From the Phenomenology to the Mechanisms of Consciousness: Integrated Information Theory 3.0
Figure 3
Information requires selectivity.
A mechanism generates information to the extent that it selectively constrains a system's past states. Element constrains the past states of
depending on its mechanism (AND gate) and its current state. The constrained distribution of past states is called A's cause repertoire. (A) The connections between
and
are noisy. A's cause repertoire is thus unselective, since
could have followed from any state of
with equal probability. (B) In the case of deterministic connections and current state
, A's cause repertoire is maximally selective, because all states except
are ruled out as possible causes of
. (C) In the case of deterministic connections and current state
, A's cause repertoire is much less selective than for
, because only state
is ruled out as a possible cause of
.