Leading neuroscientists and Buddhists
agree: “Consciousness is everywhere”
SAM LITTLEFAIR WALLACE MARCH
23, 2016 Lion’s Roar
New
theories in neuroscience suggest consciousness is an intrinsic
property of everything, just like gravity. That development opens a
world of opportunity for collaboration between Buddhists and
neuroscientists.
”The heart
of consciousness,” says neuroscientist
Christof Koch, “is that it feels
like something.
How is it that a piece of matter, like my brain, can feel
anything?”
In
2013, Koch, one
of the world’s leading experts on consciousness, went to a
monastery in India to discuss that question with a
group of
Buddhist monks. He and the Dalai Lama debated neuroscience and
mind for a full day.
They had
different approaches. Koch offered contemporary scientific theories
on the subject, and His Holiness countered with ancient
Buddhist teachings. Yet, at the end of their discussion, the two
thinkers agreed on almost every point.
“What
struck me most was his belief in what we in the West call
‘panpsychism’ — the belief that consciousness is everywhere,” says
Koch. “And that we have to reduce the suffering of all conscious
creatures.”
Panpsychism,
the idea of universal consciousness, is a prominent thought in some
branches of ancient Greek philosophy, paganism, and Buddhism. And
it has been largely dismissed by modern science — until
recently.
In
his work on consciousness, Koch collaborates with a researcher
named Giulio Tononi. Tononi is the father of the most popular
modern theory of consciousness, called Integrated Information
Theory (IIT), which Koch once
called “the only
really promising fundamental theory of consciousness.”
Tononi’s
theory states that consciousness appears in physical systems
that contain many different and highly interconnected pieces of
information. Based on that hypothesis, consciousness can be
measured as a theoretical quantity, which the researchers
call phi.
Tononi has
a test for measuring phi (the amount of consciousness) in a human
brain. It is similar to ringing a bell; scientists send a
magnetic pulse into a human brain and watch the pulse reverberate
through the neurons — back and forth, side to side. The longer and
clearer the reverberation, the higher the subject’s amount of
consciousness. Using that test, Koch and Tononi can tell whether a
patient is awake, asleep, or anesthetized.
There are
already pressing and practical needs for a way to measure
consciousness. Doctors and scientists could use phi to tell if a
person in a vegetative state is effectively dead, how much
awareness a person with dementia has, when a foetus develops
consciousness, how much animals perceive, or even whether a
computer can feel.
“That’s
more urgent,” asserts Koch. “We’re witnessing the birth of
computer intelligence. Is a machine conscious? Does it feel like
anything? If it does, it may acquire legal rights, and I certainly
have ethical obligations towards it. I can’t just turn it off or
wipe its disc clean.”.
IIT
also marries these practical applications with profound ideas. The
theory says that any object with a phi greater than zero has
consciousness. That would mean animals, plants, cells, bacteria,
and maybe even protons are conscious beings.
Koch sees
IIT as promising because it offers an understanding of panpsychism
that fits into modern science. In an
academic paper, Koch and
Tononi make the profound statement that their theory “treats
consciousness as an intrinsic, fundamental property of
reality.”
Modern
research and recent dialogues between Buddhists and scientists have
focused mainly on understanding the physical brain. But scientists
have barely begun to develop an understanding of mind — or
consciousness — itself.
On the
Buddhist side, however, this is a discussion that has been going on
for thousands of years. Buddhism associates mind with sentience.
The late Traleg Kyabgon Rinpochestated that
while mind, along with all objects, is empty, unlike most objects,
it is also luminous. In a similar vein, IIT says consciousness is
an intrinsic quality of everything yet only appears significantly
in certain conditions — like how everything has mass, but only
large objects have noticeable gravity.
In his
major work, the Shobogenzo,
Dogen, the founder of Soto Zen Buddhism, went so far as to say,
“All is sentient being.” Grass, trees, land, sun, moon and stars
are all mind, wrote Dogen.
Koch, who
became interested in Buddhism in college, says that his personal
worldview has come to overlap with the Buddhist teachings on
non-self, impermanence, atheism, and panpsychism. His interest in
Buddhism, he says, represents a significant shift from his Roman
Catholic upbringing. When he started studying consciousness —
working with Nobel Prize winner Francis Crick — Koch believed that
the only explanation for experience would have to invoke God.
But, instead of affirming religion, Koch and Crick together
established consciousness as a respected branch of neuroscience and
invited Buddhist teachers into the discussion.
At Drepung
Monastery, the Dalai Lama told Koch that the Buddha taught that
sentience is everywhere at varying levels, and that humans should
have compassion for all sentient beings. Until that point, Koch
hadn’t appreciated the weight of his philosophy.
“I was
confronted with the Buddhist teaching that sentience is probably
everywhere at varying levels, and that inspired me to take the
consequences of this theory seriously,” says Koch. “When I see
insects in my home, I don’t kill them.”
The theory
of IIT shows promise for the future. With more research, Koch and
Tononi could better test consciousness, to prove scientifically
that all beings are sentient. Meanwhile, Buddhists around the world
are constantly working to develop an understanding of the mind.
Traleg Rinpoche said that
analytical methods can only go so far toward understanding the
mind. Instead, he says, by resting his or her mind and
contemplating it, a meditator can develop an understanding
of the nature of mind and how it relates to everything
else.
Critics of
IIT argue that the theory fails to explain where consciousness
comes from. Science writer John Horgan argues, “you can’t explain
consciousness by saying it consists of information, because
information exists only relative to consciousness.”
Understanding
the source of consciousness is an extremely
difficult hurdle, but Koch is up to it. He says that his ultimate
goal is to understand the universe. Some say that the best way to
do that is to look inside your own mind. Maybe Koch is on to
something.