Gang Fang's Blog

What is it?

Global Workspace Theory (GWT) is a cognitive architecture and theory of consciousness proposed by psychologist Bernard Baars. This theory is often used to explain various aspects of human cognition, including attention, perception, and action.

The central metaphor of GWT is a “theater of consciousness.” In this theater, the conscious mind is like a bright spotlight in a vast auditorium, illuminating specific “players” (thoughts, perceptions, memories) on the stage, while the rest of the auditorium (unconscious mental processes) is in the darkness.

How is this related to GFlowNets?

conscious reasoning involves a sequential process of thought formation, where at each step a competition takes place among possible thought contents (and relevant parts of the brain with expertise on that content), and each thought involves very few symbolic elements (a handful). This is the heart of the Global Workspace Theory (GWT)

https://milayb.notion.site/The-GFlowNet-Tutorial-95434ef0e2d94c24aab90e69b30be9b3

Why is that the heart of GWT?

Here’s why the statement you provided is at the heart of GWT:

1. Sequential process of thought formation: The notion of sequential thought formation aligns with the GWT’s idea of consciousness as a serial process. According to GWT, conscious awareness appears to process information serially (one at a time), whereas unconscious processes can handle multiple streams of information in parallel (at the same time). This is analogous to the spotlight of attention in the theater focusing on one player at a time.
2. Competition among possible thought contents: This notion is central to the GWT because it speaks to how information becomes conscious. In the GWT, unconscious mental processes compete for access to the “global workspace” (the conscious spotlight). Only the “winner” of this competition—a thought, perception, or memory that is most relevant or urgent—enters conscious awareness.
3. Involvement of specific brain regions: This idea is key to the GWT’s neural interpretation. Various specialized unconscious processes in different regions of the brain compete to project their content into the global workspace. When a piece of information wins the competition, it gets globally broadcasted back to these regions, coordinating their activities.
4. Few symbolic elements per thought: This is reminiscent of the limited capacity of conscious awareness in the GWT, analogous to how the spotlight can only illuminate a few players on the stage at a time. Consciousness, according to GWT, can handle only a limited amount of information at a time, hence thoughts usually involve a small number of symbolic elements.

In summary, the heart of GWT lies in its explanation of how our conscious awareness arises from a complex, competitive interaction between unconscious cognitive processes, all within the constraints of a limited processing capacity. The provided description is a great summary of these key ideas.