A Blueprint for the Hard Problem of Consciousness

A Blueprint for the Hard Problem of Consciousness addresses the fundamental mechanism that allows physical events to transcend into subjective experiences, termed the Hard Problem of Consciousness. Consciousness is made available as the abstract product of self-referent realization of information by strange loops through the levels of processing of the brain. Readers are introduced to the concept of the Hard Problem of Consciousness and related concepts followed by a critical discourse of different theories of consciousness. Next, the author identifies the fundamental flaw of the Integrated Information Theory (IIT) and proposes an alternative that avoids the cryptic intelligent design and panpsychism of the IIT. This author also demonstrates how something can be created out of nothing without resorting to quantum theory, while pointing out neurobiological alternatives to the bottom-up approach of quantum theories of consciousness. The book then delves into the philosophy of qualia in different physiological knowledge networks (spatial, temporal and olfactory, cortical signals, for example) to explain an action-based model consistent with the generational principles of Predictive Coding, which maps prediction and predictive-error signals for perceptual representations supporting integrated goal-directed behaviors. Conscious experiences are considered the outcome of abstractions realized out of map overlays and provided by sustained oscillatory activity. The key feature of this blueprint is that it offers a perspective of the Hard Problem of Consciousness from the point of view of the subject; the experience of ‘being the subject’ is predicted to be the realization of inference inversely mapped out of hidden causes of global integrated actions. The author explains the consistencies of his blueprint with ideas of the Global Neuronal Workspace and the Adaptive Resonance Theory of consciousness as well as with the empirical evidence supporting the Integrated Information Theory. A Blueprint for the Hard Problem of Consciousness offers a unique perspective to readers interested in the scientific philosophy and cognitive neuroscience theory in relation to models of the theory of consciousness

Asymmetric shocks among U.S. states

This paper applies a factor model to the study of risk sharing among U.S. states. The factor model makes it possible to disentangle movements in output and consumption due to national, regional, or state-specific business cycles from those due to measurement error. The results of the paper suggest that some findings of the previous literature which indicate a substantial amount of interstate risk sharing may be due to the presence of measurement error in output. When measurement error is properly taken into account, the evidence points towards a lack of interstate smoothing.Consumption (Economics) ; Business cycles

Aggregate unemployment in Krusell and Smith’s economy: a note

Using data on workers’ flows into and out of employment, unemployment, and not-in-the-labor-force, I construct transition probabilities between “employment” and “unemployment” that can be used in the calibration of economies such as Krusell and Smith’s (1998). I show that calibration in Krusell and Smith has some counterfactual features. Yet the gains from adopting alternative calibrations in terms of matching the data are not very large, unless one assumes that the duration of unemployment spells is well above what is usually assumed in the literature.

The Perlick system type I: from the algebra of symmetries to the geometry of the trajectories

In this paper, we investigate the main algebraic properties of the maximally superintegrable system known as "Perlick system type I". All possible values of the relevant parameters, $K$ and $\beta$, are considered. In particular, depending on the sign of the parameter $K$ entering in the metrics, the motion will take place on compact or non compact Riemannian manifolds. To perform our analysis we follow a classical variant of the so called factorization method. Accordingly, we derive the full set of constants of motion and construct their Poisson algebra. As it is expected for maximally superintegrable systems, the algebraic structure will actually shed light also on the geometric features of the trajectories, that will be depicted for different values of the initial data and of the parameters. Especially, the crucial role played by the rational parameter $\beta$ will be seen "in action".Comment: 16 pages, 7 figure

Conserved currents and TTˉs\text{T}\bar{\text{T}}_s irrelevant deformations of 2D integrable field theories

It has been recently discovered that the $\text{T}\bar{\text{T}}$ deformation is closely-related to Jackiw-Teitelboim gravity. At classical level, the introduction of this perturbation induces an interaction between the stress-energy tensor and space-time and the deformed EoMs can be mapped, through a field-dependent change of coordinates, onto the corresponding undeformed ones. The effect of this perturbation on the quantum spectrum is non-perturbatively described by an inhomogeneous Burgers equation. In this paper, we point out that there exist infinite families of models where the geometry couples instead to generic combinations of local conserved currents labelled by the Lorentz spin. In spirit, these generalisations are similar to the $\text{J}\bar{\text{T}}$ model as the resulting theories and the corresponding scattering phase factors are not Lorentz invariant. The link with the $\text{J}\bar{\text{T}}$ model is discussed in detail. While the classical setup described here is very general, we shall use the sine-Gordon model and its CFT limit as explanatory quantum examples. Most of the final equations and considerations are, however, of broader validity or easily generalisable to more complicated systems.Comment: 39 pages, 3 figures. v2: typos corrected, extended version with more results on the link between the classical and the quantum analysi

International diversification strategies

We estimate a model with country- and industry-specific shocks that extends the dummy variable model used in the portfolio diversification literature by relaxing the restriction that all stocks with exposure to a given shock have the same exposure to that shock. We find that: i) This restriction is strongly rejected by the data. ii) Many industry betas are negative, while almost all country betas are positive. This difference in within-group heterogeneity may explain why country shocks have historically outweighed industry shocks in explaining international return variation. iii) We use the betas to construct portfolios whose volatility is substantially below that of the world market, both in and out of sample.Financial markets ; Risk

Superintegrable Lissajous systems on the sphere

A kind of systems on the sphere, whose trajectories are similar to the Lissajous curves, are studied by means of one example. The symmetries are constructed following a unified and straightforward procedure for both the quantum and the classical versions of the model. In the quantum case it is stressed how the symmetries give the degeneracy of each energy level. In the classical case it is shown how the constants of motion supply the orbits, the motion and the frequencies in a natural way.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figures. Submitte