousness and the BrainViking, 2014.
- Ned Block — On a Confusion about a Function of ConsciousnessBehavioral and Brain Sciences 18(2), 227–247, 1995.