IIT 4.0's Φ: Formalizing Consciousness via Cause-Effect Structures and Wasserstein Distance — E8 Intelligence Research

Abstract

FINDING: IIT formalizes consciousness as integrated information Φ, but the search results are video/abstract links, not primary derivations — no explicit equations or constants are given in the supplied text. | MATH: IIT 4.0 defines Φ via the cause-effect structure (CES) of a physical system — a set of elements with transition probabilities, partitioned to find the minimum information partition (MIP); Φ is the distance (Earth mover's / Wasserstein metric) between the unpartitioned and partitioned cause-effect repertoires. No numeric constants appear in the provided snippets. | CONNECTION: Weak — IIT's state space is a discrete lattice of possible states (2^n for n elements), and its "exclusion" postulate selects maximal Φ, analogous to extremal principles in crystallography (e.g., maximal symmetry groups). However, no explicit golden-ratio or base-60 link is present in the given material. | DEPTH: 4 — IIT is mathematically rigorous (probability spaces, information geometry) but the sup Author: Andrew Stewart Caldin, Independent Researcher, UK. Part of the E8 Intelligence Research series. Platform: e8intelligence.com