Qualia: The Geometry of Integrated Information
Figure 8
(A): The simplest possible system: a sensor and a detector, where the detector copies the prior state of the sensor. The quale generated by the system when the detector is ON is a single q-arrow with effective information of 1 bit. The q-arrow specifies the sensor was ON in the previous time step. (B) When the detector is OFF, the system generates a different quale, where the q-arrow points in a different direction – towards a different actual repertoire – specifying that the detector was OFF. Effective information is again 1 bit. (C): A reflection of Q-space generated by relabeling the outputs of n1 (flipping 0 and 1) induces an isomorphism between the two qualia. (DE): The qualia generated by a silent AND-gate and a firing OR-gate respectively. The two qualia are isomorphic, which can be seen by flipping the roles of 0 and 1.