QRI’s State-Space, Qualia Formalism, Valence Realism

The Qualia Research Institute (QRI), a not-for-profit pursuing unique approaches to the science of consciousness, stresses “Qualia Formalism,” the hypothesis that the internal structure of our subjective experience can be represented precisely by mathematics, and “Valence Realism,” the central importance of emotion/affect, that is, valence (how good or bad an experience feels) as a real and well-defined property of conscious states (Qualia Research Institute).

Within the formalism, symmetry is said to play a significant compositional, functional, and aesthetic role. It is called the Symmetry Theory of Valence (proposed by philosopher Michael Edward Johnson): the symmetry of an information geometry of mind corresponds with how pleasant or unpleasant it is to be (or have) that experience. (“The biggest mystery hiding in plain sight is what gives experiences valence.”) (Johnson, 2023).

Qualia Formalism and Valence Realism

The key QRI move (or assumption) is that every distinct state of conscious experience is unique and can be described mathematically; the number of such states, a “combinatorial explosion of unexpected phenomena,” is an unimaginably vast (but not infinite) “state-space of consciousness,” which is an independent, quasi-dimensional aspect of reality that grows “supergeometrically.”

It is the specific geometry of each state-space of consciousness that is the conscious percept; each experience would correspond to a single point in the state-space of consciousness; the set of all possible experiences are organized in such a way that the similarities between experiences are encoded in the geometry of the state-space; and the degrees of symmetry or lack of symmetry of the geometry reflect the balance of positive and negative valence, both reflecting brain harmonics which somehow interact with the quasi-dimensional state-space and its symmetries (Shinozuka, 2020). (The “state-space of consciousness” resonates with a similar kind of structure in Integrated Information Theory)

State-Space and Symmetry

QRI says its position is close to dual-aspect monism or neutral monism. It is committed to an extended physicalism in the sense that extended laws of physics ultimately must describe fields of qualia. Included is the idea that emotional valence (the pleasantness/unpleasantness of an experience) is a natural kind, a real division of the world carved at its joints, which is said to provide substantial information about phenomenology (Qualia Research Institute, n.d.).

Relation to Integrated Information Theory

QRI rejects functionalism as creating confusion but considers exotic states of consciousness as important data points for reverse-engineering the underlying formalism for consciousness. As noted, QRI is most compatible with, but not synonymous with, Integrated Information Theory (12), which QRI calls the first mainstream theory of consciousness to satisfy a Qualia Formalist account of experience. QRI leverages the idea from Integrated Information Theory that for every conscious experience, there is a corresponding mathematical object such that the mathematical features of that object are isomorphic to the properties of the experience, and that without this idea, no matter the neurobiological theory, we cannot solve the hard problem of consciousness (Qualia Research Institute, n.d.).

Cessation of Consciousness

QRI President and Director of Research Andrés Gómez-Emilsson targets “cessations”—fleeting states where consciousness seems to fully suspend, or “blink out,” before awareness returns—as a way to investigate consciousness per se. (QRI’s work integrates insights from meditation practices and the use of 5-MeO-DMT, a psychedelic known to induce cessation-like states.) “We believe that studying cessations can provide valuable insights into valence, the subjective experience of pleasure and pain. These brief interruptions offer a unique opportunity to examine the structure of conscious experience. As consciousness approaches a cessation, its content simplifies, and upon reemergence, it becomes more complex. By studying these transitions and their associated affective states, we seek to identify the core properties of consciousness that determine valence” (Gómez-Emilsson, 2024).

Gómez-Emilsson starts with “the premise that cessations are very simple, perhaps maximally simple, states of consciousness.” Then, following “Qualia Formalism (i.e., experiences correspond to precise mathematical objects whose features are isomorphic to their phenomenology) and the Symmetry Theory of Valence” as background inspiration, he explores “the connection between information content and symmetry. The low information content in this case might be a really good proxy for the nature and complexity of the symmetries… This research direction suggests, however, that both valence and information content, even just in terms of what is reportable, will be highly correlated at the extreme of close to no information content. The Symmetry Theory of Valence provides a potential framework to make sense of both the success cases and failure modes for how experiencing cessations and near cessations impact the feelings of wellbeing, both during meditation, and potentially afterwards” (Gómez-Emilsson, 2024).