Why Is Anything Conscious?

Abstract

We tackle the problem of consciousness by taking the naturally selected, embodied organism as our starting point. We provide a formalism describing how biological systems such as human bodies self-organize to hierarchically interpret unlabelled sensory information according to valence. The system is attracted and repelled at different spatial and temporal scales. This is a qualitative interpretation of an unlabelled physical state. We show how such interpretations imply behavioural policies which are differentiated from each other only by this qualitative aspect of information processing. Natural selection favours systems that actively intervene in the world to achieve homeostatic and reproductive goals. Put provocatively, death grounds meaning. This means that in living systems information processing is necessarily subjective, that is, it has quality embedded into its very core. Qualitative information processing involves interoceptive and exteroceptive classifiers, and determines priorities for self-survival. We formulate The Psychophysical Principle of Causality as a theorem, and prove generalisation optimal learning forces this valence first ontology. Qualitative good or bad processing necessarily comes \textit{before} quality neutral representations of properties (i.e. ``red'' is constructed from valence). Under selection pressures like sophisticated predation this produces a hierarchy of selves, of which reafference and reflective self awareness are a consequence. We discuss this in light of the seminal distinction between phenomenal and access consciousness. We claim that phenomenal consciousness without access is likely common, but the reverse is implausible. Our proposal lays the foundation of a formal science of consciousness, closer to human fact than zombie fiction.