# Measuring the integrated information of a quantum mechanism

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2301.02244 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.02244/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 4 Jan 2023.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [Dissociating Artificial Intelligence from Artificial Consciousness](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.04571/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Originally conceived as a theory of consciousness, integrated information theory (IIT) provides a theoretical framework intended to characterize the compositional causal information that a system, in its current state, specifies about itself. However, it remains to be determined whether IIT as a theory of consciousness is compatible with quantum mechanics as a theory of microphysics. Here, we present an extension of IIT's latest formalism to evaluate the mechanism integrated information (varphi) of a system subset to finite-dimensional quantum systems (e.g., quantum logic gates). To that end, we translate a recently developed, unique measure of intrinsic information into a density matrix formulation, and extend the notion of conditional independence to accommodate quantum entanglement. The compositional nature of the IIT analysis might shed some light on the internal structure of composite quantum states and operators that cannot be obtained using standard information-theoretical analysis. Finally, our results should inform theoretical arguments about the link between consciousness, causation, and physics from the classical to the quantum.