Marshall, WilliamGrasso, MatteoMayner, William G. P.Zaeemzadeh, AlirezaBarbosa, Leonardo S.Chastain, ErickFindlay, GrahamSasai, ShuntaroAlbantakis, LarissaTononi, Giulio2023-03-272023-03-272023-02334http://hdl.handle.net/10919/114188Integrated information theory (IIT) starts from consciousness itself and identifies a set of properties (axioms) that are true of every conceivable experience. The axioms are translated into a set of postulates about the substrate of consciousness (called a complex), which are then used to formulate a mathematical framework for assessing both the quality and quantity of experience. The explanatory identity proposed by IIT is that an experience is identical to the cause-effect structure unfolded from a maximally irreducible substrate (a phi-structure). In this work we introduce a definition for the integrated information of a system (phi(s)) that is based on the existence, intrinsicality, information, and integration postulates of IIT. We explore how notions of determinism, degeneracy, and fault lines in the connectivity impact system-integrated information. We then demonstrate how the proposed measure identifies complexes as systems, the phi(s) of which is greater than the phi(s) of any overlapping candidate systems.application/pdfenCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 Internationalintegrated informationconsciousnesscausationintrinsicArticle - Refereedhttps://doi.org/10.3390/e25020334252368327001099-4300