English

Toy Models of Top Down Causation

Quantum Physics 2020-11-03 v2 Cellular Automata and Lattice Gases

Abstract

Models in which causation arises from higher level structures as well as from microdynamics may be relevant to unifying quantum theory with classical physics or general relativity. They also give a way of defining a form of panprotopsychist property dualism, in which consciousness and material physics causally affect one another. I describe toy models based on probabilistic cellular automata that illustrate possibilities and difficulties with these ideas.

Cite

@article{arxiv.1909.12739,
  title  = {Toy Models of Top Down Causation},
  author = {Adrian Kent},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1909.12739},
  year   = {2020}
}

Comments

Presented at "Models of Consciousness" conference, Mathematical Institute, Oxford University, September 2019. v2 Discussion extended; references added. Accepted version

R2 v1 2026-06-23T11:28:17.285Z