This article presents an updated account of integrated information theory of consciousness (IIT) and some of its implications. IIT stems from thought experiments that lead to phenomenological axioms and ontological postulates. The information axiom asserts that every experience is one out of many, i.e. specific - it is what it is by differing in its particular way from a large repertoire of alternatives. The integration axiom asserts that each experience is one, i.e. unified - it cannot be reduced to independent components. The exclusion axiom asserts that every experience is definite - it is limited to particular things and not others and flows at a particular speed and resolution. IIT formalizes these intuitions with three postulates. The information postulate states that only "differences that make a difference" from the intrinsic perspective of a system matter: a mechanism generates cause-effect information if its present state has specific past causes and specific future effects within a system. The integration postulate states that only information that is irreducible matters: mechanisms generate integrated information only to the extent that the information they generate cannot be partitioned into that generated within independent components. The exclusion postulate states that only maxima of integrated information matter: a mechanism specifies only one maximally irreducible set of past causes and future effects - a concept. A complex is a set of elements specifying a maximally irreducible constellation of concepts, where the maximum is evaluated at the optimal spatio-temporal scale. Its concepts specify a maximally integrated conceptual information structure or quale, which is identical with an experience. Finally, changes in information integration upon exposure to the environment reflect a system's ability to match the causal structure of the world. After introducing an updated definition of information integration and related quantities, the article presents some theoretical considerations about the relationship between information and causation and about the relational structure of concepts within a quale. It also explores the relationship between the temporal grain size of information integration and the dynamic of metastable states in the corticothalamic complex. Finally, it summarizes how IIT accounts for empirical findings about the neural substrate of consciousness, and how various aspects of phenomenology may in principle be addressed in terms of the geometry of information integration.

中文翻译：

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意识综合信息论：更新的叙述。

本文介绍了意识综合信息理论（IIT）的最新情况及其一些含义。IIT源于导致现象学公理和本体论假设的思想实验。信息公理断言，每种体验都是众多体验中的一种，即是特定的-它的特殊之处在于它与大量替代方案不同。集成公理断言，每种体验都是一种体验，即统一的体验-不能将其简化为独立的组成部分。排除公理断言，每种体验都是确定的-它仅限于特定的事物而不是其他事物，并且以特定的速度和分辨率流动。IIT通过三个假设将这些直觉形式化。该信息假定只有“差异有所作为” 从系统问题的内在角度来看：如果机制的当前状态在系统中具有特定的过去原因和特定的未来影响，则该机制会生成因果信息。集成假设只有不可还原的信息才重要：机制仅在无法将生成的信息划分为独立组件内生成的信息的范围内生成集成信息。排除法假定只有集成信息的最大值才重要：一种机制仅指定一组最大不可约的过去原因和未来效果-一个概念。复数是一组指定概念的最大不可约的元素，其中最大值是在最佳时空范围内评估的。它的概念指定了最大程度集成的概念信息结构或质量，与经验相同。最后，暴露于环境中的信息集成变化反映了系统匹配世界因果结构的能力。在介绍了信息集成和相关数量的更新定义之后，本文提出了有关信息与因果关系以及概念内关系的结构的一些理论考虑。它还探讨了信息整合的时间粒度与皮层丘脑复合体中亚稳态状态之间的关系。最后，它总结了IIT如何解释有关意识神经底物的经验发现，