This was my published abstract for "Tucson II - Toward a Science of Consciousness 1996" sponsored by the Univ. of Arizona, Tucson.     It synopsizes  "Integrity Dynamics" and how they correspond with the behaviors called "consciousness".

            Tucson   AZ         April,   1996

Classified Abstracts

                                PHYSICS AND MATHEMATICS

                                                                            4.3 Integrative models

Abstract 299

Consciousness  :
Responsiveness to Environmental Energy/Information

J.N.Rose

integrity@prodigy.net
(1271 Bronco Circle, Minden NV 89423, USA.)

When an existing paradigm has difficulty dealing with various relations and informational content it is time to reconsider how it should all be organized. For example, instead of colour being distinct from sound which is also distinct from microwave energy and so on, we have come to recognize that they and more are all part of the electromagnetic spectrum. Consciousness probably embodies the same situation. Human sentience once had only itself as a reference, but just as we moved from an earth-centred perception of the universe to a Sun centred one and then to galactic formations et al., we must also rethink all systems behaviours as possible types of consciousness. Defining the general activity of consciousness as `responsiveness to environmental energy information' can take us beyond the restrictions of human egocentrism. Anthropomorphic consciousness may be a particular and special form of sentience but it is not the only one. By broadening our definition of consciousness to that suggested above we can find foundational connections between simple, rudimentary and even complex systems. The only differences derive from information holding capacities and the extent to which a system is responsive or not to its host of environmental information. The net dynamic is one of Darwinian Fitness: is a particular system capable of integrally interacting with the rest of the universe and go on existing? The criteria would be successful survival, where survival could either be the extant itself or its reproductive progeny. This is a behavioural dynamic relevant to subatomic particles and life forms and astronomical masses even as their capacities and behaviours are vastly different. Each hierarchically functional interactive system or level of being has its own distinct dynamic Integrity. Our goal is not to say that some of existence is conscious and the rest not but rather that existential persistence of Integral systems is accomplished through a variety of mechanisms, distinct yet interactive. Consciousness as we experience it is an outgrowth of abilities inherent in the primal constructs of existence. And, by broadening our definition we are freed from looking for happenstantial mechanisms and trying to square-peg/round-hole them together. By accepting this relational dynamic first we can be open to appreciating the variety of possible structures through which conscious/ness interactions occur. All responsive systems can satisfy the new definition. The degree of differences will rely upon extent and capacity to encounter, retain, process and react to whatever energy/information transactions are stochasticly and conditionally possible. We can surpass the old distinctions of form/function duality and acknowledge that structure-function-experience are merely different aspects of very singular phenomena. This brings us that much closer to a unified vision of the universe, one based on information transcription and multiple entropy/negentropy regimes and information relativity. A strict reorganization of our information language called mathematics will also result in new relevant perceptions of dimensional relationships and information topology, including coding to a point or singularity without losing data, and, the conditional reasons for particle/wave equality. By adding Apollonian relationships to standard Pythagorean ones we discern new ways of modelling EM relationships as closed toroids, spin as a yaw function, and others relationships including superstring symmetry and quark architecture. We are required to formulate a post-Godel perspective that places interaction potential as the superior quality of existence rather than information acquired from past interactions. A holistic paradigm of existence needs to be strong enough to embrace everything, even seemingly mutually exclusive dichotomies such as Abelian and non-Abelian systems -- or Cantorian and non-Cantorian ones. 

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