Trying to find the physical basis of consciousness and to optimize my life habit amap. Please subscribe our lab's Youtube channel http://tinyurl.com/ue3vayzr.l
Just accepted by Frontiers in Psychology! “Quantum-like Qualia hypothesis: from Quantum Cognition to Quantum Perception” https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/9m5yp
by Tsuchiya, Bruza, Yamada, Saigo, Pothos. Learned a lot from writing this. Very happy to see it finally accepted!
This paper introduces mathematical structure of quantum theory to better understand mathematical structure of qualia and associated psychological processes.
I’ve been always unsatisfied with “points in space” models of qualia (though it’s intuitive and useful…)
A concept of “observables” that are distinguished from “states” in quantum theory is one of the most important ideas in the paper.
I think this fits with various issues associated with the issues around attention and consciousness = qualia. Hope you find it interesting!
By considering “observables”=qualia, “states”=sensory input + attention, we can now precisely model how some combinations of qualia cannot be simultaneously experienced while others are possible. We can use theories of “quantum measurement instruments” in the future.
We call this Quantum-like Qualia (QQ) hypothesis. QQ can be tested in various ways empirically. We wrote a recipe for empirical experiments in Section 4. Some of which are undergoing in our lab!
The more I learn about quantum theory, the more sympathetic I became to people proposing “quantum” to solve consciousness-brain problem.
However, in my view, it is “mathematical structure of quantum theory” that is more important. Not microscopic “quantum phenomena”.
Quantum cognition in decision making has been quite successful. I imagine it will be even more so in the future, thanks to the introduction of the “instrument” theory. They used only quantum math. Not quantum brain.
“Classical” math / concepts assume that qualia are like “things”. Points in the space. This assumes that they can be “measured” in principle without any disturbance to it.
QQ assumes “by default” that measurement affects qualia. (Note that it means classical situations arise in many cases). Depending on attention and sensory inputs (and other contexts), observable=qualia can result in different measurement outcomes.
Yet, this is not the same to say qualia DO not exist before measurement. I think they DO. We need proper methods to estimate what qualia were like before the measurements (We can do this with quantum instrument theory!).
We need to write how to define measurements. And a couple of papers to elaborate on QQ concepts with scientific evidence to come in the next few years.
QQ will hopefully become a quantitative theory like IIT. QQ targets the relationship between qualia and attention. Causal structural theories (like IIT) would need to be combined with a dynamical/empirical theory like QQ. QQ aims to provide quantitative explanation on the experimental data related qualia. Otherwise, how can we empirically test IIT on the issue of qualia?!
Distinctions among the different levels of sameness (identity > isomorphic > equivalent > adjunction > functor) introduced in category theory is so useful. The more I read philosophical discussion on qualia, I appreciate these distinctions…
The above is Fig 1B of our paper : Tsuchiya, Taguchi, Saigo 2016 Neurosci Research. I’m curious how much people care about the “strength” of the concept of “sameness”. To be honest, I probably didn’t pay much attention to the issue of “sameness” until I met with Hayato Saigo and Shigeru Taguchi in 2015.
Goodman 1977 says “we need only recognize that two qualia are identical if and only if they match all the same qualia.”
What does this sentence mean?
Imagine we are talking about a psychophysical experiment, where qualia of two patches are compared. Then, necessarily, the two patches are already different in space or time.
This means then if we consider “spacetime” relation to consider a category of qualia, these two qualia can’t be “identical” in any way.
But, if “theorists” decide to ignore these relations, then, two qualia can be claimed to be “identical” (but as one is already distinguishing two in some way, it doesn’t make sense to talk about something like this….)
In most cases, what is meant by “identical” is probably at most “isomorphic”. It’s probably more likely to be “equivalent”. Unknowingly, we tend to actively discard what are different when we compare two things other than space and time. For example, unless we ignore textures, shapes, shapes, tastes, etc no two apples can be the same.
Maybe this state of affair continues unless math education entirely rests on a set theoretic notion. In category of Sets, we don’t care about internal relations among the members (=discrete). So as long as the members are the same, two sets are isomorphic.
Let’s say 2 persons have qualia structures with 3 qualia. If their internal relational structures are different, their structures can’t be the same.
Because of the nature of my research, remote collaborations have become essential. Here are some notes on what I found useful on how to better manage these remote projects. There are many more, but I list only three points here, which seem to work in my team in my area of the research. Hope this may be useful to some people!
In our lab, we have been implementing a method, called the “Toyota matrix”. It consists 4 regions, each of which lists various items related to the project. “Todo”, “Next”, “Problems” and “Awesome”. There are lots of similar techniques, called in different names, like WOOP etc.
As a Toyota matrix, we have used a whiteboard and Google Doc, which works well. Recently, we migrated into Trello, which is better in some aspects. One advantage of Trello is that the owner of the board can move items in “ToDo” into “Done”, which the team can review later.
The most important among 4 regions for me is “Awesome“. Share the “Awesome” goal among the team is quite important. The video from Spotify is inspiring. https://vimeo.com/94950270
If the team doesn’t align with the Awesome goals, collaboration can collapses.
Next important is “Problems“. This can be a difficult component of the matrix to fill if the team consists of all optimists. When we have realists / pessimists, they can come up with all sorts of potential failures. This is very useful. According to the science of the planning, we improve the success rate of the project if we are aware of problems. As I myself is optimistic, these negative comments are useful to keep. If they turn out not big problems, that’s also fine. Explicit listing of these potential problems are also good for pessimists. If they keep on thinking and ruminating these concerns, that can be harmful for the progress. I have seen many cases where these concerns are irrelevant in the end.
In our team, we use “Todo” to list goals and projects that the owner of the board plans to complete soon. We usually meet once a week or two weeks. So, anything that we plan to do before the next meeting comes under Todo.
Anything that won’t finish before the next meeting will go into “Next” area.
So, that’s the first step.
2) Attach the estimated date to finish on every item on the ToDo list
Next thing, which I recently found super important, is to estimate a date of completion for each ToDo item.
It’s known that >40% of items on ToDo list is never finished, if it doesn’t have a date.
There are several problems with the ToDo items without dates.
a) We can’t agree on the priority of the items.
b) We can’t understand each other what is causing the delay of each step. (Or, sources of the under- and over- estimation of these delay).
Having estimated dates of completion makes these issues manageable.
I find it’s better to use a term “estimated dates”. If we call them “deadlines”, it puts unnecessary pressure to the team members.
With these estimates, it becomes clear that almost everyone has significant biases. The biases may be due to perfectionism, planning fallacy, etc.
It seems many struggles come from poor planning of goals. We can improve the quality of goals by making it more measurable and actionable.
3) Try to make each goal concrete, following the MAC principle
M – Measurable
A – Actionable
C – Competent
I’ll skip the C part, for now.
I found that abstract goals, such as “Understand LME”, are not suited to put in ToDo. (Although, these abstract goals can be very effective and important in Awesome).
The problem of the abstract goals is that the team cannot assess whether we achieved them or not. It is better to make each item “measurable”. Compared to “understand LME”, “Read Chapter on LME” is better. “Apply LME to analyse the data” is even better.
Actionability follows a similar principle. If the goals are not something that we can do with concrete actions, it’s hard to see if we are doing something.
Once you get here, breaking down the items further, so that the owner of the board can achieve 4-5 seems to work well. Having many achievable goals makes achieving these feels like a game!
Recently, our lab members have started using Trello boards for project management. For collaborative projects, we have been using something like this for a while. Recent improvements in Trello make it easier to use than alternatives.
In the course of using Trello, I noticed several typical patterns in micro failures. These failures tend to happen when the members:
1) do not estimate of when to finish an item in “To Do”,
2) overestimate what they can do at a given period, and/or
3) do not plan for the time or possibility of failure.
1) is something I have noticed myself over the years. A certain percentage of items in my “to do” list remain there forever! This has put me under some stress. These accumulated items make me feel that I can’t achieve many things. But I’m not an exception. Psychological studies seem to have shown that ~40% of the items in the To-Do list are never completed!
These studies also point out several disadvantages of the ToDo list. One obvious disadvantage is that all items on the ToDo list look similar in priority.
A pretty effective way to deal with this is to put a self-estimated “time to complete” for every item. This also allows one to realize how much one can do a given task at a given time, which relates to the 2nd problem.
We are pretty bad at estimating how long any project will take. This is known as Planning Fallacy.
Combined with 1 and 2, 3 makes things worse. Many ambitious members have estimated the time to complete as if they are a perfect person. No failures are planned. This makes the planned date to be never achieved.
There are two ways to reduce your planning fallacy. One way is to ask other people to give the estimate. Other people’s judgement seems more registrant against this fallacy.
Another way is for you to estimate the time as if your colleagues were to do it.
There are two great practices that I’ve tried, which worked very well for me!
I) Know thyself. Record as many activities for at least 2 weeks. Get an estimate of how fast you can do a given task per unit time. I recommend a combination of “the Pomodoro technique”.
II) Include ~15% of CHEAT time / day for your schedule. Planning roughly 1-2 hours per day and 1 day per 2 week as a CHEAT day. This seems to improve the success rate of timely achievement of the project.
From a student’s (=your) and a PI’s (=my) viewpoints.
From a short-term and a long-term timescales.
1) A student’s short-term viewpoint
Including myself ~20 years ago, we tend to be very short-sighted when young. Students who are finishing the final year of university are, in particular.
In Australia, 4th year undergraduates do a Master-equivalent Honours thesis project. It tends to be very intense. Usually, it is the first time for students to spend >6 months on one thing and write >10,000 words. While doing this, they don’t have the luxury to think about the future.
At completion of Honours, they tend to think “when to start PhD” by looking at other students, who haven’t thought about it properly too….
If you are at that stage, I recommend you to “take off” at least for several months.
Travel. Read books. Do anything (e.g., volunteer) that you wanted to do. Join a company as an intern and see how the world (outside academia) works. Try to become a Youtuber. Test yourself and gain experience to make you unique.
All these activities will help you identify if it’s worth doing a PhD or not.
Currently, life expectancy is quite long. And you will retire 5 to 10 years later than your parents do / did!
There is no rush to decide when to start your PhD. Delaying it for a year or more doesn’t matter for you in your life. A hasty decision will cost you 3-5 years (depending on programs).
In fact, in my experience, the more mature students tend to do well for PhD. (There may be some stats on this, but I’m not aware of it).
Having said that, it’s important to secure the money. If you don’t have economic security, you might want to work for a while to save the money. Actually, you can gain experience from work, too. If you want to join my lab, working in some company that allows you to learn programming will be a huge plus.
If you have already decided to do a PhD 100%, then try to find well-funded research labs, which interests you the most. They might have TA or RA positions for you. Gaining experience in that domain will be useful for you in a long-term (See #3).
2) PI’s short-term viewpoint
By PI, I’m going to talk about myself. (I recommend that you talk with your future PI.)
I want to make sure you have great TIPS. Techniques, Intelligence, Personality and Speed.
In short, Techniques include various knowledge and skills (e.g., programming). Intelligence includes communications skills and mindsets (e.g., growth-mind). I want to work with someone who fits with the existing members, including myself! Speed includes adaptability upon feedback.
The best way for us to find these out is to work on some projects. It can be several months. It can be a Honours project. etc.
I need to make sure TIPS because I want to have a happy supervision experience. 3.5 years is short-term for me, but a long investment from my viewpoint!
What projects you want to pursue matters. But that’s something we can also figure out better if you do some projects with us.
3) A student’s long-term viewpoint
Students tend to have vague long-term plans, especially after PhD. Roughly, those who want to do PhD with me have 3 plans.
a) academic jobs, including research and teaching
b) jobs outside academia (e.g., clinical or industry)
As I don’t know the reality for option b), I can only give some realistic advice on the pathway a).
The most important thing that students don’t know is that the day you get a PhD will matter in the future. The date of PhD conferral matters. Not your age. This is true for almost all scholarships, fellowships, awards, grants, and promotion.
(In Japan, I know some fellowships/scholarships that use “age” as one of the criteria. But that won’t continue given the current worldview. It’s age based discrimination…)
Your CV at the time of PhD conferral will constrain where you can go next (e.g., postdoc, scholarship, etc). The better your CV is at that time, the better options you have.
This means, the later you start PhD, the better. In fact, the best strategy I usually recommend is to publish a paper before you start PhD. If you can do that, that will increase the chance of your success in the long-term.
4) PI’s long-term viewpoint
From my viewpoint, choosing which PhD candidates to work with for the next 3.5 years is quite important in the long run. Having great PhD students shapes the lab in a sustainable manner.
I, as a PI in Australia, generally want to take PhD students. If you, the student, can get a scholarship, I don’t have to pay you. This is important for my long-term viewpoint.
If I were in the US, I would generally have to cover your stipend in some way. If I were in Japan, I would like to take students who can get a JSPS fellowship so that they can focus on research. I may write on these issues later. Specific details differ for each country.
Roughly, mid-sized labs like mine tend to consist of PI, postdocs, PhD candidates, RAs. Some other short-term students (like Honours, interns, etc) also join in and out.
Hiring postdocs is pretty expensive in Australia. Generally, one grant can hire one postdoc for 3 years in my field. So, relying on a postdoc is quite stressful (as the grant success rate is not that high ~10-25%) and not stable.
So, I would be very happy to work with PhD students, who can contribute to the lab in various ways. That’s why I pay attention to TIPS. In particular P: personality.
5) Conclusion & Summary
I hope that what I wrote here has some capacity to generalise to other fields and PIs, but I’m not sure.
At least, if you want to join my lab as a PhD, this is pretty much what I will ask you to think…
1) Take off and think about long-term plans.
2) Delay the start of PhD to maximize your chance in the future.
3) Think a bit from the PI’s perspective as well.
I have also posted some videos answering related questions from a student who is thinking of applying for US/Australian PhD (English), a high school student thinking of going to US University (Japanese) and a student thinking of US grad school (Japanese).
Is there any “replicable” and “repeatable” phenomenon? Including everything in the universe. Isn’t any state of the world slightly different always? Isn’t any conscious experience always different in some aspect? Aren’t we ignoring lots of differences to regard something as the same? Isn’t cosmology dealing with the one-shot experience of the universe?
Towards the end, I argued that science has to deal with one-shot experiences. I didn’t have time to elaborate on this idea there, so here it is.
What did I mean by one-shot experiences?
This was in response to what Johannes brought up to his argument: “private language proper”. (I’m not 100% sure if I am correctly interpreting what he means. I’m also unsure about the usage in Austen Clark’s book. Or the usage by Wittgenstein.)
Johanness’s slide defines “private language proper” as “Terms that have a reference only a for a single individual”. And this was “<=>” with the following statements. “We cannot refer to individual elements of E in theories or experiments on consciousness”. “A fundamental limitation for consciousness science!”
I am not sure how representative this idea is in consciousness research. Potentially an interesting question to ask in a survey for researchers or philosophers in the future. Like thesesurveys.
I have a strong doubt about the assumptions underlying these statements. I argue that consciousness research has progressed largely because of case studies. Case studies of unique brain damages and its associated changes in phenomenology. Case studies of verbal reports and behaviors that revealed striking links between consciousness and the brain. My favorite book by Ramachandran is full of such examples. https://www.amazon.com/Phantoms-Brain-Probing-Mysteries-Human/dp/0688172172. I elaborated this point in my book (Japanese only). It’s not only historical. It’s also still the biggest and most important source of the evidence. More detailed clinical case studies will be even more critical. (Recent 7T fMRI studies show amazing level of columnar individual differences, a post for another day).
What about individual differences with those who do not share the experiences with others? Synaesthesia, aphantasia, and so on and on and on? (Aphantasia is only recently recognized!)
In fact, color sciences would not have evolved to the current status if there was no science of color blind people… I often wonder how we came to discover people with colorblindness in the first place!
Consciousness science has to deal with experiences that are unique to “a single individual”. And it gains much from such studies.
Statements like Johanness’s may be coming from some notions of what science should be. In some view, science has to deal with something that is repeatable and replicable. Perhaps, this may originate from a view by Galileo etc.
But I disagree with this broader notion as well. This also leads to an even more fundamental question, which I didn’t have time to elaborate on.
Is there any “replicable” and “repeatable” phenomenon? Including everything in the universe. Isn’t any state of the world slightly different always? Isn’t any conscious experience always different in some aspect? Aren’t we ignoring lots of differences to regard something as the same? Isn’t cosmology dealing with the one-shot experience of the universe?
A theory is great if it explains something that other theories can’t. A theory is even useful if it makes useful predictions. But all predictions that the theory makes do not have to be testable. On the last point, we have elaborated in this paper.
科学者はみんな新しいことやるはずだから、現状維持バイアスは低いはず。と思うかもしれないが、実際はどうか? 私の経験では、科学者は一般に、ある特定の分野、特に自分が専門とする分野に関しては、現状維持バイアスは少ない、かもしれないという印象がある。しかし、一歩自分のcomfort zone を出た途端、ゴリゴリの現状維持バイアスの権化みたいな人は多い。全般として、現状維持バイアスの度合いは、おそらく、他の職業の人と変わらないのではないか?