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pathological complexity thesis
Also known as: pathological complexity, pathological complexity framework
Facts (34)
Sources
Complexity and the Evolution of Consciousness | Biological Theory link.springer.com Sep 14, 2022 34 facts
claimA unified teleonomic state-based and behavioral life history theory can explain how organisms manage species-specific pathological complexity by accounting for all possible actions an organism can take.
claimThe pathological complexity thesis asserts that the function of consciousness is to enable an agent to respond to pathological complexity, which is defined as the economic trade-off problem organisms face when pursuing the teleonomic goal of maximizing fitness.
claimUsing the pathological complexity framework to analyze life history challenges allows for better predictions regarding the subjective experiences of different organisms, which can then be used to refine the understanding of pathological complexity.
claimThe pathological complexity thesis may assist in ethics and policy-making because sentience is typically the criterion used to define an entity as a subject of moral concern.
claimSterelny and Spurrett utilize the 'ancestor' of the pathological complexity thesis to explain the evolution of preferences.
claimMerker et al. (2022) interpreted Walter Veit's 'pathological complexity thesis' as the emergence of interaction and coevolutionary arms races during the Cambrian period.
claimThe 'pathological complexity thesis' proposes an alternative model of consciousness based on animal sentience, rather than locating the origins of consciousness in sensory experience or self-awareness.
claimThe explosion of pathological complexity in the Cambrian period led to the evolution of a proximate 'common currency' for efficient decision-making, which allowed for fitness-maximizing action selection by assigning values to competing actions on a common scale of hedonic valence.
claimThe author uses the term "pathological complexity" to emphasize that understanding life history trade-offs is essential for distinguishing between healthy and pathological trait variations, including variations of consciousness within and across species.
claimThe function of consciousness is to enable the agent to respond to pathological complexity.
claimThe author proposes that "pathological complexity" offers a mathematical framework to naturalize hedonic evaluation as a proximate psychological utility that helped organisms maximize fitness during the Cambrian explosion.
quoteVeit proposes that consciousness arose as a means for organisms to deal with what he calls pathological complexity. We assume that what he has in mind is the kind of complexity that arises in coevolution and evolutionary arms races, say of the predator–prey kind, which became acute with the evolution of large, image-forming eyes, hence his reference to the Cambrian Explosion. (Merker et al. 2022, p. 55)
claimThe 'pathological complexity thesis' posits that the diversity of subjective experiences is subservient to evaluation, as consciousness is discharged in action.
claimPathological complexity functions as an optimization problem for both the organism and the modeler, as it is significant for the organism as both an object and a subject of evolution.
claimThe pathological complexity thesis may serve as an evolutionary proxy measure to assess different levels of evaluative richness in the subjective experience of different animals.
claimThe pathological complexity thesis provides a framework for making predictions about the subjective experiences of non-human animals, which distinguishes it from many competing theories of consciousness that struggle to generate testable predictions.
claimThe author defines 'pathological complexity' as the teleonomic measure of biological complexity, which is understood in terms of the life history strategy of an organism.
claimA measure of pathological complexity could enable the ranking of animals according to a 'sentience multiplier' to help address the difficulty of measuring animal welfare.
claimThe pathological complexity thesis posits that the success or failure of evolutionary explosions depends on the presence of an evaluating system, which allows for the efficient deployment of behavioral complexity as sensorimotor capacities increase.
referenceThe pathological complexity thesis, which relates to the number of alternative actions an organism can take, is discussed in detail by Walter Veit in a 2022 publication.
referenceWalter Veit and Heather Browning authored the forthcoming paper 'Pathological complexity and the evolution of sex differences', to be published in Behavioral and Brain Sciences.
claimPathological complexity emerges dynamically from the interaction of an organism and its environment and serves as a measure of the complexity of an organism's life history strategy, varying with the different lifestyles of different animals.
claimFrom an evolutionary perspective, health is defined as the measure of how an organism manages the pathological complexity it encounters, serving as the ultimate teleonomic measure of organismal complexity.
claimWalter Veit announced a forthcoming book-length treatment of the pathological complexity thesis in 2022.
claimPathological complexity can be operationalized as the complexity of the number of parameters and constraints in the optimization problem studied by state-dependent or state-based behavioral and life history theory.
claimPathological complexity implies the existence of a psychologically real felt common currency, rather than just a metaphorical one.
claim"Pathological complexity" is operationalized as the number of parameters and constraints in the evolutionary optimization problem studied by state-dependent or state-based behavioral and life history theory.
claimJohn Dewey viewed the complexity of the mind as something that evolved to address problems emerging from the dynamics between an organism and its environment, a perspective the author notes is closer to the pathological complexity thesis than to Godfrey-Smith's externalist environmental complexity thesis.
claimThe pathological complexity thesis aims to transform the concept of negative valence enabling adaptive behavior into a precise scientific hypothesis and a framework for ethological studies of consciousness.
claimThe Cambrian explosion led to an increase in behavioral flexibility and a corresponding explosion in the pathological complexity of selecting the correct action at the right time, which was addressed through the evolution of a proximate common currency of hedonic valence.
claimConsciousness is an adaptive solution to the economic trade-off problem of managing a complex body with high degrees of freedom, a problem the author terms 'pathological complexity'. This design problem led to the extinction of complex multicellular animal life following the Avalon explosion and was subsequently solved during the Cambrian explosion.
claimThe 'pathological complexity thesis' is a hypothesis regarding the evolutionary origins of minimal consciousness, or sentience, which connects the study of animal consciousness with behavioral ecology and evolutionary biology.
claimGodfrey-Smith’s environmental complexity thesis is incomplete because it fails to account for the strategy of becoming simpler to reduce pathological complexity in response to environmental heterogeneity.
claimConsciousness is an evaluative and goal-directed way of engaging with the world that evolved within the context of life to respond to pathological complexity.